"A Comparison of Pimps and Batterers" is a condensed version of a longer article by Evelina Giobbe, entitled "An Analysis of Individual, Institutional, and Cultural Pimping," which appeared in Michigan Journal of Gender & Law, 1993, 1 (1): 33-57.

Copyright © 1994, 1998 Evelina Giobbe. All Rights Reserved.

A woman is being pimped by a man when their relationship is contingent on her engaging in prostitution and relinquishing all or part of her earnings to him.⁽¹⁾ The relationship is defined and controlled by the pimp for his economic gain. Since he typically appropriates all of the woman's money and she receives only "non-negotiable goods" in return, the woman becomes financially dependent on him and unable to save for an independent future. This is particularly true of a woman who is paid with crack cocaine in lieu of cash, which prevents her from purchasing basic necessities such as food or clothing.

"They gotta go broke. That's the only rule for them leaving is that they gotta leave broke. They can't take nothin' with them...If they leave me they gotta pay goin' out the door." ⁽²⁾

An examination of the power dynamics between pimp and prostitute clearly illustrates how the tactics of power and control used to recruit and keep a woman trapped in prostitution closely parallels those used by batterers to ensure the compliance of their wives or intimate partners.⁽³⁾ The batterer uses tactics of power and control to dominate his partner within the context of an intimate relationship. The pimp uses similar strategies to exploit the prostitute economically.⁽⁴⁾ These tactics include isolation of the woman; minimization and denial of her abuse; the exertion of male privilege; threats and intimidation; and emotional, sexual, and physical abuse.

The pimp isolates "his woman" by controlling where she goes, whom she sees, and what she does.⁽⁵⁾ In addition, a pimp often moves a women from different parts of the sex industry: on and off the strip circuit, from an escort service to a sauna or out on the street.⁽⁶⁾ He may take her from city to city, often kidnapping her or holding her against her will.⁽⁷⁾ A study of nineteen prostituted women revealed that 42% had been kidnapped by a pimp, a customer or both.⁽⁸⁾ All of these tactics isolate her from her friends and family, and stop her from making connections with other people who do not share his positive views about prostitution.⁽⁹

Pimps use minimization and denial to mask the impact prostitution has or will have on a prostitute's life. He may tell a woman that she's smarter than others who "give it away for free," or that all women are prostitutes; claiming some do it for dinner and others do it for straight cash. He also insists that prostitution is a job like any other job, that she is not selling herself, that she is just selling a service.⁽¹⁰⁾

A pimp uses male privilege to control a woman. This can be as simple as his making pronouncements about his manhood, like "I'm a man. Don't question me...You'll do what I say because I am the man around here." ⁽¹¹⁾ He treats "his woman" as his property. He may purchase a woman from another pimp by posting her bond or he may buy her outright. Once ownership is established, he will put his commodity on the market. As one pimp so crudely put it, "I'm the boss, the daddy. She brings the money home." ⁽¹²⁾ A prostitute without a pimp is considered an "outlaw" and is vulnerable to exploitation by all pimps.⁽¹³⁾ Typically, a woman who escapes her pimp must quickly "choose" another. This is essentially a protection racket where she pays a fee, known as "choosing money," to her new "man" to ensure her safety, as her former pimp may use a "tracker," or bounty hunter, to return her.⁽¹⁴⁾

When more subtle tactics of power and control fail, a pimp will use threats and intimidation. He attempts to put fear into a woman by smashing things, shouting, glaring at her, or behaving in a menacing manner. One pimp boasted,

"I would say, 'bitch, you're holding out on me!' I would say like, 'Take your clothes off! Open your pussy!' And I would put my fingers up there, and you know it's just psych out shit, it was nothing...but it's a thing you gotta use in that game." ⁽¹⁵⁾

A pimp may beat up a disobedient prostitute in the presence of other prostitutes.⁽¹⁶⁾ He may threaten to disclose that she is a prostitute to others in order to insure her obedience.⁽¹⁷⁾ He may also threaten to leave her or to harm her, her children or her other family members.⁽¹⁸⁾

A pimp will subject a woman to emotional abuse by calling her derogatory names. He dehumanizes her by making her into a commodity.⁽¹⁹⁾ He tells her she's "only good for one thing." One pimp, for example, sent a letter to his woman from prison referring to her as "his little slot-machine."⁽²⁰⁾ This type of emotional abuse is compounded by the fact that it occurs within an environment of total emotional deprivation.⁽²¹⁾ Pimps deprive prostituted women of nurturing, affection, and ordinary developmental support. The restrictions put on a woman by a pimp impedes the normal development of self-expression and the recognition of an autonomous identity.

Pimps typically subject women to sexual abuse as an expression of ownership or as a form of punishment. One woman explained,

"I was his property. Do what he wanted. A lot of times it was just pleasing him...[He'd] tell me Ihad to continue sucking him...that if I fell asleep, or if I bit him -if my teeth touched him - he'd blow my head off." ⁽²²⁾

Some pimps also sexually abuse women through the use or production of pornography. Thirty percent of the women interviewed by Giobbe reported that their pimps compelled them to emulate scenes from pornography to teach them how to be prostitutes.⁽²³⁾ Some pimps force women into pornography as a form of blackmail or punishment. A woman relayed the following account:

"I always knew there was a punishment coming for taking off...but he told me he wasn't going to hurt me so I believed him. [Then] he took off this belt and he starts whipping me...and he grabbed the dog and the dog knew just what to do...He took pictures of it, and he told me that if I ever left him again, that these would be mailed to my family." ⁽²⁴⁾

Finally, pimps use physical abuse for a number of reasons: to demonstrate their dominance privately or in public, as a prelude to, or as a part of sex, or gratuitously, as a means of expressing contempt and hostility.⁽²⁵⁾ All of the women interviewed by Giobbe had been harassed, assaulted, raped, kidnapped and/or forced to turn tricks by a pimp or a gang of pimps.⁽²⁶⁾

The batterer and the pimp not only use similar tactics of power and control over "their women," but share similar motives. According to Ellen Pence, of the Domestic Abuse Intervention Project in Duluth, Minnesota,

The abuser employs tactics not only to gain his partner's submission to a specific demand, but also to establish a relationship that he can rely upon in the future. These tactics appear to be random and inexplicable, but in the context of attempting to establish power in a relationship, random acts of violence are fully explainable.⁽²⁷⁾

Pence's theoretical construction of "Why men batter" comes alive in "Henry's" intuitive perception of successful pimping.

I figure if you have it together, you can bluff any woman; you can feel that power. When you feel that power, you know that usually works. You have them under your control.⁽²⁸⁾

The name of the game here--for "love" or money--is patriarchal power over women.