Manhattan Massage Parlors: Child Sex Trafficking and The Politics of Pimping
Donna said, but she never knew exactly where she was. “I don’t know the names because one rule is to not to look. It’s called ’staying in pocket.’” Donna explained, “So we’re not allowed to look at others, we’re not allowed to look up at names of streets. It’s strictly ’stay on this corner, go to this place to catch your date, and then come right back to this corner.’”
Bradley Myles has heard similar horror stories. He is the executive director of the Polaris Project, a Washington DC based anti-trafficking organization. He said that on-going public education is needed to explain the intricacies of domestic commercial sexual exploitation. Myles said, “There is a vast mosaic of all the different ways that types of sex trafficking really play out in the United States, ranging from residential brothels out of homes and hostess clubs to even escort services. You have whole networks of these commercial front massage parlors that are really masquerading as brothels. You have forms of domestic sex trafficking, violent US citizen pimps who are using extreme forms of control over adult women and children.”