Parents as Pimps: Survivor Accounts of Trafficking of children in the United States
Date
2020
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Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence
Abstract
This article discusses four survivor accounts of survivors of being sold for sexual exploitation by their
parents for monetary gain. These narratives, supplemented by other accounts from 100 newspaper
stories between 2012 and 2018, reveal the fact that many survivors were sold as very young children, and
the abuse continued through their teen years, blurring distinctions between pedophilia and the sex trade
industry. In their accounts, survivors described the motivations of their parents as well as the buyers, who
used excessive force and violence. Some researchers are beginning to document the existence of
parental pimping and its prevalence, which ranges from 3% to 44% among survivors. Some researchers
continue to resist labeling parents as pimps and refuse to view the phenomenon as part of the sex trade
industry. The findings from this study raise important questions about what cultural factors encourage
parents to believe that this activity is acceptable.
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Keywords
parents, trafficking, domestic minor sex trafficking, pimping, sexual exploitation, prevalence, research, torture
Citation
Raphael, J. (2020). Parents as Pimps: Survivor Accounts of Trafficking of Children in the United States. Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence, 4(4), 7.