This is the third part of the series “Legal or Illegal?”. Please read that article first if you want to understand the base of these arguments.

After arguing for the defence of Legal or Illegal : Prostitution now its time to defend another undefended job which is Pimping!

Lets say you do agree that prostitution must be decriminalized, but then one might suggest that at least criminalize pimping, after all its the Pimps which are responsible for the crimes done in prostitution. They are the ones which bring new girls to prostitution, they are the ones which beat, torture, and force the prostitutes to work.

Well some pimps DO use threat and coercion to make prostitutes work for them, but this does not means that the job itself is not required or must be condemned. After all, the pimps are quite desirable by the prostitutes. But the overall perception of pimps is like seeing a kidnapper as a kind of baby sitter. Kidnapping small kids is not good, despite of the fact that the kidnapper is also babysitting the kid, or feeding him in time.

If pimping were so undesirable of an act, there would be only violent and coercive pimps in the market, but that is not the case. Most of the pimps are desired by the profession.
A pimp is basically like a broker for the prostitute and her client, exactly like a stock market broker is a broker between two share exchanging entities, and a real estate agent is between the seller and buyer of the house. After all we don’t hear a real estate agent beating the house owner so that it agrees to sell the house to a specific buyer. If the agent did something like that, he/she would have been reported and the agent fired.
But because of criminalization of prostitution, the job of the pimp also becomes criminalized. So a prostitute cannot go to police for protection from such a pimp. Still most of the willing prostitutes are happy with their pimps.
How a pimp benefits a customer? The customer is eliminated from the effort of waiting and searching for a prostitute, he merely calls on a phone number, and the verification, payment, bargaining is all done to him. Once the person and location are decided, the pimp arranges for the delivery of the prostitute, or delivery of the client TO the prostitute, and he ensures that the environment offered to the client is safe.

How a pimp benefits a prostitute? The prostitute is saved from the effort of waiting and searching for a client, she is also protected by the pimp from undesirable customers, and where prostitution is illegal, from the police who prevent prostitute from engaging in this voluntary trade. Pimp guards the physical and material security of the prostitute while she is on the job. In exchange the pimp gets a cut from the fees paid to the prostitute.
Basically pimp serves the function of bringing two voluntary parties together to a transaction at a lesser cost than they would have without him.
A prostitute is no more exploited by a pimp than an actress by her agent, or a medical company by a medical representative.

Objective Perspective: Let’s have an objective perspective of what really is pimping. Pimping is merely a brokering of a voluntary trade between to parties. Pimping to prostitution is, what a real estate agent is to a house sale, what an arbitrator is to two conflicting parties, what a stock broker is to stock market.
If you have ever brought two people together for a sale between them, you have been involved in pimping. If you are involved in real estate business, you are pimping for a house. If you have been involved in stock market, medical representation, legal arbitration, you have been pimping from an objective perspective.

Pre-empting arguments: No proper argument that I can think of, except other than the chaos argument. They are the same as for legalizing prostitution. Oh yeah I forgot:

• Would you like to pimp your sister to me? - Sure if she wishes to do so, but she is happily committed. BTW I heard that your sister’s husband was beating her forcing her to sleep with his boss so that he can get a promotion, tell her that I can offer her better cut and non-violent services.
• • Chaos! Legalizing pimping will create chaos everywhere, dads will pimp out their daughters- I am sorry but this is a de facto argument given to whatever I suggest. It comes basically because of what psychologist describe as “Fear of the unknown”. If you think legalizing pimping will create chaos in the society, well then think again because according to psychologists you are saying that because you are unable to envision such a scenario.

Written by renegade_division