Main
There is a new book out with several contributions:
Prostitution and Human Trafficking: Focus on Clients (2008, edited by: by Andrea Di Nicola, Andrea Cauduro, Marco Lombardi, Paolo Ruspini)
One of the contributions is:
The Flesh is Weak, the Spirit Even Weaker - Clients and Trafficked Women in the Netherlands (by Damián Zaitch and Richard Staring)
Actually I took part in that research, and, in that research punter-forums have been analyzed where obviously I took part in.
I'm described by Zaitch and Staring as a 'fanatic moral crusader and anti-women trafficking campaigner'. Thank you, couldn't they have used more neutral words. Like 'entrepreneur' instead of 'crusader'? Or 'driven'/'enthousiastic' instead of 'fanatic'? Crusader and fanatic sound so negative.
Perhaps they are right, I'm overdoing it.
They don't have a positive attitude about clients anyway. The clients are uninterested, often deny that there are problems in prostitution and if they (the clients) do admit that there are problems, they say they don't encounter those particular (forced) prostitutes or can(not) make the distinction (between forced and voluntary). And then there are the 'moral crusaders' like me who say how bad the others are.
Furthermore they draw the worrying conclusion that the fact that prostitution is now legal in the Netherlands creates a false sense of security among clients of prostitutes because the brothels are now supposed to be free of abuse because they are supervised. Which the brothels obviously are not (free of abuse).
Anyway, lately I was thinking how to visit a prostitute again (after my latest impulsive visit to one). I thought, perhaps I could visit one of the women who post on hookers.nl. They couldn't be forced aren't they?
Well, anyway, three years ago I was invited by one of the prostitutes (who also post on hookers.nl and with whom I also had discussions) to visit her at her home. She then lived with her (much older) husband who also operates an escort service. And I came. It was her idea, to him it was a surprise. They were friendly people. She wanted to show me that there are also good escort operators. I also spoke with another (much older) prostitute there, who grew up on the Oudezijds Achterburgwal in Amsterdam (Red Light District).
We discussed with the four/five/six/seven (there were other people present, including children) of us how to separate the forced from the voluntary prostitutes. The other (older) prostitute who worked for the agency was of the opinion that if the prostitute wants to leave her pimp she could easily do that, just kill him in his sleep. In her opinion the women had a sadomasochistic relationship with their pimps. Own fault. Except maybe for the foreign women. She confirmed that most prostitutes have pimps, but they are not forced, she explained that pimps have multiple women in their stable and he turns them against each other. She was also a madam in the past. She said she was the Robin Hood because she gave the debt-bonded prostitutes free meals. But she was a nice lady anyway (she also believes in the paranormal).
A lively discussion arose. The woman who had invited me and I were of the opinion that forced prostitution was really a problem. The older woman believed it was not. The husband had his own opinions, he didn't believe it was really possible to separate forced from voluntary prostitution. The woman who invited me said that force and voluntariness lie very close to each other. She herself said that she enjoyed her work and that she enjoys sex.
That was a very special day.
Anyway, to come back to now; she came back on the hookers.nl forum under another name and now says that she was violently forced by her husband to work in prostitution for 9 year. She met him when she 15 years old. He was like a father for her, but he saw her as a money-well without a bottom. He persuaded her to break with her family and friends which caused her to be a puppet in his hands. If she didn't wanted to have sex with clients he beated and threatened her again and again. He almost killed her own self. She now says that she didn't enjoy her work and that she probably was a good actress because clients called her a 'girlfriend experience'. At the end she contemplated to kill her husband. She left him 2 years go.
I wish her good luck.
Well, for me that means that I'm now back again where I originally started.
Thinking back of it, I also chatted with another prostitute on hookers.nl a while back, who on the forum says that she has the coolest job in the world but personally said to me that clients treat her like a piece of meat with a hole in it, the nicer clients make the job nice. A view reflected by Sonia Rossi who wrote the book Fucking Berlin about her experiences in prostitution in the German capital. According to her, there are nice clients, but most are evil assholes who just grab, grope and put fingers in orifices without announcement. And it doesn't matter in what kind of establishment a prostitute works.
Beats me why many researched/interviewed prostitutes say they enjoy their work. Even many prostitutes on their own Dutch forum say that they describe the sex with their clients as pleasant. That's another paradox. Perhaps they see the glass as half full?
Perhaps it is better just to find a girlfriend or use my imagination (and my hand).
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Friday, May 08, 2009
A dark world
Main
Now, an article about Thérèse van der Helm who works for the P&G292 (Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 292), an information centre for prostitutes near the RLD in Amsterdam. Dark pictures again!, too easy. I'm really thinking about posting positive articles about prostitutes. Remember! Prostitution doesn't cause (post traumatic) stress (disorder). And my head is still made of concrete.
http://www.pg292.nl/pers.html
http://www.prostitutie.nl/scripts/thema/leesmeer1.php?id=124
Een duistere wereld vol geheimen [A dark World full of secrets]
over het veldwerk [about the fieldwork] GGD Vizier november 2008
by Claudia Plantinga
(...)
We walk through an alley and Therese greets the girls behind the windows. Every now and then she has a chat with them and informs if everything goes well. The alley is all window with many beautiful young dolled-up girls who stand behind it or sit on a bar stool.
Therese: Because we know many women now, they let us inside and we can keep an eye on their situation a little. We offer free services and they can go to us anonymously. We can enter almost everywhere. First it is NO!, and the door stays closed. When I call Doctor! The door does go open and we are allowed in.
Belly ache
Therese sees a girl that she doesn’t know and asks if we can come inside for a while. We are invited, although there’s lots of suspicion. Behind this window three young girls work who only speak Hungarian. One of the reasons that Betty, a Hungarian instructor, also comes along when the P&G team visits this alley. Therese gives safe sex information and information about the morning after pill. The new prostitutes get a package of condoms, sponges and information about the P&G. One of the girls still wants to ask some questions. We enter her work room.
Therese and Betty take place on the bed complete with large mirror and red lighting. The girl, 18 years old and very fragile, waveringly begins her story. She works for two weeks on de Wallen now and has lots of belly ache during her work. Therese keeps asking questions, with the help of Betty as interpreter. The girl tells that she works seven days a week and has on average ten to twenty clients per day. Therese tells that her body can’t handle that. She takes as an example that when you continuously receive punches on the same area on your arm, these also become very painful and swollen. She advises this girl to work less but she doesn’t want to know anything of this. To make the work less difficult for her Therese gives her advises with a dildo as example. She emphasizes that the girl is the boss of her body and not the client!
Three abortions
Therese wants to know why she works so much, if she has problems and if she works for somebody or is forced. The girl doesn’t really answer her questions. She tells that she works voluntarily and wants to go back once and for all to Hungary when it's Christmas. The money that she earns is for her mother. In passing she tells that she underwent three abortions in Hungary. Therese says that she readily wants to make an appointment with her and she agreed to it. We said goodbye to this bewildered girl. I feel very sorry for her.
Very thin
I also have the feeling that nobody trusts each other, a dark world full of secrets. The girls also certainly don’t show the back of their tongue. I’m deeply shocked about the situation where these girls are in. These really are girls and some I estimate to be younger than 18.
Every one of them beautiful but almost all very skinny and many with a bad set of teeth. According to Therese they live on junkfood, red bull and cola. The men who move slowly alongside the windows I don’t understand. What a strange world. I realize at the same time that it is also a matter of demand and supply…
Continue to work during pregnancy
Therese: In this alley work Hungarian women; they all have a pimp. Mostly they are victim of a criminal network where they are being forced to work in prostitution. In the Netherlands pimping is illegal by law. Therese continues her story: What I find very poignant is a prostitute who has become pregnant of a client. Now that she is too late for an abortion she keeps on working until the eight month of the pregnancy. There is no law which prohibits this. And after the delivery she gives the child away for adoption…
(...)
Now, an article about Thérèse van der Helm who works for the P&G292 (Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 292), an information centre for prostitutes near the RLD in Amsterdam. Dark pictures again!, too easy. I'm really thinking about posting positive articles about prostitutes. Remember! Prostitution doesn't cause (post traumatic) stress (disorder). And my head is still made of concrete.
http://www.pg292.nl/pers.html
http://www.prostitutie.nl/scripts/thema/leesmeer1.php?id=124
Een duistere wereld vol geheimen [A dark World full of secrets]
over het veldwerk [about the fieldwork] GGD Vizier november 2008
by Claudia Plantinga
(...)
We walk through an alley and Therese greets the girls behind the windows. Every now and then she has a chat with them and informs if everything goes well. The alley is all window with many beautiful young dolled-up girls who stand behind it or sit on a bar stool.
Therese: Because we know many women now, they let us inside and we can keep an eye on their situation a little. We offer free services and they can go to us anonymously. We can enter almost everywhere. First it is NO!, and the door stays closed. When I call Doctor! The door does go open and we are allowed in.
Belly ache
Therese sees a girl that she doesn’t know and asks if we can come inside for a while. We are invited, although there’s lots of suspicion. Behind this window three young girls work who only speak Hungarian. One of the reasons that Betty, a Hungarian instructor, also comes along when the P&G team visits this alley. Therese gives safe sex information and information about the morning after pill. The new prostitutes get a package of condoms, sponges and information about the P&G. One of the girls still wants to ask some questions. We enter her work room.
Therese and Betty take place on the bed complete with large mirror and red lighting. The girl, 18 years old and very fragile, waveringly begins her story. She works for two weeks on de Wallen now and has lots of belly ache during her work. Therese keeps asking questions, with the help of Betty as interpreter. The girl tells that she works seven days a week and has on average ten to twenty clients per day. Therese tells that her body can’t handle that. She takes as an example that when you continuously receive punches on the same area on your arm, these also become very painful and swollen. She advises this girl to work less but she doesn’t want to know anything of this. To make the work less difficult for her Therese gives her advises with a dildo as example. She emphasizes that the girl is the boss of her body and not the client!
Three abortions
Therese wants to know why she works so much, if she has problems and if she works for somebody or is forced. The girl doesn’t really answer her questions. She tells that she works voluntarily and wants to go back once and for all to Hungary when it's Christmas. The money that she earns is for her mother. In passing she tells that she underwent three abortions in Hungary. Therese says that she readily wants to make an appointment with her and she agreed to it. We said goodbye to this bewildered girl. I feel very sorry for her.
Very thin
I also have the feeling that nobody trusts each other, a dark world full of secrets. The girls also certainly don’t show the back of their tongue. I’m deeply shocked about the situation where these girls are in. These really are girls and some I estimate to be younger than 18.
Every one of them beautiful but almost all very skinny and many with a bad set of teeth. According to Therese they live on junkfood, red bull and cola. The men who move slowly alongside the windows I don’t understand. What a strange world. I realize at the same time that it is also a matter of demand and supply…
Continue to work during pregnancy
Therese: In this alley work Hungarian women; they all have a pimp. Mostly they are victim of a criminal network where they are being forced to work in prostitution. In the Netherlands pimping is illegal by law. Therese continues her story: What I find very poignant is a prostitute who has become pregnant of a client. Now that she is too late for an abortion she keeps on working until the eight month of the pregnancy. There is no law which prohibits this. And after the delivery she gives the child away for adoption…
(...)
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Like a doll
Main
It still is so easy to bash prostitutes. Not so difficult to paint a bleak picture. But still 'consensual' as always. This time a story by a former Czech prostitute (still Czech) who started when she was 19. She is gypsy. And wanted to make money in prostitution to pay back for some lost family land and a burnt-downfarm where here family lives. She wants to start a foundation against pimps. She also speaks about other Eastern European prostitutes. And I have a concrete head. Some Dutch language articles:
Article in De Pers
Als popje in Etalage [Like a doll in display window]
By Merel van Leeuwen
May 6th 2009
(...)
This 32-year old Czech woman consciously chose in the midst of the nineties for a life behind the window. She thought that she could fend for herself without a boyfriend or pimp, but was financially exploited by a Dutch man with whom she started a relationship. Only, she realized that much later.
Last year she stepped out of prostitution. Her professional life took place behind the windows of Mainz, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Alkmaar. She teaches herself to speak Dutch by watching Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden and other Dutch soaps. Still one year and then she has finished her education to become a haematologist. She is busy searching for a job and puts herself forward as a promoter of prostitutes on the Achterdam.
(…)
Maria managed to maintain herself between the girls in Amsterdam. She rented a room in the Gordijnensteeg and as one of the last women from Eastern Europe she acquires a temporary residence status without problems. For years she works as an independent entrepreneur and so-called white illegal, until she gets a residence permit in 2005. As one of the few in Amsterdam Maria had no pimp.
’I always had a big mouth about that they wouldn’t get me, but it did happen nevertheless, so stupid. On one evening a girl was robbed, after which a boy of the security offered me to look after my belongings. So I gave him my bag, with the car credentials, my keys, passport. At the end of the day I asked my belongings back. That will cost you a thousand guilders, he then said. Screw it, I thought and I left without my belongings. But yes, I must have them back. A day later I said I would pay after all. But then it was raised to a thousand guilders per item, and I started to pay. Another boy of the security heard the story and wanted to solve it for me, but then I had to pay five thousand guilders to the first boy. I didn’t have it, but he wanted to lend it to me. He said: I’ll help you. Do you feel it coming?’ Maria laughs.
The boy who ‘helps’ her; convinces her to move in with him in Hoofddorp and they start a relationship. Five years later she finds out that she has been terribly deceived. All the money she earned, she gave that to him. For their future, what he fooled her into believing. The couple bought two privéhuizen [brothels] from her money, in Leiden and Schiedam. Maria’s rescue is that her boyfriend, a Dutch kamper [former caravan dweller], ‘forgets’ to pay taxes, after which the police performs a raid in 2000 and arrests him.
’But I stayed loyal towards him. I kept my mouth shut towards the police, because he has also helped me. Very stupid, so crooked, because he was a bastard. But when I heard all the terrible stories of other girls, I found I wasn’t in such a bad position. He didn’t batter me, I had my own car, I could do what I liked. The first year in prison I even sent him 50 euros weekly.’ Maria laughs again.
(…)
Maria even calls the transition period between the guilder and the euro a golden period, because everybody wanted to rid themselves of their black market money. But because of the arrival of mainly Bulgarian girls the prices have dropped drastically last years. When previously the girls mutually agreed not to work under a certain price, the newcomers don’t bother about that at all and do it for less.
’Those girls from the countryside in Eastern Europe know that they don’t come here to work in the catering industry or as an au-pair. But prostitute here is still always a better life than on the countryside there. They see their pimp as their boyfriend. He arranges a house and does nice things with her, but such a girl pays tremendous amounts of money for that. They feel special, chosen by such a boy and feel a great loyalty towards him. But they don’t realize that they could be much better off without him.’
(…)
article in Noord Hollands Dagblad
Van peeskamer naar collegezaal [from window brothel to lecture hall]
February 13th 2009
(...)
Actually she wanted to persist for one other year. To ‘pezen’ [prostitute] for a while until she has finished her study haematology. But because of ‘personal circumstances’ – she didn’t want to reveal more – she stopped in Alkmaar with her work behind the windows. “In Utrecht there was no place anymore, Amsterdam I find it much too crowded with all these tourists. I tried it for a while in The Hague. Speaking about dangerous… I will nééver go their again.”
It still is so easy to bash prostitutes. Not so difficult to paint a bleak picture. But still 'consensual' as always. This time a story by a former Czech prostitute (still Czech) who started when she was 19. She is gypsy. And wanted to make money in prostitution to pay back for some lost family land and a burnt-downfarm where here family lives. She wants to start a foundation against pimps. She also speaks about other Eastern European prostitutes. And I have a concrete head. Some Dutch language articles:
Article in De Pers
Als popje in Etalage [Like a doll in display window]
By Merel van Leeuwen
May 6th 2009
(...)
This 32-year old Czech woman consciously chose in the midst of the nineties for a life behind the window. She thought that she could fend for herself without a boyfriend or pimp, but was financially exploited by a Dutch man with whom she started a relationship. Only, she realized that much later.
Last year she stepped out of prostitution. Her professional life took place behind the windows of Mainz, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Alkmaar. She teaches herself to speak Dutch by watching Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden and other Dutch soaps. Still one year and then she has finished her education to become a haematologist. She is busy searching for a job and puts herself forward as a promoter of prostitutes on the Achterdam.
(…)
Maria managed to maintain herself between the girls in Amsterdam. She rented a room in the Gordijnensteeg and as one of the last women from Eastern Europe she acquires a temporary residence status without problems. For years she works as an independent entrepreneur and so-called white illegal, until she gets a residence permit in 2005. As one of the few in Amsterdam Maria had no pimp.
’I always had a big mouth about that they wouldn’t get me, but it did happen nevertheless, so stupid. On one evening a girl was robbed, after which a boy of the security offered me to look after my belongings. So I gave him my bag, with the car credentials, my keys, passport. At the end of the day I asked my belongings back. That will cost you a thousand guilders, he then said. Screw it, I thought and I left without my belongings. But yes, I must have them back. A day later I said I would pay after all. But then it was raised to a thousand guilders per item, and I started to pay. Another boy of the security heard the story and wanted to solve it for me, but then I had to pay five thousand guilders to the first boy. I didn’t have it, but he wanted to lend it to me. He said: I’ll help you. Do you feel it coming?’ Maria laughs.
The boy who ‘helps’ her; convinces her to move in with him in Hoofddorp and they start a relationship. Five years later she finds out that she has been terribly deceived. All the money she earned, she gave that to him. For their future, what he fooled her into believing. The couple bought two privéhuizen [brothels] from her money, in Leiden and Schiedam. Maria’s rescue is that her boyfriend, a Dutch kamper [former caravan dweller], ‘forgets’ to pay taxes, after which the police performs a raid in 2000 and arrests him.
’But I stayed loyal towards him. I kept my mouth shut towards the police, because he has also helped me. Very stupid, so crooked, because he was a bastard. But when I heard all the terrible stories of other girls, I found I wasn’t in such a bad position. He didn’t batter me, I had my own car, I could do what I liked. The first year in prison I even sent him 50 euros weekly.’ Maria laughs again.
(…)
Maria even calls the transition period between the guilder and the euro a golden period, because everybody wanted to rid themselves of their black market money. But because of the arrival of mainly Bulgarian girls the prices have dropped drastically last years. When previously the girls mutually agreed not to work under a certain price, the newcomers don’t bother about that at all and do it for less.
’Those girls from the countryside in Eastern Europe know that they don’t come here to work in the catering industry or as an au-pair. But prostitute here is still always a better life than on the countryside there. They see their pimp as their boyfriend. He arranges a house and does nice things with her, but such a girl pays tremendous amounts of money for that. They feel special, chosen by such a boy and feel a great loyalty towards him. But they don’t realize that they could be much better off without him.’
(…)
article in Noord Hollands Dagblad
Van peeskamer naar collegezaal [from window brothel to lecture hall]
February 13th 2009
(...)
Actually she wanted to persist for one other year. To ‘pezen’ [prostitute] for a while until she has finished her study haematology. But because of ‘personal circumstances’ – she didn’t want to reveal more – she stopped in Alkmaar with her work behind the windows. “In Utrecht there was no place anymore, Amsterdam I find it much too crowded with all these tourists. I tried it for a while in The Hague. Speaking about dangerous… I will nééver go their again.”
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Good news
I lately wondered, I mostly put negative news on my blog about prostitution in the Netherlands. As if I try to paint the situation here as bleakly as possible. Well, hearing about the good news in the Singel area in Amsterdam (sorry however for the Romanian and Bulgarian prostitutes) I thought to myself: maybe I should just give it a try. So, I headed to this area, tried to pick an older woman (older than 30) and rapidly made my decision.
Unfortunately, she was 24 instead of 30, and Dutch. As a matter of fact, she has many of the characteristics of a victim of a so-called loverboy (or pimpboy as they are called nowadays): she is Dutch, young, and works behind a window. I politely asked her if she wasn't forced to do this. She indicated that she was shocked by the question (but in a positive way: she smiled about it); I was the first person to ask! No, she wasn't, she hated pimps, she works wholly independently. Later after we were done she said she didn't have debts and that she made her hobby her profession. And why would she work behind a counter for a couple a hundred euros a month if she could make 700 euros a day in prostitution?
I believe her, but, if she would have been forced, would she have told me that? Later one of my punter-friends who also knows this girl told me that she doesn't work very often (2 afternoons in the week). She studies and she does this work on the side. She also has a child and a boyfriend. If there is one prostitute he knows who does it voluntarily it is her.
That was very impulsive of me, I felt really bad about myself afterwards, but perhaps I was lucky this time. I think I will visit specific prostitutes in the future of whom I know for sure beforehand that they are really not forced.
Unfortunately, she was 24 instead of 30, and Dutch. As a matter of fact, she has many of the characteristics of a victim of a so-called loverboy (or pimpboy as they are called nowadays): she is Dutch, young, and works behind a window. I politely asked her if she wasn't forced to do this. She indicated that she was shocked by the question (but in a positive way: she smiled about it); I was the first person to ask! No, she wasn't, she hated pimps, she works wholly independently. Later after we were done she said she didn't have debts and that she made her hobby her profession. And why would she work behind a counter for a couple a hundred euros a month if she could make 700 euros a day in prostitution?
I believe her, but, if she would have been forced, would she have told me that? Later one of my punter-friends who also knows this girl told me that she doesn't work very often (2 afternoons in the week). She studies and she does this work on the side. She also has a child and a boyfriend. If there is one prostitute he knows who does it voluntarily it is her.
That was very impulsive of me, I felt really bad about myself afterwards, but perhaps I was lucky this time. I think I will visit specific prostitutes in the future of whom I know for sure beforehand that they are really not forced.
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Refuse all Romanian girls
Lately a report came out:
http://www.beke.nl/publicaties/weg_achter_het_raam_
It is called 'Weg achter het raam?' ['Gone behind the window?'] by the Bureau Beke (written by Anton van Wijk, Ilse van Leiden en Henk Ferwerda, 2009).
It is about the effect on prostitutes after the closure of several window brothels in Amsterdam. They conclude that because the supply of windows has gone down, the window rents have gone up. The prostitutes now have to pay more to get behind a window. But that is not so interesting in my opinion; if you want to solve this problem, simply help some prostitutes out (especially the forced prostitutes of whom there are rumoured to be many in this type of prostitution), then the demand of prostitutes for windows also goes down. And also; what they say cannot be true because from what I know the windows are heavily under-occupied. But perhaps the situation has recently changed.
But there's something else more interesting in the report. Lately, the municipality of Amsterdam wanted to close down brothels in the Singel area (Korte Korsjespoortsteeg and the Oude Nieuwstraat). It refrained from doing so because there are supposedly much fewer forced prostitutes in that area. I always wondered what is the secret behind this? The report mentions a Romanian girl (page 20) who tried to work in this area, but who was refused because (translated):
"At first the brothel owner finds it okay but as soon as I mention that I am Romanian, the doors gets closed. Bulgarian and Romanian Girls are refused because the brothel owners assume that we all bring problems with us and all are in the hands of loverboys and pimps, that stings us, we feel stigmatized by that."
Very interesting. I always wondered what I would do if I were a brothel owner. In my opinion, from what I know today, it is nearly impossible to seperate the forced from the voluntary prostitutes. They are so good at hiding their situation. And what indeed about just refusing whole groups of prostitutes? No Africans, no Eastern Europeans, no young women (younger than 30), etc ....... Turns out that some brothel owners are indeed doing just that. It is not waterproof however.
http://www.beke.nl/publicaties/weg_achter_het_raam_
It is called 'Weg achter het raam?' ['Gone behind the window?'] by the Bureau Beke (written by Anton van Wijk, Ilse van Leiden en Henk Ferwerda, 2009).
It is about the effect on prostitutes after the closure of several window brothels in Amsterdam. They conclude that because the supply of windows has gone down, the window rents have gone up. The prostitutes now have to pay more to get behind a window. But that is not so interesting in my opinion; if you want to solve this problem, simply help some prostitutes out (especially the forced prostitutes of whom there are rumoured to be many in this type of prostitution), then the demand of prostitutes for windows also goes down. And also; what they say cannot be true because from what I know the windows are heavily under-occupied. But perhaps the situation has recently changed.
But there's something else more interesting in the report. Lately, the municipality of Amsterdam wanted to close down brothels in the Singel area (Korte Korsjespoortsteeg and the Oude Nieuwstraat). It refrained from doing so because there are supposedly much fewer forced prostitutes in that area. I always wondered what is the secret behind this? The report mentions a Romanian girl (page 20) who tried to work in this area, but who was refused because (translated):
"At first the brothel owner finds it okay but as soon as I mention that I am Romanian, the doors gets closed. Bulgarian and Romanian Girls are refused because the brothel owners assume that we all bring problems with us and all are in the hands of loverboys and pimps, that stings us, we feel stigmatized by that."
Very interesting. I always wondered what I would do if I were a brothel owner. In my opinion, from what I know today, it is nearly impossible to seperate the forced from the voluntary prostitutes. They are so good at hiding their situation. And what indeed about just refusing whole groups of prostitutes? No Africans, no Eastern Europeans, no young women (younger than 30), etc ....... Turns out that some brothel owners are indeed doing just that. It is not waterproof however.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Murdered
A prostitute has been murdered on de Wallen on de Oudezijds Achterburgwal 38. She was a Hungarian girl of 19 years old. Metje Blaak of the Red Thread placed flowers at her window.
Here are some Dutch language articles:
Moord zorgt voor angst achter ramen
Angst zit er goed in op de Wallen
Prostituee Berti vermoedelijk vermoord om geld
Here are some Dutch language articles:
Moord zorgt voor angst achter ramen
Angst zit er goed in op de Wallen
Prostituee Berti vermoedelijk vermoord om geld
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Zandpad
Main
Lately I suddenly stumbled upon two previously hidden documents about forced prostitution in Utrecht, especially Eastern European women on the Zandpad. The thing these reports tell could be true. I did notice while doing my hookers.nl-count that indeed many Eastern European women work there nowadays (think about 50%, many Bulgarian and Hungarian women). I find it actually interesting to see how they draw their conclusions. The scale of forced prostitution is very difficult to proof indeed. As you will see, the large percentages basically come from rough estimates of social workers with long experience in the field. So technically, you cannot proof anything; when you will interview prostitutes they simply "clam up".
I made some usual free-form translations.
report 1:
Signalen Mensenhandel Utrecht (May 29th 2008, Afdeling Bestuursinformatie Sector Bestuurs- en Concernzaken Gemeente Utrecht)
Page 3:
During the operational analysis of registration The Politie Regio Utrecht has found nine concrete signals of human trafficking on the Zandpad within a time span of eight months.
Page 8:
In short the GG&GD sees the following signals on the Zandpad: a quickly varying population (30-40% of the women) of often Eastern European girls, who barely speak the Dutch language. The GG&GD puts question marks on the age of these girls, just 18 or just not. After inquiry into the reason of being present on the Zandpad they strikingly often have the same story. Women are regularly in the company of ‘[boy?-]friend’ or ‘brother’, drivers are among them. Sometimes physical signs are seen which could point to violence (bruises etc. ).
Page 9-10:
Also volunteers of clerical organizations see strikingly many frightened Eastern European girls. Volunteers of different clerical organizations are often active for years already on the Zandpad. They pass by the houseboats and try to get in contact with the women. They also come on the Zandpad during the night.
They encounter strikingly many young girls from Eastern Europe who barely speak the Dutch language. Girls make a frightened impression and are often accompanied by ‘vague’ male types who show controlling behaviour (listening in etc.) and also physically obstruct the volunteers to reach the girls. The population of the houseboats varies quickly, prostitutes indicate that they often travel for their work and are not bound to one workplace. During conversations with the women on three Friday evenings one of the clerical organizations encounters two Eastern European women where they see the situation as very fishy (looking bad, sad, closed). They speak on these evenings approximately 40 women in total, among who many women not from Eastern Europe (many from Santo Domingo).
(…)
The HAP [Huiskameraanloop Prostituees = Living room for prostitutes] saw 874 women on the Zandpad in 2007 [note at the bottom of that page: “per day the number of unique visitors is registered. Women who visit the HAP more often than once (for example a couple of days later), are registered once again. The number 874 doesn’t concern the number of unique persons on a yearly basis”]. In the second half of 2007 47 women came on their own initiative to the HAP to talk about compulsion (among themselves or others). While doing outreaching work the HAP sees per round some dozens of women. Among half of them they place question marks. Within this group they see many Eastern European women. Striking is also a quickly varying population of ‘very young’ [piepjonge] Bulgarian girls, of whom many originate from Alkmaar (they speak of a ‘Bulgarian wave from Alkmaar’). This group makes a frightened impression, show nervous behaviour, are often way too skinny and after articulating the suspicion of maltreatment ‘they clam up’.
Client of prostitutes also report abuses
On www.hookers.nl many reviews are written by clients about the service of prostitutes. During last December MGZ [Maatschappelijke Gezondheidszorg = Social Healthcare = department of the GG&GD] took stock of all reviews related to the Zandpad. The origin of the women, past work and reports of compulsion/abuses were screended. The months after that the website with respect to the Zandpad was only screened on the origin of the women and on reports of abuses.
From the analysis of December the image exists of a strongly varying population on the Zandpad with many women from Eastern European countries. Of five women there are reports of abuses (of the 88, clients however prefer fixed women which causes the quickly varying women not to be reviewed often [from my own research on hookers.nl this turns out not to be the case! Clients could follow the prostitute from one location to another for years]). In these reports there are talks of nervousness, exhaustion, long working hours, not a free choice of workplace and explicitly of forced prostitution (two reports). All cases involved Eastern European women and in an incidental case again there’s a relation made between Alkmaar.
Page 11-12:
From the analysis of the police recent information has been registered from the second semester 2007 until and including February 2008. Using the police sources blueview, het Herkenningssysteem (HKS [Recognizing System]), the district police officer and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) suspect persons and groups, active on the Zandpad have been identified. Subsequently there has been looked in the history of what more is known about persons and possible other group members and/or victims. In the systems there has been sought using the keywords ‘forced’ and ‘human trafficking’. Information was deemed more reliable when it came form multiple sources. About the persons involved more reports had to be present. Also use is made of the expertise of the team Commerciële Zeden and the Eenheid Mensenhandel Mensensmokkel [Unit Human Trafficking People Smuggling].
Characteristics of human trafficking found on the Zandpad
From the described signals we can identify the following characteristics of human trafficking on the Zandpad (like described in appendix 1):
-Towards the suspects there is a relationship of dependency of the prostitutes (probable caused by the foreign descent of the prostitutes, having few contacts with Dutch society, a bad mastery of language and a relatively low age).
-Suspects have a degree of control over the victims (like transport to living addresses and multiple work areas, tattoo name of pimp on the prostitute, keeping an eye during activities including counting of the number of clients, use of multiple forged identification cards).
-Use of violence (observed are injuries, domestic violence, maltreatment and threats, trivialization of violence by victim out of fear ).
-Remarkable living addresses like declared by suspects and victims on the Zandpad. Housing is an important component of the criminal infrastructure of human trafficking, a living location is used as a sleeping address, but is also used as means of control over the prostitutes. Prostitutes name multiple living addresses within a relative short period; multiple prostitutes name the same address.
Enormous amounts of money go around on the Zandpad
Enormous amounts of money go around in the prostitution branch. This is what the police also sees in the signals on the Zandpad:
-Expensive cars (as a means of transport for prostitutes, as means of control)
-Not known is how much the expensive cars corresponds with the performed labour and salary of the suspects.
-Financial streams show that the prostitutes remit tens of thousand of euros to persons abroad who are also seen on the Zandpad or elsewhere in the country when they drop off prostitutes at the prostitution areas.
(…)
The police sees the suspicion confirmed that a large segment of the women on the Zandpad work under force
The results confirm, given the short researched time span, the suspicion for the police that a substantial segment of the prostitutes are working forced. During the last eight months nine unique signals of human trafficking have been found on the Zandpad. One signal could involve multiple suspects and victims. Multiple cases are found, but only signals which could be confirmed with other information have been included. The fact that the analysis is not exhaustive, involves a short time span and that not all relevant information couldn’t be found in the systems, makes it likely for the police that the real situation is even worse. The police also indicates that it has no view on a certain ‘dark number’. It stays difficult to bring abuses to light. Because of threats, fear of pimps, psychological state or distrust towards the police, prostitutes are often not capable to report the crime to the police or pass on information in a different way to the police about the abuses where they are victims of or have knowledge of.
Page 14:
The reliability of the image outlined above becomes bigger provided that above mentioned observations have been performed independently. The GG&GD indicates that the observations came about independently. The HAP and the clerical organizations until recently did have no contact with each other. Very recently they came together for the first time to talk about gearing activities to one another. The involved staff member of the GG&GD doesn’t hold consultation with the HAP about suspicions of compulsion and has other work periods than the clerical volunteers. Hookers.nl is obviously an independent source anyway.
the other report:
Nulmeting prostitutiebeleid [Baseline measurement prostitution police (in Utrecht)] (November 2006, Afdeling Bestuursinformatie Sector Bestuurs- en Concernzaken Gemeente Utrecht. Writers: Jeroen van der Zweth, Geisje Hoetjes, Irene Boersema)
Page 4:
At a minimum 720 prostitutes working in Utrecht
It is estimated that currently at least 720 prostitutes are active in licensed prostitution. The total number of prostitutes in the city in 1999 was estimated at 350 women who were active in window prostitution, 70 in brothels, 70 in privé-huizen and 180 in street prostitution (GG&GD). It is not known how many women are working in erotic massage parlours. 477 prostitutes have been registered by the Tax Department in 2003. Of 49 of these prostitutes it is known that in the meantime they are not working on the Zandpad anymore, hereby we are left with 428 prostitutes on the Zandpad. On the Baan work some 150 [street] prostitutes with a license. When we add the earlier estimates of 70 in brothels and 70 in privé-huizen we then end up with approximately 720 prostitutes who are working in Utrecht in licensed prostitution, excluding the erotic massage parlours. Of the 150 prostitutes with a license on the Baan 50 reside in Utrecht. On the Baan some 35 to 40 prostitutes come per evening (GG&GD).
Page 6:
An estimated 50 to 95% involuntarily in prostitution
The police (department Commerciële Zeden [Commercial Vices]) estimates that between 50 and 85% of the prostitutes don’t do this work voluntarily. Prostitutes who reported the crime to the police even estimate this at 95%. Involuntariness in this case under force of a pimp, by debts or other circumstances. Also from other researches it turns out that the majority of the women end up forced (or out of necessity).
Lately I suddenly stumbled upon two previously hidden documents about forced prostitution in Utrecht, especially Eastern European women on the Zandpad. The thing these reports tell could be true. I did notice while doing my hookers.nl-count that indeed many Eastern European women work there nowadays (think about 50%, many Bulgarian and Hungarian women). I find it actually interesting to see how they draw their conclusions. The scale of forced prostitution is very difficult to proof indeed. As you will see, the large percentages basically come from rough estimates of social workers with long experience in the field. So technically, you cannot proof anything; when you will interview prostitutes they simply "clam up".
I made some usual free-form translations.
report 1:
Signalen Mensenhandel Utrecht (May 29th 2008, Afdeling Bestuursinformatie Sector Bestuurs- en Concernzaken Gemeente Utrecht)
Page 3:
During the operational analysis of registration The Politie Regio Utrecht has found nine concrete signals of human trafficking on the Zandpad within a time span of eight months.
Page 8:
In short the GG&GD sees the following signals on the Zandpad: a quickly varying population (30-40% of the women) of often Eastern European girls, who barely speak the Dutch language. The GG&GD puts question marks on the age of these girls, just 18 or just not. After inquiry into the reason of being present on the Zandpad they strikingly often have the same story. Women are regularly in the company of ‘[boy?-]friend’ or ‘brother’, drivers are among them. Sometimes physical signs are seen which could point to violence (bruises etc. ).
Page 9-10:
Also volunteers of clerical organizations see strikingly many frightened Eastern European girls. Volunteers of different clerical organizations are often active for years already on the Zandpad. They pass by the houseboats and try to get in contact with the women. They also come on the Zandpad during the night.
They encounter strikingly many young girls from Eastern Europe who barely speak the Dutch language. Girls make a frightened impression and are often accompanied by ‘vague’ male types who show controlling behaviour (listening in etc.) and also physically obstruct the volunteers to reach the girls. The population of the houseboats varies quickly, prostitutes indicate that they often travel for their work and are not bound to one workplace. During conversations with the women on three Friday evenings one of the clerical organizations encounters two Eastern European women where they see the situation as very fishy (looking bad, sad, closed). They speak on these evenings approximately 40 women in total, among who many women not from Eastern Europe (many from Santo Domingo).
(…)
The HAP [Huiskameraanloop Prostituees = Living room for prostitutes] saw 874 women on the Zandpad in 2007 [note at the bottom of that page: “per day the number of unique visitors is registered. Women who visit the HAP more often than once (for example a couple of days later), are registered once again. The number 874 doesn’t concern the number of unique persons on a yearly basis”]. In the second half of 2007 47 women came on their own initiative to the HAP to talk about compulsion (among themselves or others). While doing outreaching work the HAP sees per round some dozens of women. Among half of them they place question marks. Within this group they see many Eastern European women. Striking is also a quickly varying population of ‘very young’ [piepjonge] Bulgarian girls, of whom many originate from Alkmaar (they speak of a ‘Bulgarian wave from Alkmaar’). This group makes a frightened impression, show nervous behaviour, are often way too skinny and after articulating the suspicion of maltreatment ‘they clam up’.
Client of prostitutes also report abuses
On www.hookers.nl many reviews are written by clients about the service of prostitutes. During last December MGZ [Maatschappelijke Gezondheidszorg = Social Healthcare = department of the GG&GD] took stock of all reviews related to the Zandpad. The origin of the women, past work and reports of compulsion/abuses were screended. The months after that the website with respect to the Zandpad was only screened on the origin of the women and on reports of abuses.
From the analysis of December the image exists of a strongly varying population on the Zandpad with many women from Eastern European countries. Of five women there are reports of abuses (of the 88, clients however prefer fixed women which causes the quickly varying women not to be reviewed often [from my own research on hookers.nl this turns out not to be the case! Clients could follow the prostitute from one location to another for years]). In these reports there are talks of nervousness, exhaustion, long working hours, not a free choice of workplace and explicitly of forced prostitution (two reports). All cases involved Eastern European women and in an incidental case again there’s a relation made between Alkmaar.
Page 11-12:
From the analysis of the police recent information has been registered from the second semester 2007 until and including February 2008. Using the police sources blueview, het Herkenningssysteem (HKS [Recognizing System]), the district police officer and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) suspect persons and groups, active on the Zandpad have been identified. Subsequently there has been looked in the history of what more is known about persons and possible other group members and/or victims. In the systems there has been sought using the keywords ‘forced’ and ‘human trafficking’. Information was deemed more reliable when it came form multiple sources. About the persons involved more reports had to be present. Also use is made of the expertise of the team Commerciële Zeden and the Eenheid Mensenhandel Mensensmokkel [Unit Human Trafficking People Smuggling].
Characteristics of human trafficking found on the Zandpad
From the described signals we can identify the following characteristics of human trafficking on the Zandpad (like described in appendix 1):
-Towards the suspects there is a relationship of dependency of the prostitutes (probable caused by the foreign descent of the prostitutes, having few contacts with Dutch society, a bad mastery of language and a relatively low age).
-Suspects have a degree of control over the victims (like transport to living addresses and multiple work areas, tattoo name of pimp on the prostitute, keeping an eye during activities including counting of the number of clients, use of multiple forged identification cards).
-Use of violence (observed are injuries, domestic violence, maltreatment and threats, trivialization of violence by victim out of fear ).
-Remarkable living addresses like declared by suspects and victims on the Zandpad. Housing is an important component of the criminal infrastructure of human trafficking, a living location is used as a sleeping address, but is also used as means of control over the prostitutes. Prostitutes name multiple living addresses within a relative short period; multiple prostitutes name the same address.
Enormous amounts of money go around on the Zandpad
Enormous amounts of money go around in the prostitution branch. This is what the police also sees in the signals on the Zandpad:
-Expensive cars (as a means of transport for prostitutes, as means of control)
-Not known is how much the expensive cars corresponds with the performed labour and salary of the suspects.
-Financial streams show that the prostitutes remit tens of thousand of euros to persons abroad who are also seen on the Zandpad or elsewhere in the country when they drop off prostitutes at the prostitution areas.
(…)
The police sees the suspicion confirmed that a large segment of the women on the Zandpad work under force
The results confirm, given the short researched time span, the suspicion for the police that a substantial segment of the prostitutes are working forced. During the last eight months nine unique signals of human trafficking have been found on the Zandpad. One signal could involve multiple suspects and victims. Multiple cases are found, but only signals which could be confirmed with other information have been included. The fact that the analysis is not exhaustive, involves a short time span and that not all relevant information couldn’t be found in the systems, makes it likely for the police that the real situation is even worse. The police also indicates that it has no view on a certain ‘dark number’. It stays difficult to bring abuses to light. Because of threats, fear of pimps, psychological state or distrust towards the police, prostitutes are often not capable to report the crime to the police or pass on information in a different way to the police about the abuses where they are victims of or have knowledge of.
Page 14:
The reliability of the image outlined above becomes bigger provided that above mentioned observations have been performed independently. The GG&GD indicates that the observations came about independently. The HAP and the clerical organizations until recently did have no contact with each other. Very recently they came together for the first time to talk about gearing activities to one another. The involved staff member of the GG&GD doesn’t hold consultation with the HAP about suspicions of compulsion and has other work periods than the clerical volunteers. Hookers.nl is obviously an independent source anyway.
the other report:
Nulmeting prostitutiebeleid [Baseline measurement prostitution police (in Utrecht)] (November 2006, Afdeling Bestuursinformatie Sector Bestuurs- en Concernzaken Gemeente Utrecht. Writers: Jeroen van der Zweth, Geisje Hoetjes, Irene Boersema)
Page 4:
At a minimum 720 prostitutes working in Utrecht
It is estimated that currently at least 720 prostitutes are active in licensed prostitution. The total number of prostitutes in the city in 1999 was estimated at 350 women who were active in window prostitution, 70 in brothels, 70 in privé-huizen and 180 in street prostitution (GG&GD). It is not known how many women are working in erotic massage parlours. 477 prostitutes have been registered by the Tax Department in 2003. Of 49 of these prostitutes it is known that in the meantime they are not working on the Zandpad anymore, hereby we are left with 428 prostitutes on the Zandpad. On the Baan work some 150 [street] prostitutes with a license. When we add the earlier estimates of 70 in brothels and 70 in privé-huizen we then end up with approximately 720 prostitutes who are working in Utrecht in licensed prostitution, excluding the erotic massage parlours. Of the 150 prostitutes with a license on the Baan 50 reside in Utrecht. On the Baan some 35 to 40 prostitutes come per evening (GG&GD).
Page 6:
An estimated 50 to 95% involuntarily in prostitution
The police (department Commerciële Zeden [Commercial Vices]) estimates that between 50 and 85% of the prostitutes don’t do this work voluntarily. Prostitutes who reported the crime to the police even estimate this at 95%. Involuntariness in this case under force of a pimp, by debts or other circumstances. Also from other researches it turns out that the majority of the women end up forced (or out of necessity).
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
More info and selected quotes
Time for some extra information from my hookers.nl-count regarding escort prostitutes and prostitutes who receive in their own houses.
Concerning the home workers, I often noticed that when the client made a call to the advertised number, the boyfriend or husband took up the phone. Also some of the boyfriends or husbands open the door and are present in the house while the prostitutes receives her client. Sometimes the man in the house joins in (some couples also offer their service together). One woman received at her brother’s place. Clients also notice that there are sleeping children in the bedrooms.
I don’t know if many of these boyfriends or husbands also force or manipulate the women to do this work. You rarely hear about it in media about this form of prostitution (I bring into mind that the women are many times older than thirty). But on the other hand, it could be. But the men didn’t seem to do anything bad.
I often see the clients complain about the messy interiors of some of the prostitutes’ houses, but this doesn’t happen most of the time. Some women seemed to be on drugs, also while they received clients.
Some prostitutes receive with other prostitutes in their own house. These seem more like illegal brothels.
Many prostitutes advertise that they can be filmed or photographed. Some clients indeed do this, for their own personal use (I wonder if they also put these films on the internet).
Sometimes clients complain that the girl who comes by is not the girl in the advertisement.
Sometimes escorts and home prostitutes seemed to be forced. In some cases the clients has a strange feeling about it, but cannot tell why. For instance, an Eastern European prostitute who receives in a demolition neighbourhood ( this link ), or the porn actress Angelika Black who constantly talks to client about her boyfriend, the client therefore believes that she works for him (this link, she work for Zuzana escort as Elena).
I will quote the cases where I believe the situation is more is less clear (translated from Dutch into English):
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=189073
Tilburg, Esmiralda (26-29 years old, African)
25 August 2008, 17:02
On kinky and sexjobs there’s and advertisement of a halfblood (?) in the midst of her twenties. She’s supposedly named Esmeralda, and [she] loves several things. Giving blowjobs, gangbang, cumming over belly or face, all no problem according to the advertisement, but appearances are deceptive.
Last week I went to her place. It is a sweet girl with a beautiful body, but of what was in the advertisement, not half a sentence was true. Blowing went difficult, she did cunnilingus but her heart wasn’t in it. I even discovered that she was circumcised, I haven’t witnessed that in my entire lifetime. She’s continuously busy with toilet paper / kitchen roll to clean away each little spot, because according to her own word she is very keen on hygiene. You understand it already… I phoned for [having] half an hour [of sex], and after 25 minutes we were finally fucking. At least… When the top of my junior disappeared into her, she pushed me away. Afraid that I would thrust deeper. And above all, the time was almost running out, and she did point that out to me, so what was left was the handcart [he means masturbating himself]. Well, I could better have saved that € 80, -. What a mockery was that.
I pointed out to her everything what was in the advertisement, and what we didn’t do. She said to me that she rented the room [peeskamer], and that she had to hand over half of her money to the man who placed the advertisement. According to her he just put about everything in the advertisement, what she didn’t want herself. So you are being ripped off before you make an appointment. So he was just her pimp.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=62604
Maastricht, Nancy (19 years old, Belgian)
May 13th 2006, 10:52
I finally thought to have found a nice little address in Maastricht to relax after my work, so I called to a horny little schoolgirl according to the websites who still studies. She called herself Nancy 19 years. But what turned out while making the appointment?
To my surprise it was the same lady with whom I had a lesser experience last year.
She is the same person as HETE KELLY from Maastricht. EVA AND KELLY had the same IP address then in Maastricht.
Kelly was also discussed on hookers about the story that she supposedly was only 16 years old.
August 18th 2008, 11:51
Once made an appointment as a result of an advertisement on the internet.
Made a appointment via telephone after which a true espionage scenario is ran through. Arranging on a parking lot in the neighbourhood, driving behind the agreed car. Arriving at the apparent complex but walked behind the lady and the companion (also advertises as dark pamper). Only after being inside you are addressed by the companion. The match takes place in an empty room where an unmade mattress lies. A scary fuck-shed [peeshok]. The girl works herself silently and dutifully through the whole affair.
On the whole I got a very nasty feeling. Everybody should know for himself, but if I do it myself, it is nicer and it costs nothing. Furthermore I don’t know what I should think about the motivation of the lady and the role which her “protector” plays in this.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=143011
Rotterdam, Tina (18-21 years old, Thailand)
January 6th 2008, 16:09
Tina is an Asian girl, who receives in Rotterdam. Advertisement is on Kinky almost daily. Made an appointment last Saturday. 1 hour with blowjob without [condom] for € 120,=.
She didn’t really make a spontaneous impression and the fondling and blowing was very dutifully (not out of free will?).
I wasn’t allowed to play with her pussy, later on it turned out why.
Then put a condom on and fuck. Again very dutifully with standard soft moaning sounds. When I wanted to change position she actually didn’t want it. What turned out when I removed my dick from it: she had her period.
I immediately stopped and had my condom removed.
With great difficulty got my 50 euro back, because I had been inside half an hour anyway and she gave me a blowjob.
In my opinion a girl to never go to again!!
January 7th 2008, 11:42
Here idem ditto.
DON”T GO THEEEEERE!!
On the phone you get a spontaneous lady, once there a small puny Thai girl who looks as if she just got up and without announcement a strange guy suddenly stands before her door. I neeeeever taaake a Thai girl again (I thought lets try something else), rather give me the Latinas and Brasileras and other Southern American chicas.
It had never experienced this; almost wanted to slam her awake. Pulled my dick out (first thrusted hardly and deeply a couple of times, ha ha that hurt) and then just stopped.
Weird shit that Lisa.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=125078
Amsterdam, Vicky (22-25 years old, Kenia)
December 6th 2007, 20:07
Went to this girl, learn from this!
First called to the ‘owner’ of this girl, could make an appointment and come by during the afternoon. A complete bull-story about that he had to call her etc. etc. if she was home etc. etc.
At arrival in the street made contact again with Ali the Pimp. Was piloted to a house but unfortunately for Ali I was there a bit quicker than he thought. The result was that I could hear the doorbell ring through the telephone: MISTER THE PIMP IS PRESENT IN THE BUILDING. I wish I had gone back immediately.
Vicky eventually opened the door and brought me to a room. After handing over the money she left the room to hand in her money to Ali the Pimp.
Once back this girl takes no initiative whatsoever and according to me she does it more out of fear for the aliens police ánd Ali than for something else.
After locking the door at my request the light couldn’t go on because of lack of curtains. The sad thing is that Ali removes the towel here from the couch in the evening and watches TV.
So in the dark trying to fuck this lady but the condom was rather rough. After request for lubricant the lady comes no further than a bottle of generic-brand bodylotion.
After having been indoors for a quarter of an hour squirted my semen and put my clothes on. The rest of the hour didn’t matter for me anymore. To make matters worse there was no washing facility for the lady or bin for the condoms. I was allowed to use one of the last generic-brand lotion tissues which she also uses to wipe off her vagina….. also good stuff to wrap in your condom and lay it on the table.
This African lady receives in African circumstances, is probably also true for her colleague Joyce.
January 24th 2009, 10:53
Lady comes from Kenia.
Clearly has a pimp.
Actually works under the negotiable price.
Has an extensive service packet.
All risk factors which point to not doing this work voluntarily.
The question is how much you help her by not visiting her.
With too little clientele the ladies are sold on and eventually end up in very disgusting circuits.
She works, or advertises at least, sometimes not for a while and then resurfaces again.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=193967
Rotterdam, Naomi (18-21 years old, Surinamese)
December 2nd 2008, 16:48
Rotterdam knows many hidden talents.. While last week I discovered in [Rotterdam] Zuid a pretty Moroccan young, pretty and sexy girl, this time I brought a visit to the Surinamese Naomi on the Noordereiland. I saw her advertisement on Kinky and the photos appealed to me. I phoned her somewhat earlier already, but during the day she is mostly not available, because she is still going to school. Now I was lucky. She had just arrived and she was freshening herself up. At arrival my breath faltered back in my throat. If I had glasses, I most certainly would have cleaned my glasses. A dark-haired young beauty where no man can withstand. After payment to her housemate, who withdrew discretely, she began to French kiss me immediately.
January 10th, 2009, 08:40
Hi,
Also visited this girl once last month.
Yes it really is a (black) beauty but if she does this work out of full conviction remains the question to me.
She receives at her “boyfriend” his place, nice guy who withdrew discretely after payment. Earlier this “boyfriend” had another dark girl working for him he told me. I believe from Capelle [aan de IJssel].
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=63843
Apeldoorn, Linda (29 years old, Dutch)
September 6th 2006, 00:01
She now indeed does carsex and open-air sex, but also comes on escort she informed me through the telephone.
Agreed to do an hour, 80 euro all in. On the agreed time she arrived at my home, but she had brought her boyfriend or such with her for safety she said, but alright, she knows me from prive2000 and knows I’m not a strange guy.
A very asocial young man of (I think) Antillean descent (dark) who started to scream that I had to pay in advance, only then he would go away. I paid quickly and went with Georgina to my bedroom, but she wasn’t really very enthusiastic. She made a very nervous impression on me and wanted to leave as quickly as possible, lied there watching on her telephone all the time… She probably didn’t have her day and I’m not used of this from her.
September 7th 2006, 01:10
When I called her I got her (foreign) boyfriend on the line who threatened me with death if I didn’t leave his girlfriend alone now.
September 18th 2006, 11:46
I still find her a nice girl, but that boyfriend is a pity indeed, I also got to see a photo of him and their little child.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=196246
Utrecht, Jenny (21 years old, Dutch)
January 14th 2009, 11:06
Yesterday went to Jenny for an hour. Nice girl of 21 years. Receives on the edge of the inner city in Utrecht.
After entry Jenny was pretty stoned, but still a very nice girl. Beautiful body. After a drink went to the bedroom. It was cold there because there was no heating. But ah, keeping each other warm then. Started to finger her while she laid passively on the bed.
She only started to do something when I asked if she wanted to give me a blowjob. After putting on a condom she did that.
Then fucking and after fucking she stood up and started to blow dope……..
Yesterday the price was still 200 euro, but now it dropped to 150 euro per hour. It can go quickly.
Conclusion: beautiful sociable girl, but clearly does it only for the money. No initiative, no enthusiasm.. she has a tattoo of her boyfriend on her body and got almost the impression that she’s especially doing it for him.. But I can’t proof that…
Concerning the home workers, I often noticed that when the client made a call to the advertised number, the boyfriend or husband took up the phone. Also some of the boyfriends or husbands open the door and are present in the house while the prostitutes receives her client. Sometimes the man in the house joins in (some couples also offer their service together). One woman received at her brother’s place. Clients also notice that there are sleeping children in the bedrooms.
I don’t know if many of these boyfriends or husbands also force or manipulate the women to do this work. You rarely hear about it in media about this form of prostitution (I bring into mind that the women are many times older than thirty). But on the other hand, it could be. But the men didn’t seem to do anything bad.
I often see the clients complain about the messy interiors of some of the prostitutes’ houses, but this doesn’t happen most of the time. Some women seemed to be on drugs, also while they received clients.
Some prostitutes receive with other prostitutes in their own house. These seem more like illegal brothels.
Many prostitutes advertise that they can be filmed or photographed. Some clients indeed do this, for their own personal use (I wonder if they also put these films on the internet).
Sometimes clients complain that the girl who comes by is not the girl in the advertisement.
Sometimes escorts and home prostitutes seemed to be forced. In some cases the clients has a strange feeling about it, but cannot tell why. For instance, an Eastern European prostitute who receives in a demolition neighbourhood ( this link ), or the porn actress Angelika Black who constantly talks to client about her boyfriend, the client therefore believes that she works for him (this link, she work for Zuzana escort as Elena).
I will quote the cases where I believe the situation is more is less clear (translated from Dutch into English):
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=189073
Tilburg, Esmiralda (26-29 years old, African)
25 August 2008, 17:02
On kinky and sexjobs there’s and advertisement of a halfblood (?) in the midst of her twenties. She’s supposedly named Esmeralda, and [she] loves several things. Giving blowjobs, gangbang, cumming over belly or face, all no problem according to the advertisement, but appearances are deceptive.
Last week I went to her place. It is a sweet girl with a beautiful body, but of what was in the advertisement, not half a sentence was true. Blowing went difficult, she did cunnilingus but her heart wasn’t in it. I even discovered that she was circumcised, I haven’t witnessed that in my entire lifetime. She’s continuously busy with toilet paper / kitchen roll to clean away each little spot, because according to her own word she is very keen on hygiene. You understand it already… I phoned for [having] half an hour [of sex], and after 25 minutes we were finally fucking. At least… When the top of my junior disappeared into her, she pushed me away. Afraid that I would thrust deeper. And above all, the time was almost running out, and she did point that out to me, so what was left was the handcart [he means masturbating himself]. Well, I could better have saved that € 80, -. What a mockery was that.
I pointed out to her everything what was in the advertisement, and what we didn’t do. She said to me that she rented the room [peeskamer], and that she had to hand over half of her money to the man who placed the advertisement. According to her he just put about everything in the advertisement, what she didn’t want herself. So you are being ripped off before you make an appointment. So he was just her pimp.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=62604
Maastricht, Nancy (19 years old, Belgian)
May 13th 2006, 10:52
I finally thought to have found a nice little address in Maastricht to relax after my work, so I called to a horny little schoolgirl according to the websites who still studies. She called herself Nancy 19 years. But what turned out while making the appointment?
To my surprise it was the same lady with whom I had a lesser experience last year.
She is the same person as HETE KELLY from Maastricht. EVA AND KELLY had the same IP address then in Maastricht.
Kelly was also discussed on hookers about the story that she supposedly was only 16 years old.
August 18th 2008, 11:51
Once made an appointment as a result of an advertisement on the internet.
Made a appointment via telephone after which a true espionage scenario is ran through. Arranging on a parking lot in the neighbourhood, driving behind the agreed car. Arriving at the apparent complex but walked behind the lady and the companion (also advertises as dark pamper). Only after being inside you are addressed by the companion. The match takes place in an empty room where an unmade mattress lies. A scary fuck-shed [peeshok]. The girl works herself silently and dutifully through the whole affair.
On the whole I got a very nasty feeling. Everybody should know for himself, but if I do it myself, it is nicer and it costs nothing. Furthermore I don’t know what I should think about the motivation of the lady and the role which her “protector” plays in this.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=143011
Rotterdam, Tina (18-21 years old, Thailand)
January 6th 2008, 16:09
Tina is an Asian girl, who receives in Rotterdam. Advertisement is on Kinky almost daily. Made an appointment last Saturday. 1 hour with blowjob without [condom] for € 120,=.
She didn’t really make a spontaneous impression and the fondling and blowing was very dutifully (not out of free will?).
I wasn’t allowed to play with her pussy, later on it turned out why.
Then put a condom on and fuck. Again very dutifully with standard soft moaning sounds. When I wanted to change position she actually didn’t want it. What turned out when I removed my dick from it: she had her period.
I immediately stopped and had my condom removed.
With great difficulty got my 50 euro back, because I had been inside half an hour anyway and she gave me a blowjob.
In my opinion a girl to never go to again!!
January 7th 2008, 11:42
Here idem ditto.
DON”T GO THEEEEERE!!
On the phone you get a spontaneous lady, once there a small puny Thai girl who looks as if she just got up and without announcement a strange guy suddenly stands before her door. I neeeeever taaake a Thai girl again (I thought lets try something else), rather give me the Latinas and Brasileras and other Southern American chicas.
It had never experienced this; almost wanted to slam her awake. Pulled my dick out (first thrusted hardly and deeply a couple of times, ha ha that hurt) and then just stopped.
Weird shit that Lisa.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=125078
Amsterdam, Vicky (22-25 years old, Kenia)
December 6th 2007, 20:07
Went to this girl, learn from this!
First called to the ‘owner’ of this girl, could make an appointment and come by during the afternoon. A complete bull-story about that he had to call her etc. etc. if she was home etc. etc.
At arrival in the street made contact again with Ali the Pimp. Was piloted to a house but unfortunately for Ali I was there a bit quicker than he thought. The result was that I could hear the doorbell ring through the telephone: MISTER THE PIMP IS PRESENT IN THE BUILDING. I wish I had gone back immediately.
Vicky eventually opened the door and brought me to a room. After handing over the money she left the room to hand in her money to Ali the Pimp.
Once back this girl takes no initiative whatsoever and according to me she does it more out of fear for the aliens police ánd Ali than for something else.
After locking the door at my request the light couldn’t go on because of lack of curtains. The sad thing is that Ali removes the towel here from the couch in the evening and watches TV.
So in the dark trying to fuck this lady but the condom was rather rough. After request for lubricant the lady comes no further than a bottle of generic-brand bodylotion.
After having been indoors for a quarter of an hour squirted my semen and put my clothes on. The rest of the hour didn’t matter for me anymore. To make matters worse there was no washing facility for the lady or bin for the condoms. I was allowed to use one of the last generic-brand lotion tissues which she also uses to wipe off her vagina….. also good stuff to wrap in your condom and lay it on the table.
This African lady receives in African circumstances, is probably also true for her colleague Joyce.
January 24th 2009, 10:53
Lady comes from Kenia.
Clearly has a pimp.
Actually works under the negotiable price.
Has an extensive service packet.
All risk factors which point to not doing this work voluntarily.
The question is how much you help her by not visiting her.
With too little clientele the ladies are sold on and eventually end up in very disgusting circuits.
She works, or advertises at least, sometimes not for a while and then resurfaces again.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=193967
Rotterdam, Naomi (18-21 years old, Surinamese)
December 2nd 2008, 16:48
Rotterdam knows many hidden talents.. While last week I discovered in [Rotterdam] Zuid a pretty Moroccan young, pretty and sexy girl, this time I brought a visit to the Surinamese Naomi on the Noordereiland. I saw her advertisement on Kinky and the photos appealed to me. I phoned her somewhat earlier already, but during the day she is mostly not available, because she is still going to school. Now I was lucky. She had just arrived and she was freshening herself up. At arrival my breath faltered back in my throat. If I had glasses, I most certainly would have cleaned my glasses. A dark-haired young beauty where no man can withstand. After payment to her housemate, who withdrew discretely, she began to French kiss me immediately.
January 10th, 2009, 08:40
Hi,
Also visited this girl once last month.
Yes it really is a (black) beauty but if she does this work out of full conviction remains the question to me.
She receives at her “boyfriend” his place, nice guy who withdrew discretely after payment. Earlier this “boyfriend” had another dark girl working for him he told me. I believe from Capelle [aan de IJssel].
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=63843
Apeldoorn, Linda (29 years old, Dutch)
September 6th 2006, 00:01
She now indeed does carsex and open-air sex, but also comes on escort she informed me through the telephone.
Agreed to do an hour, 80 euro all in. On the agreed time she arrived at my home, but she had brought her boyfriend or such with her for safety she said, but alright, she knows me from prive2000 and knows I’m not a strange guy.
A very asocial young man of (I think) Antillean descent (dark) who started to scream that I had to pay in advance, only then he would go away. I paid quickly and went with Georgina to my bedroom, but she wasn’t really very enthusiastic. She made a very nervous impression on me and wanted to leave as quickly as possible, lied there watching on her telephone all the time… She probably didn’t have her day and I’m not used of this from her.
September 7th 2006, 01:10
When I called her I got her (foreign) boyfriend on the line who threatened me with death if I didn’t leave his girlfriend alone now.
September 18th 2006, 11:46
I still find her a nice girl, but that boyfriend is a pity indeed, I also got to see a photo of him and their little child.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=196246
Utrecht, Jenny (21 years old, Dutch)
January 14th 2009, 11:06
Yesterday went to Jenny for an hour. Nice girl of 21 years. Receives on the edge of the inner city in Utrecht.
After entry Jenny was pretty stoned, but still a very nice girl. Beautiful body. After a drink went to the bedroom. It was cold there because there was no heating. But ah, keeping each other warm then. Started to finger her while she laid passively on the bed.
She only started to do something when I asked if she wanted to give me a blowjob. After putting on a condom she did that.
Then fucking and after fucking she stood up and started to blow dope……..
Yesterday the price was still 200 euro, but now it dropped to 150 euro per hour. It can go quickly.
Conclusion: beautiful sociable girl, but clearly does it only for the money. No initiative, no enthusiasm.. she has a tattoo of her boyfriend on her body and got almost the impression that she’s especially doing it for him.. But I can’t proof that…
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Escort prostitutes 2005
Flashback to my hookers count of escort prostitutes in 2005, to make some comparisons with 2008 (look at that link for more information).
Groups:
26,540%: Eastern European (of 23,214% a nationality is known)
8,057%: No Group (0,000%)
45,498%: Dutch (100,000%)
7,109%: Asian (80,000%)
6,635%: Latina (80,000%)
4,265%: Southern European (22,222%)
1,422%: Western European (100,000%)
0,474%: Nothern African (100,000%)
Of 130 of 211 prostitutes a nationality is known:
96 (49,485%): The Netherlands
5 (11,102%): Poland
3 (6,661%): Hungary
8 (5,155%): Thailand
2 (4,811%): Brazil
2 (4,639%): Italy
2 (4,441%): Romania
1 (2,405%): Surinam
1 (2,220%): Czech Republic
1 (2,220%): Russia
1 (2,220%): Bulgaria
1 (0,644%): Indonesia
1 (0,644%): China
1 (0,644%): Philippines
1 (0,644%): Taiwan
1 (0,515%): Morocco
1 (0,515%): Belgium
1 (0,515%): France
1 (0,515%): Australia
Of 59 escort prostitutes who named an age (+ some estimates):
average: 24,322 years (SD=7,394)
younger than 18: 5,085% (they looked that way)
18-23: 54,237%
24-29: 25,424%
30-39: 8,475%
40 or older: 6,780%
Of 23 Eastern European escort prostitutes who named an age (+ some estimates):
average: 21,304 (SD=4,172)
younger than 18: 8,696% (looked that way)
18-23: 69,565%
24-29: 17,391%
30-39: 4,348%
40 or older: 0,000%
Of 23 Dutch escort prostitutes who named an age (+ some estimates):
average: 26,391 years (SD=8,521)
younger than 18: 4,348% (looked that way)
18-23: 43,478%
24-29: 30,435%
30-39: 8,696%
40 or older: 13,043%
Groups:
26,540%: Eastern European (of 23,214% a nationality is known)
8,057%: No Group (0,000%)
45,498%: Dutch (100,000%)
7,109%: Asian (80,000%)
6,635%: Latina (80,000%)
4,265%: Southern European (22,222%)
1,422%: Western European (100,000%)
0,474%: Nothern African (100,000%)
Of 130 of 211 prostitutes a nationality is known:
96 (49,485%): The Netherlands
5 (11,102%): Poland
3 (6,661%): Hungary
8 (5,155%): Thailand
2 (4,811%): Brazil
2 (4,639%): Italy
2 (4,441%): Romania
1 (2,405%): Surinam
1 (2,220%): Czech Republic
1 (2,220%): Russia
1 (2,220%): Bulgaria
1 (0,644%): Indonesia
1 (0,644%): China
1 (0,644%): Philippines
1 (0,644%): Taiwan
1 (0,515%): Morocco
1 (0,515%): Belgium
1 (0,515%): France
1 (0,515%): Australia
Of 59 escort prostitutes who named an age (+ some estimates):
average: 24,322 years (SD=7,394)
younger than 18: 5,085% (they looked that way)
18-23: 54,237%
24-29: 25,424%
30-39: 8,475%
40 or older: 6,780%
Of 23 Eastern European escort prostitutes who named an age (+ some estimates):
average: 21,304 (SD=4,172)
younger than 18: 8,696% (looked that way)
18-23: 69,565%
24-29: 17,391%
30-39: 4,348%
40 or older: 0,000%
Of 23 Dutch escort prostitutes who named an age (+ some estimates):
average: 26,391 years (SD=8,521)
younger than 18: 4,348% (looked that way)
18-23: 43,478%
24-29: 30,435%
30-39: 8,696%
40 or older: 13,043%
Home workers 2005
Flashback, my hookers-count in 2005. To make some comparisons with 2008 (see for further explanations the link I mentioned).
Home prostitution 2005 (and some earlier years)
5,250%: Eastern European (of 42,857% a nationality is known)
7,250%: No Group (0,000%)
71,500%: Dutch (100%)
6,500%: Latina (69,231%)
2,750%: Soutern European (0,000%)
2,500%: Asian (70,000%)
2,250%: Western countries (100,000%)
2,000%: African (25,000%)
Of 331 of 400 prostitutes a nationality was named:
286 (79,444%): The Netherlands
11 (4,414%): Surinam
5 (2,006%): Brazil
7 (1,944%): Belgium
3 (1,944%): Poland
4 (1,587%): Thailand
1 (1,111%): Ghana
1 (1,111%): Sierra Leone
2 (0,794%): Indonesia
1 (0,648%): Slovakia
1 (0,648%): Czech Republic
1 (0,648%): Russia
1 (0,648%): Romania
1 (0,648%): Bulgaria
1 (0,648%): Lithuania
1 (0,401%): Netherlands Antilles
1 (0,401%): Dominican Republic
1 (0,397%): India (Hindustani?)
1 (0,278%): Germany
1 (0,278%): France
Ages mentioned by 91 home working prostitutes (+ some estimates):
Average: 34,143 years (SD=12,477)
18-23: 23,077%
24-29: 19,780%
30-39: 26,374%
40 or older: 30,769%
Ages mentioned by 58 Dutch home working prostitutes (+ some estimates):
Average: 35,483 years (SD=13,779)
18-23: 24,138%
24-29: 15,517%
30-39: 25,862%
40 or older: 34,483%
Home prostitution 2005 (and some earlier years)
5,250%: Eastern European (of 42,857% a nationality is known)
7,250%: No Group (0,000%)
71,500%: Dutch (100%)
6,500%: Latina (69,231%)
2,750%: Soutern European (0,000%)
2,500%: Asian (70,000%)
2,250%: Western countries (100,000%)
2,000%: African (25,000%)
Of 331 of 400 prostitutes a nationality was named:
286 (79,444%): The Netherlands
11 (4,414%): Surinam
5 (2,006%): Brazil
7 (1,944%): Belgium
3 (1,944%): Poland
4 (1,587%): Thailand
1 (1,111%): Ghana
1 (1,111%): Sierra Leone
2 (0,794%): Indonesia
1 (0,648%): Slovakia
1 (0,648%): Czech Republic
1 (0,648%): Russia
1 (0,648%): Romania
1 (0,648%): Bulgaria
1 (0,648%): Lithuania
1 (0,401%): Netherlands Antilles
1 (0,401%): Dominican Republic
1 (0,397%): India (Hindustani?)
1 (0,278%): Germany
1 (0,278%): France
Ages mentioned by 91 home working prostitutes (+ some estimates):
Average: 34,143 years (SD=12,477)
18-23: 23,077%
24-29: 19,780%
30-39: 26,374%
40 or older: 30,769%
Ages mentioned by 58 Dutch home working prostitutes (+ some estimates):
Average: 35,483 years (SD=13,779)
18-23: 24,138%
24-29: 15,517%
30-39: 25,862%
40 or older: 34,483%
Forced prostitution in Groningen
I wanted to draw attention again to an (somewhat old article) in De Pers: "Toename vrouwenhandel in Groningen" (December 30th 2008) [Increase of women trafficking in Groningen] . You can read about an earlier post on my blog about this issue over here.
It's about forced prostitution often of Bulgarian women. Police chief Oscar Dros said that (originally in Dutch):
"The causes of the perpetrator and victim role must be made more clear. We notice now for example that victims sometimes don't realize that it's unacceptable what is happening to them. Some girls respond with surprise that the police makes such a point about their situation. Then you really have to explain that it is modern slavery what is happening to them."
It's about forced prostitution often of Bulgarian women. Police chief Oscar Dros said that (originally in Dutch):
"The causes of the perpetrator and victim role must be made more clear. We notice now for example that victims sometimes don't realize that it's unacceptable what is happening to them. Some girls respond with surprise that the police makes such a point about their situation. Then you really have to explain that it is modern slavery what is happening to them."
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Extra analyses
Some extra analyses of my hookers.nl count. This time I will analyze all prostitutes. So I will also analyze really old data. The total number of prostitutes counted was 5033.
I noticed that older prostitutes more often engage into unsafe or dangerous sex than the younger ones. I wanted to do some more precise analyses. Many prostitutes didn't say their age to clients, but a large majority of the reviewed prostitutes have an estimate mentioned in the review forms. These are in four year increments, such as 18-21, 22-25, 26-29 ...... 46-49 and then 50 or older. I calculated numbers for each age group (when no age group is filled in, I will use other sources), and then you can see a really clear trend.
Using the age groups is obviously not reliable, but the ages mentioned by prostitutes aren't reliable either, so it doesn't matter. And this way the samples become really large (you know the law about the big numbers).
First I will look at the average number of review forms filled in per prostitute categorized by age group. Not all clients fill in a review form, but it would be too time consuming to count all reviews. At the top of the review page there is a summary with all the information in the review forms, I used that summary, it would be crazy to go through each review-form.
Average number of reviews per prostitute of a total of 4734 prostitutes:
total: 3,552 review forms per prostitute (N=4734, not all had a review form)
-----------------------------
18-21: 2,467 review forms per prostitute (N=735)
22-25: 3,088 review forms per prostitute (N=1326)
26-29: 4,174 review forms per prostitute (N=1028)
30-33: 3,989 review forms per prostitute (N=544)
34-37: 3,552 review forms per prostitute (N=446)
38-41: 3,912 review forms per prostitute (N=307)
42-45: 4,198 review forms per prostitute (N=192)
46-49: 5,875 review forms per prostitute (N=88)
50-..: 4,941 review forms per prostitute (N=68)
I will give these numbers because it could be that when prostitutes are reviewed more often, more unsafe sex is noticed (that turns out te be the case if you analyze that too). Notice also that older prostitutes don't seem to be less popular, the prostitutes 46 years or older seem to be the most popular. The youngest group of prostitutes seems to be the least popular. On the other hand, you also have to look at the periods during which the prostitutes have been observed by the clients. I will give another list which gives the average of the lengths of the period (in years) during which the women were observed, and also the average number of reviews divided by the average period:
18-22: during 0,412 years (5,984 reviews/year)
22-26: during 0,707 years (4,367 reviews/year)
26-30: during 1,170 years (3,569 reviews/year)
30-34: during 1,303 years (3,062 reviews/year)
34-38: during 1,269 years (2,798 reviews/year)
38-42: during 1,566 years (2,499 reviews/year)
42-46: during 1,755 years (2,393 reviews/year)
46-50: during 2,172 years (2,705 reviews/year)
50-..: during 2,080 years (2,375 reviews/year)
In that case you will notice that the younger prostitutes are indeed more popular. But comparing the age groups of 34 years and older with each other the differences are not that big.
Now unsafe sex. Notice that the older the prostitutes the more often they engage into this.
age 18-23 years (N=761):
23,784%: blowjob without condom
38,896%: kissing
45,729%: Cunnilingus
7,096%: anal with condom
0,131%: anal without condom
5,782%: rimming (buttlicking)
4,993%: facial
1,314%: coitus without condom
age 22-25 years (N=1348):
25,890%: blowjob without condom
40,282%: kissing
47,997%: Cunnilingus
7,641%: anal with condom
0,223%: anal without condom
6,899%: rimming (buttlicking)
6,602%: facial
1,484%: coitus without condom
age 26-29 years (N=1053):
23,457%: blowjob without condom
46,534%: kissing
54,036%: Cunnilingus
10,066%: anal with condom
0,950%: anal without condom
11,871%: rimming (buttlicking)
6,743%: facial
1,425%: coitus without condom
age 30-33 years (N=556):
29,137%: blowjob without condom
52,698%: kissing
56,835%: Cunnilingus
10,612%: anal with condom
1,439%: anal without condom
13,309%: rimming (buttlicking)
7,194%: facial
2,878%: coitus without condom
age 34-37 years (N=455):
35,385%: blowjob without condom
60,879%: kissing
57,363%: Cunnilingus
11,209%: anal with condom
1,758%: anal without condom
11,209%: rimming (buttlicking)
8,352%: facial
2,857%: coitus without condom
age 38-41 years (N=314):
44,904%: blowjob without condom
63,376%: kissing
68,153%: Cunnilingus
14,331%: anal with condom
1,274%: anal without condom
16,879%: rimming (buttlicking)
12,739%: facial
6,369%: coitus without condom
age 42-45 years (N=195):
52,821%: blowjob without condom
65,641%: kissing
67,179%: Cunnilingus
17,436%: anal with condom
4,615%: anal without condom
14,872%: rimming (buttlicking)
12,308%: facial
14,872%: coitus without condom
age 46-49 years (N=90):
56,667%: blowjob without condom
74,444%: kissing
73,333%: Cunnilingus
17,778%: anal with condom
6,667%: anal without condom
27,778%: rimming (buttlicking)
17,778%: facial
15,556%: coitus without condom
age 50 years or older (N=71)
71,831%: blowjob without condom
76,056%: kissing
66,197%: Cunnilingus
25,352%: anal with condom
5,634%: anal without condom
22,535%: rimming (buttlicking)
14,085%: facial
29,577%: coitus without condom
-------------------------------------
The next thing I will do is to give the grand total (N=5033):
29,386%: blowjob without condom
47,844%: kissing
52,951%: Cunnilingus
9,875%: anal with condom
1,053%: anal without condom
10,252%: rimming (buttlicking)
7,371%: facial
3,159%: coitus without condom
And, as a gimmick, I'll show only the result where prostitutes had only one review-form filled in. This way you could make a rough estimate of how often (percent of the visits) the prostitutes who perform unsafe sex actually do this. This is not totally reliable, because I also included the cases where prostitutes offered these kinds of sex, but where the clients didn't use this service (but this doesn't happen too often). And, of many others it simply is not known if they do it. But I will show the results of these calculations anyway, probably the estimates are too high.
TOTAL (ONLY ONE REVIEW, N=2276)
22,276%: blowjob without condom (76% of the visits???)
37,127%: kissing (78% of the visits???)
39,938%: Cunnilingus (75% of the visits???)
5,141%: anal with condom (52% of the visits???)
0,220%: anal without condom (21% of the visits???)
4,174%: rimming (buttlicking) (41% of the visits???)
4,262%: facial (58% of the visits???)
1,054%: coitus without condom (33% of the visits???)
Funny thing is, that I previously didn't really notice that older prostitutes more often do unsafe sex. The statistics don't give a reason why, but I think it must be because older prostitutes have to offer other things to attract clients instead of their beauty. My earlier opinion was that if you want to avoid victims of forced prostitution you'd better visit older prostitutes, because they aren't very interesting to pimps. But this new data makes me wonder; perhaps that older prostitutes less often have problems with pimps, but get something else in its place instead. But perhaps they are just more open-minded.
I noticed that older prostitutes more often engage into unsafe or dangerous sex than the younger ones. I wanted to do some more precise analyses. Many prostitutes didn't say their age to clients, but a large majority of the reviewed prostitutes have an estimate mentioned in the review forms. These are in four year increments, such as 18-21, 22-25, 26-29 ...... 46-49 and then 50 or older. I calculated numbers for each age group (when no age group is filled in, I will use other sources), and then you can see a really clear trend.
Using the age groups is obviously not reliable, but the ages mentioned by prostitutes aren't reliable either, so it doesn't matter. And this way the samples become really large (you know the law about the big numbers).
First I will look at the average number of review forms filled in per prostitute categorized by age group. Not all clients fill in a review form, but it would be too time consuming to count all reviews. At the top of the review page there is a summary with all the information in the review forms, I used that summary, it would be crazy to go through each review-form.
Average number of reviews per prostitute of a total of 4734 prostitutes:
total: 3,552 review forms per prostitute (N=4734, not all had a review form)
-----------------------------
18-21: 2,467 review forms per prostitute (N=735)
22-25: 3,088 review forms per prostitute (N=1326)
26-29: 4,174 review forms per prostitute (N=1028)
30-33: 3,989 review forms per prostitute (N=544)
34-37: 3,552 review forms per prostitute (N=446)
38-41: 3,912 review forms per prostitute (N=307)
42-45: 4,198 review forms per prostitute (N=192)
46-49: 5,875 review forms per prostitute (N=88)
50-..: 4,941 review forms per prostitute (N=68)
I will give these numbers because it could be that when prostitutes are reviewed more often, more unsafe sex is noticed (that turns out te be the case if you analyze that too). Notice also that older prostitutes don't seem to be less popular, the prostitutes 46 years or older seem to be the most popular. The youngest group of prostitutes seems to be the least popular. On the other hand, you also have to look at the periods during which the prostitutes have been observed by the clients. I will give another list which gives the average of the lengths of the period (in years) during which the women were observed, and also the average number of reviews divided by the average period:
18-22: during 0,412 years (5,984 reviews/year)
22-26: during 0,707 years (4,367 reviews/year)
26-30: during 1,170 years (3,569 reviews/year)
30-34: during 1,303 years (3,062 reviews/year)
34-38: during 1,269 years (2,798 reviews/year)
38-42: during 1,566 years (2,499 reviews/year)
42-46: during 1,755 years (2,393 reviews/year)
46-50: during 2,172 years (2,705 reviews/year)
50-..: during 2,080 years (2,375 reviews/year)
In that case you will notice that the younger prostitutes are indeed more popular. But comparing the age groups of 34 years and older with each other the differences are not that big.
Now unsafe sex. Notice that the older the prostitutes the more often they engage into this.
age 18-23 years (N=761):
23,784%: blowjob without condom
38,896%: kissing
45,729%: Cunnilingus
7,096%: anal with condom
0,131%: anal without condom
5,782%: rimming (buttlicking)
4,993%: facial
1,314%: coitus without condom
age 22-25 years (N=1348):
25,890%: blowjob without condom
40,282%: kissing
47,997%: Cunnilingus
7,641%: anal with condom
0,223%: anal without condom
6,899%: rimming (buttlicking)
6,602%: facial
1,484%: coitus without condom
age 26-29 years (N=1053):
23,457%: blowjob without condom
46,534%: kissing
54,036%: Cunnilingus
10,066%: anal with condom
0,950%: anal without condom
11,871%: rimming (buttlicking)
6,743%: facial
1,425%: coitus without condom
age 30-33 years (N=556):
29,137%: blowjob without condom
52,698%: kissing
56,835%: Cunnilingus
10,612%: anal with condom
1,439%: anal without condom
13,309%: rimming (buttlicking)
7,194%: facial
2,878%: coitus without condom
age 34-37 years (N=455):
35,385%: blowjob without condom
60,879%: kissing
57,363%: Cunnilingus
11,209%: anal with condom
1,758%: anal without condom
11,209%: rimming (buttlicking)
8,352%: facial
2,857%: coitus without condom
age 38-41 years (N=314):
44,904%: blowjob without condom
63,376%: kissing
68,153%: Cunnilingus
14,331%: anal with condom
1,274%: anal without condom
16,879%: rimming (buttlicking)
12,739%: facial
6,369%: coitus without condom
age 42-45 years (N=195):
52,821%: blowjob without condom
65,641%: kissing
67,179%: Cunnilingus
17,436%: anal with condom
4,615%: anal without condom
14,872%: rimming (buttlicking)
12,308%: facial
14,872%: coitus without condom
age 46-49 years (N=90):
56,667%: blowjob without condom
74,444%: kissing
73,333%: Cunnilingus
17,778%: anal with condom
6,667%: anal without condom
27,778%: rimming (buttlicking)
17,778%: facial
15,556%: coitus without condom
age 50 years or older (N=71)
71,831%: blowjob without condom
76,056%: kissing
66,197%: Cunnilingus
25,352%: anal with condom
5,634%: anal without condom
22,535%: rimming (buttlicking)
14,085%: facial
29,577%: coitus without condom
-------------------------------------
The next thing I will do is to give the grand total (N=5033):
29,386%: blowjob without condom
47,844%: kissing
52,951%: Cunnilingus
9,875%: anal with condom
1,053%: anal without condom
10,252%: rimming (buttlicking)
7,371%: facial
3,159%: coitus without condom
And, as a gimmick, I'll show only the result where prostitutes had only one review-form filled in. This way you could make a rough estimate of how often (percent of the visits) the prostitutes who perform unsafe sex actually do this. This is not totally reliable, because I also included the cases where prostitutes offered these kinds of sex, but where the clients didn't use this service (but this doesn't happen too often). And, of many others it simply is not known if they do it. But I will show the results of these calculations anyway, probably the estimates are too high.
TOTAL (ONLY ONE REVIEW, N=2276)
22,276%: blowjob without condom (76% of the visits???)
37,127%: kissing (78% of the visits???)
39,938%: Cunnilingus (75% of the visits???)
5,141%: anal with condom (52% of the visits???)
0,220%: anal without condom (21% of the visits???)
4,174%: rimming (buttlicking) (41% of the visits???)
4,262%: facial (58% of the visits???)
1,054%: coitus without condom (33% of the visits???)
Funny thing is, that I previously didn't really notice that older prostitutes more often do unsafe sex. The statistics don't give a reason why, but I think it must be because older prostitutes have to offer other things to attract clients instead of their beauty. My earlier opinion was that if you want to avoid victims of forced prostitution you'd better visit older prostitutes, because they aren't very interesting to pimps. But this new data makes me wonder; perhaps that older prostitutes less often have problems with pimps, but get something else in its place instead. But perhaps they are just more open-minded.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Zuzana
Talking about Zuzana: I just received the news that three recruiters for the agencies Zuzana, hotelbabes and Hotelgirls have been apprehended who are suspected of recruiting 130 women from the Czech Republic. This case came to light when (February last year) a woman from the Czech Republic fled a house in Rotterdam and then reported to the police. The three recruiters are a 30-year old man from Nieuw-Vennep and a 41-year old man and a 49-old woman from Zelhem. Weekly some 4 to 6 women were put to work in hotels alongside Dutch speedways. The police suspect that the women were paid commission if they recruited other women. Read it all over here:
http://binnenland.nieuws.nl/544461/organisatie_verdacht_van_mensenhandel
And I just got in some other news that also three Hungarian pimps have been caught who forced women from their home country to work in the window prostitution of Alkmaar. The women were forced to hand over thousands of euros per month. The women weren't supposed to get outside or to talk to strangers. The pimps decided how the women were supposed to look. They were supervised continuously. They also had to let know their pimps by SMS how much they earned per client. A 19 year old girl reported to the police. Read it here:
http://www.elsevier.nl/web/Artikel.htm?contentid=221518
Just a coincidence, this is not a newssite anyway.
http://binnenland.nieuws.nl/544461/organisatie_verdacht_van_mensenhandel
And I just got in some other news that also three Hungarian pimps have been caught who forced women from their home country to work in the window prostitution of Alkmaar. The women were forced to hand over thousands of euros per month. The women weren't supposed to get outside or to talk to strangers. The pimps decided how the women were supposed to look. They were supervised continuously. They also had to let know their pimps by SMS how much they earned per client. A 19 year old girl reported to the police. Read it here:
http://www.elsevier.nl/web/Artikel.htm?contentid=221518
Just a coincidence, this is not a newssite anyway.
Escort prostitutes 2008
Now the escort prostitutes who I counted on hookers.nl. This group is dominated by Dutch and Eastern European women.
Eastern European are often advertised on special escort websites like Zuzana.com, angelina-and-friends.eu and hotelgirls.nl (but also other websites of course). All the prostitutes on the websites I mentioned seem to be from the Czech Republic (Prague) and Hungary (Budapest) (according to the websites themselves), but that seems to be very unlikely to me. A couple of clients noticed that some Hungarian prostitutes actually said to be from Russia, and one "Hungarian" girl advertised on this website is the Romanian pornstar Angelika Black. There is also overlap between these websites, prostitutes on one website sometimes also work on the others (perhaps the same organization?). The prostitutes seem to be working in hotel rooms which function as a sort of illegal brothels; because clients also see other prostitutes when they visit these rooms. That is a problem because I counted these women as escorts, but perhaps you could also see them as illegal brothel workers.
Dutch prostitutes are often advertised on websites like kinky.nl, girlsprive.nl and sexplezier.net where prostitutes can advertise for themselves. However, behind these seemingly independent escorts many times an agency seems to be operating.
Actually, many escorts in general seem to be receiving their clients in hotels, also the Dutch prostitutes. I also noticed that some clients take the (Eastern European) escort prostitutes to swingers clubs.
I counted 694 escort prostitutes. To make the data more comparable I only analyzed the 306 escort prostitutes who were observed between the period November the 14th 2007 and November the 14th 2008.
The clients can fill in review forms where they can group the prostitutes into the following subgroups:
34,314%: Eastern European (of whom 49.524% a nationality is known)
40,523%: Dutch (100,000%)
7,843%: No Group (50,000%)
3,922%: different (66,667%)
3,595%: Southern European (45,455%)
2,614%: Surinamese (100%)
2,288%: Latina (42,857%)
1,961%: Thai (100%)
1,961%: "other Asian" (66,667%)
0,654%: German (100%)
0,327%: Chinese (100%)
Of 225 women a nationality is known of a total of 306 (and here again, in the percentages used I assumed that when no nationality is mentioned the group to which a prostitute belongs in the review form has the same characteristics as of those of whom a nationality is named):
130 (44,412%): The Netherlands
25 (16,478%): Czech Republic
15 (9,879%): Hungary
15 (9,775%): Romania
7 (2,288%): Thailand
7 (2,288%): Surinam
3 (2,185%): Brazil
3 (1,810%): Poland
3 (1,471%): Indonesia
2 (1,320%): Russia
2 (1,209%): Spain
2 (0,980%): Netherlands Antilles
1 (0,763%): Dominican Republic
1 (0,719%): Portugal
1 (0,660%): Bulgaria
1 (0,660%): Lituania
1 (0,654%): Morocco
2 (0,654%): Germany
1 (0,490%): Italy
1 (0,490%): Austria
1 (0,490%): Japan
1 (0,327%): "Hindustani"
Among the escorts I didn't often notice prostitutes naming different nationalities to clients. It happens three times:
(2x) Russia = Hungary (where I find Russia the most obvious country of origin, in these cases the prostitutes worked for Zuzana.com)
(1x) Romania = Hungary (this was also at Zuzana.com, the Romanian pornstar Angelika Black works for this agency as a callgirl, location: Budapest, Hungary)
Also among the Dutch escort prostitutes I didn't notice many of foreign descent, only 7 (of 130)
2 Spain
1 Morocco
1 Indonesia
1 Surinam
1 "Hindustani"
1 Asia
Also among escort prostitutes, unsafe sex seems to be the standard.
Of 306 escort prostitutes:
54,575%: Blowjob without condom
74,837%: kissing
67,320%: Cunnilingus
16,993%: anal with condom
0,654%: anal without condom
12,745%: rimming (buttlicking)
20,261%: facial
2,288%: coitus without condom
Of 115 Eastern European escort prostitutes:
52,174%: blowjob without condom
81,739%: kissing
66,957%: Cunnilingus
13,043%: anal with condom
0,000%: anal without condom
11,304%: rimming (buttlicking)
26,087%: facial
0,000%: coitus without condom
Of 17 Latin American escort prostitutes:
58,824%: blowjob without condom
88,235%: kissing
94,118%: Cunnilingus
23,529%: anal with condom
0,000%: anal without condom
17,647%: rimming (buttlicking)
17,647%: facial
5,882%: coitus without condom
Of 130 Dutch escort prostitutes:
62,308%: blowjob without condom
76,154%: kissing
69,231%: Cunnilingus
21,538%: anal with condom
1,538%: anal without condom
15,385%: rimming (buttlicking)
16,923%: facial
4,615%: coitus without condom
Of 234 escort prostitutes younger than 30 (here the age estimates in the review forms are used):
53,846%: blowjob without condom
76,496%: kissing
68,803%: Cunnilingus
17,094%: anal with condom
0,427%: anal without condom
11,538%: rimming (buttlicking)
20,513%: facial
1,709%: coitus without condom
Of 61 escort prostitutes 30 years or older (here the age estimates in the review forms are used):
62,295%: blowjob without condom
77,049%: kissing
68,852%: Cunnilingus
19,672%: anal with condom
1,639%: anal without condom
19,672%: rimming (buttlicking)
22,951%: facial
4,918%: coitus without condom
The escort prostitutes seem to be the youngest of all groups of prostitutes.
Of 157 escort prostitutes who named an age:
average: 25,870 years (SD=6,399)
18-23: 44,586%
24-29: 33,121%
30-39: 18,471%
40 or older: 3,822%
Of 69 Eastern European prostitutes who named an age:
average: 22,820 years (SD=3,165)
18-23: 57,971%
24-29: 39,130%
30-39: 2,899%:
40 or older: 0,000%
Of 8 Latin Amercian prostitutes who named an age:
average: 26,392 years (SD=4,682)
18-23: 25,000%
24-29: 62,500%
30-39: 12,500%
40 or older: 0,000%
Of 69 Dutch prostitutes who named an age:
average: 28,792 years (SD=7,596)
18-23: 33,333%
24-29: 24,638%
30-39: 33,333%
40 or older: 8,696%
The escort prostitutes are more or less as expensive per minute as the window and club workers; around 2 euro per minute. Also among these women you see the phenomenon (as observed among the home workers) that the prostitutes who are reviewed only once are more expensive; that is 2,3 euro per minute. You don't see this among the window and club workers.
The clients stay with the prostitutes for around 85 minutes on average and pay 175 euro on average.
The Eastern European escort prostitutes are more expensive on average, 2,5 euro per minute. The Dutch escorts are cheaper, around 2 euro per minute.
Eastern European are often advertised on special escort websites like Zuzana.com, angelina-and-friends.eu and hotelgirls.nl (but also other websites of course). All the prostitutes on the websites I mentioned seem to be from the Czech Republic (Prague) and Hungary (Budapest) (according to the websites themselves), but that seems to be very unlikely to me. A couple of clients noticed that some Hungarian prostitutes actually said to be from Russia, and one "Hungarian" girl advertised on this website is the Romanian pornstar Angelika Black. There is also overlap between these websites, prostitutes on one website sometimes also work on the others (perhaps the same organization?). The prostitutes seem to be working in hotel rooms which function as a sort of illegal brothels; because clients also see other prostitutes when they visit these rooms. That is a problem because I counted these women as escorts, but perhaps you could also see them as illegal brothel workers.
Dutch prostitutes are often advertised on websites like kinky.nl, girlsprive.nl and sexplezier.net where prostitutes can advertise for themselves. However, behind these seemingly independent escorts many times an agency seems to be operating.
Actually, many escorts in general seem to be receiving their clients in hotels, also the Dutch prostitutes. I also noticed that some clients take the (Eastern European) escort prostitutes to swingers clubs.
I counted 694 escort prostitutes. To make the data more comparable I only analyzed the 306 escort prostitutes who were observed between the period November the 14th 2007 and November the 14th 2008.
The clients can fill in review forms where they can group the prostitutes into the following subgroups:
34,314%: Eastern European (of whom 49.524% a nationality is known)
40,523%: Dutch (100,000%)
7,843%: No Group (50,000%)
3,922%: different (66,667%)
3,595%: Southern European (45,455%)
2,614%: Surinamese (100%)
2,288%: Latina (42,857%)
1,961%: Thai (100%)
1,961%: "other Asian" (66,667%)
0,654%: German (100%)
0,327%: Chinese (100%)
Of 225 women a nationality is known of a total of 306 (and here again, in the percentages used I assumed that when no nationality is mentioned the group to which a prostitute belongs in the review form has the same characteristics as of those of whom a nationality is named):
130 (44,412%): The Netherlands
25 (16,478%): Czech Republic
15 (9,879%): Hungary
15 (9,775%): Romania
7 (2,288%): Thailand
7 (2,288%): Surinam
3 (2,185%): Brazil
3 (1,810%): Poland
3 (1,471%): Indonesia
2 (1,320%): Russia
2 (1,209%): Spain
2 (0,980%): Netherlands Antilles
1 (0,763%): Dominican Republic
1 (0,719%): Portugal
1 (0,660%): Bulgaria
1 (0,660%): Lituania
1 (0,654%): Morocco
2 (0,654%): Germany
1 (0,490%): Italy
1 (0,490%): Austria
1 (0,490%): Japan
1 (0,327%): "Hindustani"
Among the escorts I didn't often notice prostitutes naming different nationalities to clients. It happens three times:
(2x) Russia = Hungary (where I find Russia the most obvious country of origin, in these cases the prostitutes worked for Zuzana.com)
(1x) Romania = Hungary (this was also at Zuzana.com, the Romanian pornstar Angelika Black works for this agency as a callgirl, location: Budapest, Hungary)
Also among the Dutch escort prostitutes I didn't notice many of foreign descent, only 7 (of 130)
2 Spain
1 Morocco
1 Indonesia
1 Surinam
1 "Hindustani"
1 Asia
Also among escort prostitutes, unsafe sex seems to be the standard.
Of 306 escort prostitutes:
54,575%: Blowjob without condom
74,837%: kissing
67,320%: Cunnilingus
16,993%: anal with condom
0,654%: anal without condom
12,745%: rimming (buttlicking)
20,261%: facial
2,288%: coitus without condom
Of 115 Eastern European escort prostitutes:
52,174%: blowjob without condom
81,739%: kissing
66,957%: Cunnilingus
13,043%: anal with condom
0,000%: anal without condom
11,304%: rimming (buttlicking)
26,087%: facial
0,000%: coitus without condom
Of 17 Latin American escort prostitutes:
58,824%: blowjob without condom
88,235%: kissing
94,118%: Cunnilingus
23,529%: anal with condom
0,000%: anal without condom
17,647%: rimming (buttlicking)
17,647%: facial
5,882%: coitus without condom
Of 130 Dutch escort prostitutes:
62,308%: blowjob without condom
76,154%: kissing
69,231%: Cunnilingus
21,538%: anal with condom
1,538%: anal without condom
15,385%: rimming (buttlicking)
16,923%: facial
4,615%: coitus without condom
Of 234 escort prostitutes younger than 30 (here the age estimates in the review forms are used):
53,846%: blowjob without condom
76,496%: kissing
68,803%: Cunnilingus
17,094%: anal with condom
0,427%: anal without condom
11,538%: rimming (buttlicking)
20,513%: facial
1,709%: coitus without condom
Of 61 escort prostitutes 30 years or older (here the age estimates in the review forms are used):
62,295%: blowjob without condom
77,049%: kissing
68,852%: Cunnilingus
19,672%: anal with condom
1,639%: anal without condom
19,672%: rimming (buttlicking)
22,951%: facial
4,918%: coitus without condom
The escort prostitutes seem to be the youngest of all groups of prostitutes.
Of 157 escort prostitutes who named an age:
average: 25,870 years (SD=6,399)
18-23: 44,586%
24-29: 33,121%
30-39: 18,471%
40 or older: 3,822%
Of 69 Eastern European prostitutes who named an age:
average: 22,820 years (SD=3,165)
18-23: 57,971%
24-29: 39,130%
30-39: 2,899%:
40 or older: 0,000%
Of 8 Latin Amercian prostitutes who named an age:
average: 26,392 years (SD=4,682)
18-23: 25,000%
24-29: 62,500%
30-39: 12,500%
40 or older: 0,000%
Of 69 Dutch prostitutes who named an age:
average: 28,792 years (SD=7,596)
18-23: 33,333%
24-29: 24,638%
30-39: 33,333%
40 or older: 8,696%
The escort prostitutes are more or less as expensive per minute as the window and club workers; around 2 euro per minute. Also among these women you see the phenomenon (as observed among the home workers) that the prostitutes who are reviewed only once are more expensive; that is 2,3 euro per minute. You don't see this among the window and club workers.
The clients stay with the prostitutes for around 85 minutes on average and pay 175 euro on average.
The Eastern European escort prostitutes are more expensive on average, 2,5 euro per minute. The Dutch escorts are cheaper, around 2 euro per minute.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Home workers 2008
Now finally the home working prostitutes who are reviewed on hookers.nl. These are the prostitutes who usually advertise on the internet (usually websites such as kinky.nl, privedames.nl, girlsprive.nl, sexplezier.net, etc.....), sometimes they don't advertise but have their own network. They receive clients in their own homes, some also do escort (or also work in clubs etc...). Most of these women are Dutch.
I counted 899 home workers. To make the data more comparable I only analyzed the prostitutes who were observed in the period between November the 14th 2007 and November the 14th 2008; that's 491 women.
The clients can fill in review forms where they can group the prostitutes into the following subgroups:
24 (4,888%): Eastern European (for 70,833% a nationality is named)
360 (73,320%): Dutch (99,722%)
20 (4,073%): no group (20,000%)
20 (4,073%): Surinamese (100%)
16 (3,259%): different (50,000%)
12 (2,444%): Latin American (58,333%)
11 (2,240%): African (45,455%)
8 (1,629%): Southern European (75,000%)
7 (1,426%): German (100,000%)
5 (1,018%): Thai (100,000%)
5 (1,018%): "other Asians" (80,000%)
2 (0,407%): Chinese (100,000%)
1 (0,204%): Belgian (100,000%)
Of 444 (of 491) prostitutes nationalities are named (and here again, in the percentages used I assumed that when no nationality is mentioned the group to which a prostitute belongs in the review form has the same characteristics as of those of whom a nationality is named):
363 (75,416%): The Netherlands
14 (2,851%): Surinam
8 (2,133%): Poland
6 (1,950%): Brazil
3 (1,577%): Bulgaria
6 (1,222%): Germany
4 (1,150%): Hungary
1 (1,018%): Africa
1 (1,018%): Morocco
5 (1,018%): Thailand
2 (0,896%): Kenia
2 (0,896%): India
3 (0,863%): Czech Republic
3 (0,815%): Italy
3 (0,815%): "Hindustani"
3 (0,713%): Indonesia
2 (0,575%): Romania
1 (0,560%): Ghana
1 (0,407%): Denmark
1 (0,407%): Sweden
1 (0,407%): Scotland
1 (0,407%): Austria
2 (0,407%): China
1 (0,407%): Netherlands Antilles
1 (0,407%): "foreign descent"
1 (0,349%): Colombia
1 (0,288%): Turkey
1 (0,272%): Portugal
1 (0,255%): Philippines
1 (0,204%): Lebanon
1 (0,204%): Belgium
1 (0,204%): Sri Lanka
It rarely occured that prostitutes named different nationalities to different clients. Only in three cases (the one on the left I found the most plausible):
Bulgaria = (Hungary)
Bulgaria = (Italy)
Thailand = (Dominican Republic/Portugal)
I also noticed only a few Dutch prostitutes of foreign descent:
only 10 (of 363)
4 Indonesia
1 Morocco
1 Cape Verde
1 "Eastern Europe"
1 Spain
1 "Hindustani"
1 "foreign"
The home workers are the ones of all types of prostitution who engage the most in unsafe forms of sex.
Of 491 home workers:
63,340%: blowjob without condom
72,505%: kissing
76,782%: Cunnilingus
18,126%: anal with condom
2,444%: anal without condom
15,071%: rimming (buttlicking)
19,756%: facial
8,350%: coitus without condom
Of 28 Eastern European home workers:
60,714%: blowjob without condom
75,000%: kissing
89,286%: Cunnilingus
17,857%: anal with condom
0,000%: anal without condom
17,857%: rimming (buttlicking)
7,143%: facial
7,143%: coitus without condom
Of 28 Latin American home workers
60,714%: blowjob without condom
67,857%: kissing
78,571%: Cunnilingus
0,000%: anal with condom
0,000%: anal without condom
3,571%: rimming (buttlicking)
14,286%: facial
3,571%: coitus without condom
Of 363 Dutch home workers
64,187%: blowjob without condom
74,931%: kissing
78,512%: Cunnilingus
19,835%: anal with condom
3,306%: anal without condom
16,253%: rimming (buttlicking)
21,212%: facial
9,642%: coitus without condom
Of 210 home workers younger than 30 (here the age estimates in the review forms are used)
56,667%: blowjob without condom
70,476%: kissing
74,762%: Cunnilingus
18,095%: anal with condom
0,952%: anal without condom
14,286%: rimming (buttlicking)
20,476%: facial
2,857%: coitus without condom
Of 272 home workers 30 years or older (here the age estimates in the review forms are used)
69,118%: blowjob without condom
75,000%: kissing
79,044%: Cunnilingus
18,015%: anal with condom
3,676%: anal without condom
16,176%: rimming (buttlicking)
19,485%: facial
12,868%: coitus without condom
The home workers are often also much older than prostitutes in other types of prostitution. But the ages mentioned are also not reliable, many clients notice that the prostitutes often look 5, 10, 20 years older than they say they are.
Ages mentioned by 253 home working prostitutes:
Average: 33,834 years (SD=10,150)
18-23: 20,553%
24-29: 23,320%
30-39: 28,854%
40 or older: 27,273%
Ages mentioned by 13 Eastern European home working prostitutes:
Average: 29,148 years (SD=7,291)
18-23: 30,769%
24-29: 23,077%
30-39: 38,462%
40 or older: 7,692%
Ages mentioned by 17 Latin American home working prostitutes:
Average: 27,127 years (SD=5,392)
18-23: 35,294%
24-29: 29,412%
30-39: 35,294%
40 or older: 0,000%
Ages mentioned by 193 Dutch home working prostitutes:
Average: 35,587 years (SD=10,380)
18-23: 17,098%
24-29: 21,762%
30-39: 26,425%
40 or older: 34,715%
The homeworkers cost less per minute than window and club prostitutes, some 1,7 euro per minute on average compared to 2,0 for window and club prostitutes. What's funny is that the home workers who receive the least number of reviews are more expensive than the ones who receive a higher number. For the ones who have a low number of reviews (say lower than 8) the price per minute is approximately 2,0 euro per minute, this drops to 1,5 for home workers with a larger number of reviews. This phenomenon is not visible for other form of prostitution. The clients stay approximately for an hour with a home worker and typically pay 106 euro on average.
I counted 899 home workers. To make the data more comparable I only analyzed the prostitutes who were observed in the period between November the 14th 2007 and November the 14th 2008; that's 491 women.
The clients can fill in review forms where they can group the prostitutes into the following subgroups:
24 (4,888%): Eastern European (for 70,833% a nationality is named)
360 (73,320%): Dutch (99,722%)
20 (4,073%): no group (20,000%)
20 (4,073%): Surinamese (100%)
16 (3,259%): different (50,000%)
12 (2,444%): Latin American (58,333%)
11 (2,240%): African (45,455%)
8 (1,629%): Southern European (75,000%)
7 (1,426%): German (100,000%)
5 (1,018%): Thai (100,000%)
5 (1,018%): "other Asians" (80,000%)
2 (0,407%): Chinese (100,000%)
1 (0,204%): Belgian (100,000%)
Of 444 (of 491) prostitutes nationalities are named (and here again, in the percentages used I assumed that when no nationality is mentioned the group to which a prostitute belongs in the review form has the same characteristics as of those of whom a nationality is named):
363 (75,416%): The Netherlands
14 (2,851%): Surinam
8 (2,133%): Poland
6 (1,950%): Brazil
3 (1,577%): Bulgaria
6 (1,222%): Germany
4 (1,150%): Hungary
1 (1,018%): Africa
1 (1,018%): Morocco
5 (1,018%): Thailand
2 (0,896%): Kenia
2 (0,896%): India
3 (0,863%): Czech Republic
3 (0,815%): Italy
3 (0,815%): "Hindustani"
3 (0,713%): Indonesia
2 (0,575%): Romania
1 (0,560%): Ghana
1 (0,407%): Denmark
1 (0,407%): Sweden
1 (0,407%): Scotland
1 (0,407%): Austria
2 (0,407%): China
1 (0,407%): Netherlands Antilles
1 (0,407%): "foreign descent"
1 (0,349%): Colombia
1 (0,288%): Turkey
1 (0,272%): Portugal
1 (0,255%): Philippines
1 (0,204%): Lebanon
1 (0,204%): Belgium
1 (0,204%): Sri Lanka
It rarely occured that prostitutes named different nationalities to different clients. Only in three cases (the one on the left I found the most plausible):
Bulgaria = (Hungary)
Bulgaria = (Italy)
Thailand = (Dominican Republic/Portugal)
I also noticed only a few Dutch prostitutes of foreign descent:
only 10 (of 363)
4 Indonesia
1 Morocco
1 Cape Verde
1 "Eastern Europe"
1 Spain
1 "Hindustani"
1 "foreign"
The home workers are the ones of all types of prostitution who engage the most in unsafe forms of sex.
Of 491 home workers:
63,340%: blowjob without condom
72,505%: kissing
76,782%: Cunnilingus
18,126%: anal with condom
2,444%: anal without condom
15,071%: rimming (buttlicking)
19,756%: facial
8,350%: coitus without condom
Of 28 Eastern European home workers:
60,714%: blowjob without condom
75,000%: kissing
89,286%: Cunnilingus
17,857%: anal with condom
0,000%: anal without condom
17,857%: rimming (buttlicking)
7,143%: facial
7,143%: coitus without condom
Of 28 Latin American home workers
60,714%: blowjob without condom
67,857%: kissing
78,571%: Cunnilingus
0,000%: anal with condom
0,000%: anal without condom
3,571%: rimming (buttlicking)
14,286%: facial
3,571%: coitus without condom
Of 363 Dutch home workers
64,187%: blowjob without condom
74,931%: kissing
78,512%: Cunnilingus
19,835%: anal with condom
3,306%: anal without condom
16,253%: rimming (buttlicking)
21,212%: facial
9,642%: coitus without condom
Of 210 home workers younger than 30 (here the age estimates in the review forms are used)
56,667%: blowjob without condom
70,476%: kissing
74,762%: Cunnilingus
18,095%: anal with condom
0,952%: anal without condom
14,286%: rimming (buttlicking)
20,476%: facial
2,857%: coitus without condom
Of 272 home workers 30 years or older (here the age estimates in the review forms are used)
69,118%: blowjob without condom
75,000%: kissing
79,044%: Cunnilingus
18,015%: anal with condom
3,676%: anal without condom
16,176%: rimming (buttlicking)
19,485%: facial
12,868%: coitus without condom
The home workers are often also much older than prostitutes in other types of prostitution. But the ages mentioned are also not reliable, many clients notice that the prostitutes often look 5, 10, 20 years older than they say they are.
Ages mentioned by 253 home working prostitutes:
Average: 33,834 years (SD=10,150)
18-23: 20,553%
24-29: 23,320%
30-39: 28,854%
40 or older: 27,273%
Ages mentioned by 13 Eastern European home working prostitutes:
Average: 29,148 years (SD=7,291)
18-23: 30,769%
24-29: 23,077%
30-39: 38,462%
40 or older: 7,692%
Ages mentioned by 17 Latin American home working prostitutes:
Average: 27,127 years (SD=5,392)
18-23: 35,294%
24-29: 29,412%
30-39: 35,294%
40 or older: 0,000%
Ages mentioned by 193 Dutch home working prostitutes:
Average: 35,587 years (SD=10,380)
18-23: 17,098%
24-29: 21,762%
30-39: 26,425%
40 or older: 34,715%
The homeworkers cost less per minute than window and club prostitutes, some 1,7 euro per minute on average compared to 2,0 for window and club prostitutes. What's funny is that the home workers who receive the least number of reviews are more expensive than the ones who receive a higher number. For the ones who have a low number of reviews (say lower than 8) the price per minute is approximately 2,0 euro per minute, this drops to 1,5 for home workers with a larger number of reviews. This phenomenon is not visible for other form of prostitution. The clients stay approximately for an hour with a home worker and typically pay 106 euro on average.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Selected quotes
While I was counting nationalities and ages on hookers.nl you sometimes notice other things when you work your way through the reviews. What follows are some selected quotes. Perhaps some people will find them interesting. And beware that the location are not always right; prostitutes often relocate. Concerning forced prostitutes, I find it striking that clients notice much more fishy things happening in window prostitution compared to clubs. And.... the comments are translated into English. Often observations made ae made years ago but these prostitutes still worked during the last year.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=190001
The Hague, Doubletstraat 42p k5, Martha
(Latin American woman, 42-45 years old)
September 15th 2008, 16:20
All those Eastern European girls, they are so beautiful, but you are, before you know it, already outside. The number of Latina’s is decreasing in the Doubie, and nevertheless those were the girls, especially for the older walkers, like me, who didn’t look on the watch.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=78472
Amsterdam, Wallen, Dollebegijnensteeg 3-2, Emma
(Greek/Italian girl, 24 years old)
October 27th, 7:20
The lady didn’t cooperate at all, didn’t want to be touched and during the blowjob there hardly was any pressure from her tongue and lips that could be felt. Obviously didn’t reach a climax.
So a total letdown, while I suspect that she is forced behind the window.
Still I want to know more of this.
October 27th 2005, 20:56
She indeed is sweet and shy, say gentle. And very pretty. I therefore have fucked her deliciously. She really felt lovely. I believe she simply came, because she squeezed ‘him’ considerably, but nobody believes that anyway. The blowjob was reasonable. Enfin, in my opinion it wasn’t such a bad experience. Certainly not a turnoff.
(…)
Why put in a review that you have the suspicions that she is forced. You never know that obviously, so then you must not write this down. Even when you suspect it, because you can write this about all ladies on de Wallen. I don’t want to make a discussion from this.
January 11th 2006, 23:09
Co-walkers, this woman must be avoided. In de kooi, in a secluded alley, she can merrily play her tricks. Obviously she couldn’t do that when she was opposite St Annedwars 26. See my earlier posts on this address.
The girl must be categorized with fat letters under TMM [‘Te Mijden Meid’, a girl that should be avoided]. She can be identified by her heavy bruise/birth mark on her right thigh. I couldn’t escape the impression that she does this work against her will and that she has troubles with it.
March 29th 2006, 22:21
Certainly no Emma for me anymore, also her Italo boyfriend phoned her during the session, also not very beneficial for the atmosphere.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=10452
Wallen, Trompettersteeg 5-6, Gloria
(from the Czech Republic, Albania or Serbia, 26-29 years old)
March 11th, 2005 21:39
Hmmm…… also had a true TMM-experience again. I had a horny liking into something ‘vulgar’. I already walked by Gloria’s window very often where she always greeted me warmly. So today I went inside… the plastic E-size
(…)
Super stereotypical experience. After entering her room her pimp/loverboy/but absolutely not her dad came rushing along to check if everything was OK. Indeed: it was a second generation fellow countrymen so to speak [Turkish or Moroccan].
(…)
The Russian [type of sex where the guy satisfies himself between the breasts of the woman] had as only ‘merits’ that I saw that the aforementioned fellow countrymen probably was named Saimir (tattoo). Blowjob: mechanical, she did do her best, but if you switch the sense button to zero in this profession the client should notice, or not????. Wham, the little mouth on it and go for it, so it wasn’t….
October 21th 2007, 12:10
No experience with this girl, but she is simply not my type. Had to laugh out loud about her yesterday when I walked by and heard a part of a conversation with a tough young man who opposite to her in the alley leaned on a wall very relaxed.
[In English]
Guy (M): “Where are you from? Costa Rica?”
Gloria (G): “Who cares where I’m from! Come in and fuck me!”
M: “I’ll come in if you tell me where you area from…”
G: “What! You wanna fuck me or my country?!”
August 3th, 2008, 3:13
Saw something awful this evening at Gloria. Beforehand I want to emphasize that I don’t know what exactly took place inside, but in my eyes there was something very fishy about what I saw.
I walked on the much too overtrafficked St. Annendwars when suddenly an alarm went off. Now, that happens a lot more often so I simply walked on and passed the Trompetter. After ten meters I suddenly heard a lot of noise behind me and turned around. I see like fifty people crowding together around the entrance of the Trompetter. I walk back to take a look (nothing voyeuristic is strange to me). I look over the crowd and see a number of prostitutes standing at the door of Gloria. The door was open and I hear a lot of noise. Then I see a glimpse of a bald head. Then I heard a number of hard blows and pounds. Then a man (app. 60 years old) is thrown out the door by the bald guy completely naked. The man stands up from the ground and clearly has injuries in his face and has a bloody nose. The bald guy immediately ran off (so brave are these fucking pimps aren’t they) like a thief in the night.
The man stands there with his hands before his crotch shaming himself immensely, while multiple tourists are loudly laughing and shouting and making pictures. After half a minute the door opens again and his clothes are thrown outside. I couldn’t bear to watch it any longer, but I couldn’t reach the guy through the crowd. I would have willingly put something around him to cover him, my coat or something. I just walked away. Those are a pair of eyes less which are watching him.
Again, I don’t know what happened inside, but one thing I do know: when everything became a little calmer again, I walked passed the window again and she stood there extremely aggressively swearing at tourists and making kicking movements. I have a very bad feeling about this lady and she willingly and knowingly brought in this bald guy. I’m convinced of that. Dangerous lady in my opinion, with even more unpleasant little friend.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=13069
Wallen, Goldbergersteeg 4, Vicky
(from Hungary, Bulgaria or Finland, 33 years old)
November 10th 2003, 14:52
This Vicky is not Hungarian but comes from Bulgaria…. I took her home a couple of times after I started to have a conversation with her in a coffeeshop…. Then she told me she had a row with her (paranoia) friend and would go to Spain the next day…..
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=162939
Wallen, Molensteeg 4 left, Yvette
(Hungary, 18 years old)
June 29th 2008, 20:01
A girl who works during the daytime and during the night, like many girls in the Molenstseeg .. I didn’t know it was allowed working 16 hours per day behind a window, phoning with your pimp every minute. Does it matter then how Yvette does it.. Yes when you have paid but the reason that she only sees an asshole with money so that she stands there day and night.
But yes if it interests anybody I wonder.
June 29th 2008, 21:28
Also I have my doubts if this is all well, with this girl, only 18 years old.
She clearly looks worn-out, deeply in the sockets lying, dull eyes and actually too skinny…
July 3th 2008, 15:58
When I came in she seemed to note down something. She notes down the next client I then thought. She made as short phone call. I gave her the money and undressed. Indeed blowing she did but kept her bra on. While I wanted to take it off she wanted to do it herself. Likewise it went with the panties. She seemed to do as little as possible. Then she lied down and looked at me with an expression which I could only interpret as painful. She did nothing herself and that gave me an uncomfortable feeling. She also looked as if it was something bad what I wanted to do, very unpleasant but I know it also can happen differently.
Obviously the lust to continue withered away. She put out her tongue at me. I asked if she was forced to do this. No answer and she suddenly spoke insufficient English.
I said to her in English that in my opinion she was in the wrong business and dressed myself up again. While I was dressing up there was some busy telephoning. While I was walking to outside there was some vehement spraying with a spray can as if I carried some nasty diseases with me.
I have the strong suspicion that she is probably forced to do this but plays along with the game and makes the best of it because obviously there are again and again new victims that can be scored among tourist and such.
A nasty experience for me but also for the lady in question I find this not good.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=193267
Wallen, Molensteeg 11 right, Lili
(Hungary, 22-25 years old)
November 20th 2008, 00:47
A minus is that after coming she immediately stopped. Communication is limitedly possible, she speaks English badly. Like many young Eastern European girls she doesn’t really seem to experience enjoyment from this work, but luckily she was very friendly.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=193243
Wallen, Molensteeg 14, Annet
(Eastern European, 18-21 years old)
November 19th, 2008, 16:13
She put off her panties when I was completely ready for it and [she] first went to make a phone call (I strongly got the impression that she had to let know that she had a client). During the visit it was also clear that she kept track of time.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=136638
Wallen, Molensteeg 2-3, Maria
(Hungary, 20 years old)
September 11th 2007, 23:36
She was more talkative this time. She almost begged me to do it slower. That’s what I did, but it wasn’t really pleasant. I called it a day very quickly. After that we have cuddled and talked for 45 minutes. She works already since she was 15 in Hungary and she’s here only since a couple of months. Really moving and unfortunate.
I really like her and she just doesn’t belong here. (…)
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=116122
Wallen, Molensteeg 4 left, Erica
(Hongarije, 22-25 years old)
August 21th 2008, 15:38
As soon as the clothes went off she immediately started to make a phone call…? And also when the clothes went on…? Pimp I think...?
What happened in the meantime was hardly worth to mention except that it cost me 100 euros… I did came by the way but if it was up to her it wouldn’t have.
Clearly a TMM although I suspect that she is pushed in this position.
August 22th 2008, 15:17
That she is pimped is also my suspicion, because when at any time you come in de Molensteeg, she always stands there.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=140003
Wallen, Molensteeg 4 links, Samantha
(Dutch, 22-25 years old)
December 23th 2007, 23:21
Most of the time I find de Molensteeg not such a pleasant street (too many bragging Brits, fellow countrymen who spit on the street and/or whiggers, and sad Eastern European girls), but I found that the well-rounded Samantha looked sympathetic.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=104774
Wallen, Oudekennissteeg 2 links, Agaatha
(Belgium, 26-29 years old)
September 15th 2008, 19:05
I hadn’t visited Agaatha for a very long time, I wasn’t really informed about her eventual holiday plans…
During my last visit I did notice that Agaatha had several bruises on her arm. I have never had any suspicions in a certain direction, with this lady…
Who knows more?
September 18th 2008, 00:36
Saw her last week on de Oudezijds Achterburgwal 68 sous and this evening in the Oudekennissteeg 8, well those bruises who shall say, always seemed a very independent woman to me, but yes, if you should believe all those reports in the press you never know nowadays…..
November 13th 2008, 16:51
Today I also got to know her. A lovely girl, and a real chatterbox….. and indeed still the bruises although she told that she worked entirely independently.
November 13th 2008, 21:30
Don’t worry about her bruises, is caused by something else casu quo lesser experience. She works 100% for herself.
Also I initially didn’t have the suspicion that she works forced… However, those bruises that I spotted last summer in any case… doesn’t seem to be an incidental little accident…
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=105946
Wallen, Oudezijds Achterburgwal 51-1, Angela/Iva03
(Romanian or Italian, 24 years old)
May 29th 2008, 00:35
And while I deliciously started she immediately said “you want ass?” Yes, also a bit fun and new for me, but while I was busy, she suddenly turned around to take her mobile phone, where she almost twisted my willie off, she simply starts to read the SMS she just received while I look around baffled what’s happening now.
Again “you want ass?” I thought I was already busy doing that, bitch…
Oh yes, and then made an end to it.
She coolly says afterwards “ass is 300 euro… .” What? I don’t understand, okay 200.
She blocks me the exit, I give her 50 euros extra to get out, she says, would you believe it: I call the police. Yes okay I said. She pushes two numbers, [the phone] gets a conversation tone or something, I wait but nothing happens, after 3 or 4 minutes she says okay, no problem, no problem, bye bye.
And I actually am allowed to go outside.
Draw your conclusion but stay away there.
July 12th 19:41
While I stepped in she immediately asked for money okay so gave 50 and undressed but she kept her clothes on, except her panties she took off, well okay let it be, but once on the bed she started giving a blowjob badly, 5 seconds or so, then she said do you want anal, yes no problem if she proposes it herself, but when we had done that she suddenly said with a coarse voice I want 200 euro more you have taken me anally, I said in English that she should have told that?? Then she became angry we stopped and she said I want 200 euro?? I had no money with me anymore, at least, no 200 euro, she also asked me for my credit card, well I didn’t have that either at all, so I quickly got dressed, while she grabbed the telephone I quickly left, I was really pissed and felt deceived, while suddenly near the St Annastraat some pimp or another grabbed me by the collar, he said with an Italian accent you have fucked my wife, I want 200 euro within 2 minutes, I said I have no money with me anymore, he said give everything you got so I gave him 30 euro that was all I had. Then he was gone.
Watch out for this lady, unfortunately I don’t know her name but she looks sweet but once inside you are in complete trouble with her, she is a big imposter.
July 12th 2008, 20:39
This swindler today stood on the Goldbergersteeg 8 again, and by the way, she also has some sort of pimp or whatever who keeps an eye on all her clients.
July 21th 2008, 13:43
Pimp is no threat, he’s an old dick who tries to scare you, where I don’t give a shit about.
July 26th 2008, 12:23
When I once more tried to make it clear to her that we agreed upon 100 euro and that she should have indicated it was too little from the start (like advance payment should occur) she began standing in front of the door like a spider and started to make a phone call with her mobile phone that there were (problems).
Now I don’t become frightened very quickly but I obviously don’t know what’s ahead of me after that phone call, by the same token 5 men and then it becomes nagging and by the way I don’t feel like spending a while at the police station.
So I hard-handedly removed the lady from the door and I made the best of a bad job.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=142427
Wallen, Oudezijds Achterburgwal 72 middle, Sylvana
(Italy, 23)
January 4th 2008, 11:32
Most of the time I’m very wary of this but she was so convincing that I nevertheless decided to go inside. She told that she came from Italy and that she was from the mafia. I then said that therefore one has to watch out for her and that she acknowledged.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=65027
Wallen, Oudekennissteeg 2 left, Bonny
(Netherlands, 20 years)
May 7th 2006, 13:07
In her room there’s a nasty little staircase (step) where you could easily make a wrong step. Perhaps it did happen to her once? From where else comes that vague bruise on her right eye socket…
Furthermore, before we started, she had to sms a little message.
I don’t want to insinuate anything, I do only observe. I hope that it is a clear story.
December 16th 2007, 12:46
And that smsing also I asked if that was supposed to be a part of it, she answered with a story like “yes I have two little guys who collect money (pimps) so I have to keep them informed then one then the other so that they don’t know anything about each other you understand me” I didn’t understand anything about it and paid after that and she brought me to the door and there I saw a very tall dark man with moustache who spoke to her and took money and he allowed her to go to her place with the next customer..
In my opinion she could better do her best with only smiling.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=52440
Wallen, Trompetterstraat 3-3, Rachel
(Netherlands, 22 years old)
March 26th 2007, 9:10
There also was some bloke from the Eastern bloc in front of her door (a regular customer she said) so I decided to walk through the city centre for a little while.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=182275
Alkmaar, 2p, p4, Hainaka
(Hungary, 18-21 years old)
July 14th, 19:19
The most “beautiful” part came when afterwards, after we were already dressed up and just as I was about to leave her room, she began to whine about 10 euro extra because I stayed longer than 15 minutes (according to her I went 5 minutes over the time) inside! I acted as if I was a little bit stupid, and then she went to phone her Hungarian boyfriend/pimp to ask how she could make it clear to me in English that I should pay 10 euro extra. That asshole of a guy screamed through the telephone: “10 plus, 10 plus” Then she penetratingly repeated this towards me. She simply insisted on it that I should pay her 10 euro extra.
(…)
To be short, this “lady of pleasure” is acting extremely stupid and won’t carry on for very long. I actually hope that this not so sincere lady has already left. This way there really won’t be a client who will return to here! Hopefully this surely is a warning in advance for all walkers!
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=152103
Alkmaar, 3p k25, Kitty
(Romania, 18-21)
October 17th 2008, 17:32
In the border area of Romania and Hungary live at a lot of Hungarians. They have a Romanian passport but see themselves as Hungarian, that’s also what they speak. In the border area place-name signs are bilingual: Romanian and Hungarian. This area is a rich source of ladies for our street, I know several who come from there. Where Kitty comes from I don’t know.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=178851
Alkmaar, 3p, k8, Boriana
(Bulgaria, 20 years)
September 20th 2008, 14:03
What happened then was really a bloody shame. I didn’t have my pants, socks and shoes yet on and she pulled open the curtains. Then it really became troubling…. After I made it clear to her that I wasn’t happy about this and wanted to close the curtains. Then the lady pulled the door open and started to scream, after which her Bulgarian pimp began to address me. I shouldn’t expect to be inside for two hours, while I was inside for ten minutes at most.
SO GENTLEMEN, AVOID THIS LADY... THEN SHE WILL BUGGER OFF ON HER OWN ACCORD!!
A WASTE OF YOUR MONEY, THERE ARE MANY BETTER ONES IN THIS NAUGHTY ALLEY. UNFORTUNATE THAT THIS SORT OF LADIES OBSCURE THE IMAGE OF WINDOW PROSTITUTION
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=79312
Alkmaar, A, Z1, Anita
(Hungary, 20 years old)
February 29th 2008, 10:26
But Tuesday there was another lady in her room, judged from her last conversation she went back home and comes back in about 2 months.
You would never know but a number of times she has been approached aggressively and even beaten up by pimps.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=149187
Alkmaar, A13, k2
(Hungary, 30-33 years old)
February 22th 2008, 23:13
In any case she works voluntarily.
February 23th 2008, 12:35
I’m happy about that because a couple of times that I was with here I had the impression that this was not the case. Especially because it seems that with every new client she must phone her boyfriend/pimp (?). But perhaps that [the other client] has experienced this too and understood was she said?
Unfortunate that the sex was not great but as for the rest this girl is not that bad. She is actually quite friendly but you have to treat her a little bit with velvet gloves.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=3213
Utrecht, Zandpad 116-5, Vanessa
(Dominican Republic)
May 1sth 2002, 00:23
I went in there with the agreement of 200 bucks for half an hour with blowing, fucking and licking. When I came in the phone went immediately. Her mother! I went to wash myself for a while and came back. She said her mom goodbye and put her phone away which immediately went again. I was supposed to lie on bed for awhile and make myself ‘hard’. Her boyfriend/pimp was on the line and he was screaming like hell, that’s why I could hear her name. And in the meantime she was making gestures that she didn’t understand and giving meaningless answers. After a period of this nagging the line was broken. I asked if the phone could go out or on ‘silent’. That wasn’t possible because the phone credit of her boyfriend was used up anyway.
(…)
And then that *#@!& telephone went again. Again that asshole of a boyfriend/pimp. So she steps into the shower (I was dressing myself long before in the meantime out of annoyance) and while she's sobbing she begins a conversation again with that bigmouth. She first did take the wallet with her and then unlocks the door so that you can go. I kept standing there and she gestured multiple times to leave.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=89416
Utrecht, Zandpad 118-4, Hai Fa
(Thailand, 26-29 years old)
June 23th 2007, 10:46
Also this girl is really a hit, I already knew her from The Hague, I got her number then, we were to do an escort, then suddenly there was a call from her boyfriend (pimp) and we have never seen her again in The Hague !!!!!!
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=192617
1p, g2 k2, Angela
(Hungary, 21 years old)
March 9th 2007, 02:44
She told me that she was somewhat tired. It couldn’t be caused by the number of clients that day: I was only the third after yet 4-5 hours of being present. But just as with most of the ladies she makes far too long days, each day of the week. Asked about why the fairly logical answer was that if she doesn’t work she doesn’t earn money. Those long days are also often mentioned as an example how the ladies are exploited. But also completely without compulsion most of the women do want their highly paid day shifts rent to be maximally utilized.
July 13th 2007, 03:21
I fucked her fairly firmly, at least quickly – not very different than at other times I believe. Suddenly it was like: stop it. She couldn’t stand the hard pounding she said, sometimes she does, and she also didn’t like too softly, but this was much too hard. I immediately felt like a caddish barbarian. I then continued on as carefully as possible, but especially by her outbursts and the earlier feeling that it didn’t happen all too quickly for her, the fun was over for me. I said to her that I would finish it by hand, masturbated for quite a while, where she began too lie in a seductive pose for a while. I ignored it however and looked somewhat at the side towards the TV.
After 2 minutes I said this is not going to work, and I started to wash myself.
With a totally not understanding Angela; if I didn’t want to fuck her for a while, why etc tc.
Apologies, but these days everybody fucked hard she said. Later she said she had some pain (I said she should have told me beforehand), the day before somebody with a big one… had fucked her really hard. I explained to her that I wasn’t concerned with that she would indicate what she does or does not like today. But that I didn’t have the feeling that she was angry and impatient from the beginning and that her responses made her insecure (after all, nothing was right). And that I knew that I wouldn’t come anyway or it would take too long. She really took the effort to talk it out with me, ten “I’m sorry” ‘s, and that she was tired, that it was way too late for her, that I could better come in the afternoon. She apparently didn’t want to loose a client.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=87544
Deventer, Bokkinghang 20 t/m 24, Xenia
(Germany/Italy, 22-25 years old)
May 15th 2007, 01:04
Behind the third window of the new segment stood a long and blond lady. Inside it turned out to be Xenia, half German, half Italian. Speaks good Dutch with a light accent. She has worked in German FKK’s, but she didn’t found it hygienic, because of kissing, eating pussy and fingering you only get infections.
She talks very nicely, but when you hear this you start to think “Why does it go wrong with all German ladies”.
June 21th 2007, 22:58
I haven’t been here for precisely a year. I was tired of Deventer, not up to much and always a big question if the women, mostly foreign, are there voluntarily.
That I am a so-called walker I don’t find that bad, but I do want the lady to stand behind her choice of profession. And I believe that in Deventer there are mostly ladies who would rather have another job but who don’t have that choice in their own hand!!!! AND I DON’T WANT TO MAINTAIN THAT!
But well, I had the intention: I want to have sex this evening, with a delicious girl!
So I stepped into the car again and went to Deventer.
What I saw there surprised me! Almost every window was womanned and what was sitting there almost always looked good. With a number of them I did have the strong impression the their age was far below 20 and therefore ARE NOT THERE VOLUNTARILY!!!
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=165847
Club Sneeuwwitje, Rijksweg 32, Herten, Linda
(Eastern European)
April 20th 2008, 02:24
She had to sniff her nose all the time. I thought o mucus! So I asked do you have a cold. No she said it’s because of those damn drugs. Sad I thought. But it turns out to be normal there. And then it all came loose. That dirty old gray man (owner) with his Polish **** as I would call it in this case. He is only after 1 thing and that is money, money and even more money. The girls who work there work illegally, they have no sofie number or nothing. And also they are induced to use drugs. Of the 185 euro that I had to pay for, for one hour, she only got 80 euro!!! I said that doesn’t make sense at all. I don’t understand that x still walks around there. She is worth more. Only very unfortunate that it is those drugs again that ruins it for such a beautiful girl. I told her that she must go searching for another club then. Because this is going nowhere. Those girls simply don’t go because they don’t dare to I believe. They were being barked at everyday. By that guy. Even where I was standing!!! In my opinion this is intolerable. And hope that one day they raid this place and lock this guy up. But okay, that won’t happen I think. UNFORTUNATELY. And I hope that the girls can start working somewhere else or something. This is really a place to forget. They won’t see me here again.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=194688
Roermond, Heinsbergerweg 230, Club Yin Yang, Ascha
(Eastern European, 18-21 years old)
December 15th 2008, 11:44
I first licked her deliciously until she got a true orgasm, and that was really not fake. I still had my boxershort on, but yes, the little bear almost jumped out. First some heavy French kissing and in the meantime she was jerking me off a bit. After that a little blowing without condom and rather deep every now and then until the point of gagging. A horny sight at that moment. I indicated that I was about to come and wanted to take it out of her mouth but that wasn’t going to happen. She continued to blow me with deep thrusts, then she said that I should jerk off and come in her mouth and onto her face. This was real porn…..
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=190001
The Hague, Doubletstraat 42p k5, Martha
(Latin American woman, 42-45 years old)
September 15th 2008, 16:20
All those Eastern European girls, they are so beautiful, but you are, before you know it, already outside. The number of Latina’s is decreasing in the Doubie, and nevertheless those were the girls, especially for the older walkers, like me, who didn’t look on the watch.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=78472
Amsterdam, Wallen, Dollebegijnensteeg 3-2, Emma
(Greek/Italian girl, 24 years old)
October 27th, 7:20
The lady didn’t cooperate at all, didn’t want to be touched and during the blowjob there hardly was any pressure from her tongue and lips that could be felt. Obviously didn’t reach a climax.
So a total letdown, while I suspect that she is forced behind the window.
Still I want to know more of this.
October 27th 2005, 20:56
She indeed is sweet and shy, say gentle. And very pretty. I therefore have fucked her deliciously. She really felt lovely. I believe she simply came, because she squeezed ‘him’ considerably, but nobody believes that anyway. The blowjob was reasonable. Enfin, in my opinion it wasn’t such a bad experience. Certainly not a turnoff.
(…)
Why put in a review that you have the suspicions that she is forced. You never know that obviously, so then you must not write this down. Even when you suspect it, because you can write this about all ladies on de Wallen. I don’t want to make a discussion from this.
January 11th 2006, 23:09
Co-walkers, this woman must be avoided. In de kooi, in a secluded alley, she can merrily play her tricks. Obviously she couldn’t do that when she was opposite St Annedwars 26. See my earlier posts on this address.
The girl must be categorized with fat letters under TMM [‘Te Mijden Meid’, a girl that should be avoided]. She can be identified by her heavy bruise/birth mark on her right thigh. I couldn’t escape the impression that she does this work against her will and that she has troubles with it.
March 29th 2006, 22:21
Certainly no Emma for me anymore, also her Italo boyfriend phoned her during the session, also not very beneficial for the atmosphere.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=10452
Wallen, Trompettersteeg 5-6, Gloria
(from the Czech Republic, Albania or Serbia, 26-29 years old)
March 11th, 2005 21:39
Hmmm…… also had a true TMM-experience again. I had a horny liking into something ‘vulgar’. I already walked by Gloria’s window very often where she always greeted me warmly. So today I went inside… the plastic E-size
(…)
Super stereotypical experience. After entering her room her pimp/loverboy/but absolutely not her dad came rushing along to check if everything was OK. Indeed: it was a second generation fellow countrymen so to speak [Turkish or Moroccan].
(…)
The Russian [type of sex where the guy satisfies himself between the breasts of the woman] had as only ‘merits’ that I saw that the aforementioned fellow countrymen probably was named Saimir (tattoo). Blowjob: mechanical, she did do her best, but if you switch the sense button to zero in this profession the client should notice, or not????. Wham, the little mouth on it and go for it, so it wasn’t….
October 21th 2007, 12:10
No experience with this girl, but she is simply not my type. Had to laugh out loud about her yesterday when I walked by and heard a part of a conversation with a tough young man who opposite to her in the alley leaned on a wall very relaxed.
[In English]
Guy (M): “Where are you from? Costa Rica?”
Gloria (G): “Who cares where I’m from! Come in and fuck me!”
M: “I’ll come in if you tell me where you area from…”
G: “What! You wanna fuck me or my country?!”
August 3th, 2008, 3:13
Saw something awful this evening at Gloria. Beforehand I want to emphasize that I don’t know what exactly took place inside, but in my eyes there was something very fishy about what I saw.
I walked on the much too overtrafficked St. Annendwars when suddenly an alarm went off. Now, that happens a lot more often so I simply walked on and passed the Trompetter. After ten meters I suddenly heard a lot of noise behind me and turned around. I see like fifty people crowding together around the entrance of the Trompetter. I walk back to take a look (nothing voyeuristic is strange to me). I look over the crowd and see a number of prostitutes standing at the door of Gloria. The door was open and I hear a lot of noise. Then I see a glimpse of a bald head. Then I heard a number of hard blows and pounds. Then a man (app. 60 years old) is thrown out the door by the bald guy completely naked. The man stands up from the ground and clearly has injuries in his face and has a bloody nose. The bald guy immediately ran off (so brave are these fucking pimps aren’t they) like a thief in the night.
The man stands there with his hands before his crotch shaming himself immensely, while multiple tourists are loudly laughing and shouting and making pictures. After half a minute the door opens again and his clothes are thrown outside. I couldn’t bear to watch it any longer, but I couldn’t reach the guy through the crowd. I would have willingly put something around him to cover him, my coat or something. I just walked away. Those are a pair of eyes less which are watching him.
Again, I don’t know what happened inside, but one thing I do know: when everything became a little calmer again, I walked passed the window again and she stood there extremely aggressively swearing at tourists and making kicking movements. I have a very bad feeling about this lady and she willingly and knowingly brought in this bald guy. I’m convinced of that. Dangerous lady in my opinion, with even more unpleasant little friend.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=13069
Wallen, Goldbergersteeg 4, Vicky
(from Hungary, Bulgaria or Finland, 33 years old)
November 10th 2003, 14:52
This Vicky is not Hungarian but comes from Bulgaria…. I took her home a couple of times after I started to have a conversation with her in a coffeeshop…. Then she told me she had a row with her (paranoia) friend and would go to Spain the next day…..
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=162939
Wallen, Molensteeg 4 left, Yvette
(Hungary, 18 years old)
June 29th 2008, 20:01
A girl who works during the daytime and during the night, like many girls in the Molenstseeg .. I didn’t know it was allowed working 16 hours per day behind a window, phoning with your pimp every minute. Does it matter then how Yvette does it.. Yes when you have paid but the reason that she only sees an asshole with money so that she stands there day and night.
But yes if it interests anybody I wonder.
June 29th 2008, 21:28
Also I have my doubts if this is all well, with this girl, only 18 years old.
She clearly looks worn-out, deeply in the sockets lying, dull eyes and actually too skinny…
July 3th 2008, 15:58
When I came in she seemed to note down something. She notes down the next client I then thought. She made as short phone call. I gave her the money and undressed. Indeed blowing she did but kept her bra on. While I wanted to take it off she wanted to do it herself. Likewise it went with the panties. She seemed to do as little as possible. Then she lied down and looked at me with an expression which I could only interpret as painful. She did nothing herself and that gave me an uncomfortable feeling. She also looked as if it was something bad what I wanted to do, very unpleasant but I know it also can happen differently.
Obviously the lust to continue withered away. She put out her tongue at me. I asked if she was forced to do this. No answer and she suddenly spoke insufficient English.
I said to her in English that in my opinion she was in the wrong business and dressed myself up again. While I was dressing up there was some busy telephoning. While I was walking to outside there was some vehement spraying with a spray can as if I carried some nasty diseases with me.
I have the strong suspicion that she is probably forced to do this but plays along with the game and makes the best of it because obviously there are again and again new victims that can be scored among tourist and such.
A nasty experience for me but also for the lady in question I find this not good.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=193267
Wallen, Molensteeg 11 right, Lili
(Hungary, 22-25 years old)
November 20th 2008, 00:47
A minus is that after coming she immediately stopped. Communication is limitedly possible, she speaks English badly. Like many young Eastern European girls she doesn’t really seem to experience enjoyment from this work, but luckily she was very friendly.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=193243
Wallen, Molensteeg 14, Annet
(Eastern European, 18-21 years old)
November 19th, 2008, 16:13
She put off her panties when I was completely ready for it and [she] first went to make a phone call (I strongly got the impression that she had to let know that she had a client). During the visit it was also clear that she kept track of time.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=136638
Wallen, Molensteeg 2-3, Maria
(Hungary, 20 years old)
September 11th 2007, 23:36
She was more talkative this time. She almost begged me to do it slower. That’s what I did, but it wasn’t really pleasant. I called it a day very quickly. After that we have cuddled and talked for 45 minutes. She works already since she was 15 in Hungary and she’s here only since a couple of months. Really moving and unfortunate.
I really like her and she just doesn’t belong here. (…)
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=116122
Wallen, Molensteeg 4 left, Erica
(Hongarije, 22-25 years old)
August 21th 2008, 15:38
As soon as the clothes went off she immediately started to make a phone call…? And also when the clothes went on…? Pimp I think...?
What happened in the meantime was hardly worth to mention except that it cost me 100 euros… I did came by the way but if it was up to her it wouldn’t have.
Clearly a TMM although I suspect that she is pushed in this position.
August 22th 2008, 15:17
That she is pimped is also my suspicion, because when at any time you come in de Molensteeg, she always stands there.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=140003
Wallen, Molensteeg 4 links, Samantha
(Dutch, 22-25 years old)
December 23th 2007, 23:21
Most of the time I find de Molensteeg not such a pleasant street (too many bragging Brits, fellow countrymen who spit on the street and/or whiggers, and sad Eastern European girls), but I found that the well-rounded Samantha looked sympathetic.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=104774
Wallen, Oudekennissteeg 2 links, Agaatha
(Belgium, 26-29 years old)
September 15th 2008, 19:05
I hadn’t visited Agaatha for a very long time, I wasn’t really informed about her eventual holiday plans…
During my last visit I did notice that Agaatha had several bruises on her arm. I have never had any suspicions in a certain direction, with this lady…
Who knows more?
September 18th 2008, 00:36
Saw her last week on de Oudezijds Achterburgwal 68 sous and this evening in the Oudekennissteeg 8, well those bruises who shall say, always seemed a very independent woman to me, but yes, if you should believe all those reports in the press you never know nowadays…..
November 13th 2008, 16:51
Today I also got to know her. A lovely girl, and a real chatterbox….. and indeed still the bruises although she told that she worked entirely independently.
November 13th 2008, 21:30
Don’t worry about her bruises, is caused by something else casu quo lesser experience. She works 100% for herself.
Also I initially didn’t have the suspicion that she works forced… However, those bruises that I spotted last summer in any case… doesn’t seem to be an incidental little accident…
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=105946
Wallen, Oudezijds Achterburgwal 51-1, Angela/Iva03
(Romanian or Italian, 24 years old)
May 29th 2008, 00:35
And while I deliciously started she immediately said “you want ass?” Yes, also a bit fun and new for me, but while I was busy, she suddenly turned around to take her mobile phone, where she almost twisted my willie off, she simply starts to read the SMS she just received while I look around baffled what’s happening now.
Again “you want ass?” I thought I was already busy doing that, bitch…
Oh yes, and then made an end to it.
She coolly says afterwards “ass is 300 euro… .” What? I don’t understand, okay 200.
She blocks me the exit, I give her 50 euros extra to get out, she says, would you believe it: I call the police. Yes okay I said. She pushes two numbers, [the phone] gets a conversation tone or something, I wait but nothing happens, after 3 or 4 minutes she says okay, no problem, no problem, bye bye.
And I actually am allowed to go outside.
Draw your conclusion but stay away there.
July 12th 19:41
While I stepped in she immediately asked for money okay so gave 50 and undressed but she kept her clothes on, except her panties she took off, well okay let it be, but once on the bed she started giving a blowjob badly, 5 seconds or so, then she said do you want anal, yes no problem if she proposes it herself, but when we had done that she suddenly said with a coarse voice I want 200 euro more you have taken me anally, I said in English that she should have told that?? Then she became angry we stopped and she said I want 200 euro?? I had no money with me anymore, at least, no 200 euro, she also asked me for my credit card, well I didn’t have that either at all, so I quickly got dressed, while she grabbed the telephone I quickly left, I was really pissed and felt deceived, while suddenly near the St Annastraat some pimp or another grabbed me by the collar, he said with an Italian accent you have fucked my wife, I want 200 euro within 2 minutes, I said I have no money with me anymore, he said give everything you got so I gave him 30 euro that was all I had. Then he was gone.
Watch out for this lady, unfortunately I don’t know her name but she looks sweet but once inside you are in complete trouble with her, she is a big imposter.
July 12th 2008, 20:39
This swindler today stood on the Goldbergersteeg 8 again, and by the way, she also has some sort of pimp or whatever who keeps an eye on all her clients.
July 21th 2008, 13:43
Pimp is no threat, he’s an old dick who tries to scare you, where I don’t give a shit about.
July 26th 2008, 12:23
When I once more tried to make it clear to her that we agreed upon 100 euro and that she should have indicated it was too little from the start (like advance payment should occur) she began standing in front of the door like a spider and started to make a phone call with her mobile phone that there were (problems).
Now I don’t become frightened very quickly but I obviously don’t know what’s ahead of me after that phone call, by the same token 5 men and then it becomes nagging and by the way I don’t feel like spending a while at the police station.
So I hard-handedly removed the lady from the door and I made the best of a bad job.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=142427
Wallen, Oudezijds Achterburgwal 72 middle, Sylvana
(Italy, 23)
January 4th 2008, 11:32
Most of the time I’m very wary of this but she was so convincing that I nevertheless decided to go inside. She told that she came from Italy and that she was from the mafia. I then said that therefore one has to watch out for her and that she acknowledged.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=65027
Wallen, Oudekennissteeg 2 left, Bonny
(Netherlands, 20 years)
May 7th 2006, 13:07
In her room there’s a nasty little staircase (step) where you could easily make a wrong step. Perhaps it did happen to her once? From where else comes that vague bruise on her right eye socket…
Furthermore, before we started, she had to sms a little message.
I don’t want to insinuate anything, I do only observe. I hope that it is a clear story.
December 16th 2007, 12:46
And that smsing also I asked if that was supposed to be a part of it, she answered with a story like “yes I have two little guys who collect money (pimps) so I have to keep them informed then one then the other so that they don’t know anything about each other you understand me” I didn’t understand anything about it and paid after that and she brought me to the door and there I saw a very tall dark man with moustache who spoke to her and took money and he allowed her to go to her place with the next customer..
In my opinion she could better do her best with only smiling.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=52440
Wallen, Trompetterstraat 3-3, Rachel
(Netherlands, 22 years old)
March 26th 2007, 9:10
There also was some bloke from the Eastern bloc in front of her door (a regular customer she said) so I decided to walk through the city centre for a little while.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=182275
Alkmaar, 2p, p4, Hainaka
(Hungary, 18-21 years old)
July 14th, 19:19
The most “beautiful” part came when afterwards, after we were already dressed up and just as I was about to leave her room, she began to whine about 10 euro extra because I stayed longer than 15 minutes (according to her I went 5 minutes over the time) inside! I acted as if I was a little bit stupid, and then she went to phone her Hungarian boyfriend/pimp to ask how she could make it clear to me in English that I should pay 10 euro extra. That asshole of a guy screamed through the telephone: “10 plus, 10 plus” Then she penetratingly repeated this towards me. She simply insisted on it that I should pay her 10 euro extra.
(…)
To be short, this “lady of pleasure” is acting extremely stupid and won’t carry on for very long. I actually hope that this not so sincere lady has already left. This way there really won’t be a client who will return to here! Hopefully this surely is a warning in advance for all walkers!
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=152103
Alkmaar, 3p k25, Kitty
(Romania, 18-21)
October 17th 2008, 17:32
In the border area of Romania and Hungary live at a lot of Hungarians. They have a Romanian passport but see themselves as Hungarian, that’s also what they speak. In the border area place-name signs are bilingual: Romanian and Hungarian. This area is a rich source of ladies for our street, I know several who come from there. Where Kitty comes from I don’t know.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=178851
Alkmaar, 3p, k8, Boriana
(Bulgaria, 20 years)
September 20th 2008, 14:03
What happened then was really a bloody shame. I didn’t have my pants, socks and shoes yet on and she pulled open the curtains. Then it really became troubling…. After I made it clear to her that I wasn’t happy about this and wanted to close the curtains. Then the lady pulled the door open and started to scream, after which her Bulgarian pimp began to address me. I shouldn’t expect to be inside for two hours, while I was inside for ten minutes at most.
SO GENTLEMEN, AVOID THIS LADY... THEN SHE WILL BUGGER OFF ON HER OWN ACCORD!!
A WASTE OF YOUR MONEY, THERE ARE MANY BETTER ONES IN THIS NAUGHTY ALLEY. UNFORTUNATE THAT THIS SORT OF LADIES OBSCURE THE IMAGE OF WINDOW PROSTITUTION
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=79312
Alkmaar, A, Z1, Anita
(Hungary, 20 years old)
February 29th 2008, 10:26
But Tuesday there was another lady in her room, judged from her last conversation she went back home and comes back in about 2 months.
You would never know but a number of times she has been approached aggressively and even beaten up by pimps.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=149187
Alkmaar, A13, k2
(Hungary, 30-33 years old)
February 22th 2008, 23:13
In any case she works voluntarily.
February 23th 2008, 12:35
I’m happy about that because a couple of times that I was with here I had the impression that this was not the case. Especially because it seems that with every new client she must phone her boyfriend/pimp (?). But perhaps that [the other client] has experienced this too and understood was she said?
Unfortunate that the sex was not great but as for the rest this girl is not that bad. She is actually quite friendly but you have to treat her a little bit with velvet gloves.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=3213
Utrecht, Zandpad 116-5, Vanessa
(Dominican Republic)
May 1sth 2002, 00:23
I went in there with the agreement of 200 bucks for half an hour with blowing, fucking and licking. When I came in the phone went immediately. Her mother! I went to wash myself for a while and came back. She said her mom goodbye and put her phone away which immediately went again. I was supposed to lie on bed for awhile and make myself ‘hard’. Her boyfriend/pimp was on the line and he was screaming like hell, that’s why I could hear her name. And in the meantime she was making gestures that she didn’t understand and giving meaningless answers. After a period of this nagging the line was broken. I asked if the phone could go out or on ‘silent’. That wasn’t possible because the phone credit of her boyfriend was used up anyway.
(…)
And then that *#@!& telephone went again. Again that asshole of a boyfriend/pimp. So she steps into the shower (I was dressing myself long before in the meantime out of annoyance) and while she's sobbing she begins a conversation again with that bigmouth. She first did take the wallet with her and then unlocks the door so that you can go. I kept standing there and she gestured multiple times to leave.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=89416
Utrecht, Zandpad 118-4, Hai Fa
(Thailand, 26-29 years old)
June 23th 2007, 10:46
Also this girl is really a hit, I already knew her from The Hague, I got her number then, we were to do an escort, then suddenly there was a call from her boyfriend (pimp) and we have never seen her again in The Hague !!!!!!
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=192617
1p, g2 k2, Angela
(Hungary, 21 years old)
March 9th 2007, 02:44
She told me that she was somewhat tired. It couldn’t be caused by the number of clients that day: I was only the third after yet 4-5 hours of being present. But just as with most of the ladies she makes far too long days, each day of the week. Asked about why the fairly logical answer was that if she doesn’t work she doesn’t earn money. Those long days are also often mentioned as an example how the ladies are exploited. But also completely without compulsion most of the women do want their highly paid day shifts rent to be maximally utilized.
July 13th 2007, 03:21
I fucked her fairly firmly, at least quickly – not very different than at other times I believe. Suddenly it was like: stop it. She couldn’t stand the hard pounding she said, sometimes she does, and she also didn’t like too softly, but this was much too hard. I immediately felt like a caddish barbarian. I then continued on as carefully as possible, but especially by her outbursts and the earlier feeling that it didn’t happen all too quickly for her, the fun was over for me. I said to her that I would finish it by hand, masturbated for quite a while, where she began too lie in a seductive pose for a while. I ignored it however and looked somewhat at the side towards the TV.
After 2 minutes I said this is not going to work, and I started to wash myself.
With a totally not understanding Angela; if I didn’t want to fuck her for a while, why etc tc.
Apologies, but these days everybody fucked hard she said. Later she said she had some pain (I said she should have told me beforehand), the day before somebody with a big one… had fucked her really hard. I explained to her that I wasn’t concerned with that she would indicate what she does or does not like today. But that I didn’t have the feeling that she was angry and impatient from the beginning and that her responses made her insecure (after all, nothing was right). And that I knew that I wouldn’t come anyway or it would take too long. She really took the effort to talk it out with me, ten “I’m sorry” ‘s, and that she was tired, that it was way too late for her, that I could better come in the afternoon. She apparently didn’t want to loose a client.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=87544
Deventer, Bokkinghang 20 t/m 24, Xenia
(Germany/Italy, 22-25 years old)
May 15th 2007, 01:04
Behind the third window of the new segment stood a long and blond lady. Inside it turned out to be Xenia, half German, half Italian. Speaks good Dutch with a light accent. She has worked in German FKK’s, but she didn’t found it hygienic, because of kissing, eating pussy and fingering you only get infections.
She talks very nicely, but when you hear this you start to think “Why does it go wrong with all German ladies”.
June 21th 2007, 22:58
I haven’t been here for precisely a year. I was tired of Deventer, not up to much and always a big question if the women, mostly foreign, are there voluntarily.
That I am a so-called walker I don’t find that bad, but I do want the lady to stand behind her choice of profession. And I believe that in Deventer there are mostly ladies who would rather have another job but who don’t have that choice in their own hand!!!! AND I DON’T WANT TO MAINTAIN THAT!
But well, I had the intention: I want to have sex this evening, with a delicious girl!
So I stepped into the car again and went to Deventer.
What I saw there surprised me! Almost every window was womanned and what was sitting there almost always looked good. With a number of them I did have the strong impression the their age was far below 20 and therefore ARE NOT THERE VOLUNTARILY!!!
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=165847
Club Sneeuwwitje, Rijksweg 32, Herten, Linda
(Eastern European)
April 20th 2008, 02:24
She had to sniff her nose all the time. I thought o mucus! So I asked do you have a cold. No she said it’s because of those damn drugs. Sad I thought. But it turns out to be normal there. And then it all came loose. That dirty old gray man (owner) with his Polish **** as I would call it in this case. He is only after 1 thing and that is money, money and even more money. The girls who work there work illegally, they have no sofie number or nothing. And also they are induced to use drugs. Of the 185 euro that I had to pay for, for one hour, she only got 80 euro!!! I said that doesn’t make sense at all. I don’t understand that x still walks around there. She is worth more. Only very unfortunate that it is those drugs again that ruins it for such a beautiful girl. I told her that she must go searching for another club then. Because this is going nowhere. Those girls simply don’t go because they don’t dare to I believe. They were being barked at everyday. By that guy. Even where I was standing!!! In my opinion this is intolerable. And hope that one day they raid this place and lock this guy up. But okay, that won’t happen I think. UNFORTUNATELY. And I hope that the girls can start working somewhere else or something. This is really a place to forget. They won’t see me here again.
http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=194688
Roermond, Heinsbergerweg 230, Club Yin Yang, Ascha
(Eastern European, 18-21 years old)
December 15th 2008, 11:44
I first licked her deliciously until she got a true orgasm, and that was really not fake. I still had my boxershort on, but yes, the little bear almost jumped out. First some heavy French kissing and in the meantime she was jerking me off a bit. After that a little blowing without condom and rather deep every now and then until the point of gagging. A horny sight at that moment. I indicated that I was about to come and wanted to take it out of her mouth but that wasn’t going to happen. She continued to blow me with deep thrusts, then she said that I should jerk off and come in her mouth and onto her face. This was real porn…..
Monday, December 22, 2008
Club prostitutes 2005
I counted 1343 club prostitutes in 2005, of whom 1132 a nationality was mentioned. Also here I have to add that I didn't record the dates of observation, so also observations from 2002 to 2004 are included.
Groups (I didn't record the group under which the prostitutes were categorized by hookers.nl. The groups "Northern Africa", "Western countries" and "Middle East" are not used by hookers.nl):
11,243%: Eastern Europe (of 64,238% of the women a nationality was named)
4,319%: No Group (0%)
1,862%: Africa (32,000%)
2,085%: North Africa (100%)
49,442%: Netherlands (100%)
6,701%: Western countries (100%)
3,127%: Southern Europe (47,619%)
8,563%: Asia (84,348%)
0,670%: Middle East (100%)
11,988%: Latin America (73,292%)
The nationalities mentioned (I also mention percentages in which I assume that prostitutes of whom only the group was mentioned have the same characteristics as the other prostitutes in that group)
664 (51,673%): The Netherlands
66 (6,089%): Thailand
48 (5,815%): Poland
53 (5,628%): Surinam
61 (4,747%): Germany
32 (3,398%): Brazil
16 (1,938%): Russia
24 (1,868%): Morocco
23 (1,790%): Belgium
19 (1,753%): Indonesia
15 (1,593%): Dominican Republic
9 (1,471%): Spain
6 (0,981%): Greece
7 (0,848%): Lithuania
6 (0,637%): Colombia
8 (0,623%): Turkey
5 (0,606%): Bulgaria
5 (0,531%): Venezuela
3 (0,490%): Portugal
2 (0,486%): Liberia
2 (0,486%): Ghana
4 (0,485%): Czech Republic
4 (0,485%): Hungary
4 (0,485%): Yugoslavia
5 (0,461%): China
3 (0,363%): Romania
3 (0,363%): Ukraine
2 (0,327%): Italy
3 (0,319%): Netherlands Antilles
3 (0,277%): India
1 (0,243%): South Africa
1 (0,243%): Nigeria
1 (0,243%): Cape Verde
1 (0,243%): Angola
2 (0,242%): Slovakia
3 (0,233%): France
2 (0,185%): Philippines
2 (0,156%): Tunesia
2 (0,156%): Egypt
1 (0,121%): Latvia
1 (0,106%): Jamaica
1 (0,106%): Mexico
1 (0,106%): Cuba
1 (0,106%): Argentina
1 (0,092%): Pakistan
1 (0,092%): South Korea
1 (0,078%): Denmark
1 (0,078%): Finland
1 (0,078%): Wales
1 (0,078%): Syria
The ages (mentioned by prostitutes and guesses by clients [but not including estimates mentioned in the review forms])
248 club prostitutes
average: 27,494 (SD=6,890)
younger than 18:0,403% (?, at least, that's what a client thought)
18-23: 31,048%
24-29: 36,694%
30-39: 24,597%
40 years or older: 7,258%
27 Eastern European prostitutes
average: 27,500 (SD=6,021)
18-23: 22,222%
24-29: 48,148%
30-39: 22,222%
40 years or older: 7,407%
35 Latin American prostitutes
average: 26,554 (SD=5,931)
18-23: 37,143%
24-29: 34,286%
30-39: 25,714%
40 years or older: 2,857%
106 Dutch prostitutes
average: 27,637 (SD=7,489)
younger than 18: 0,943% (?, you know I included estimates)
18-23: 31,132%
24-29: 36,792%
30-39: 21,698%
40 years or older: 9,434%
Back to 2008 to have some comparison material (also age mentioned by prostitutes and guesses by clients [but not including estimates derived from review forms]):
309 club prostitutes (2008)
average: 29,210 (SD=7,957)
18-23: 28,803%
24-29: 32,039%
30-39: 26,861%
40 years or older: 12,298%
71 Eastern European prostitutes (2008)
average: 26,476 (SD=6,420)
18-23: 36,620%
24-29: 39,437%
30-39: 18,310%
40 years or older: 5,634%
37 Latin American prostitutes (2008)
average: 29,917 (SD=7,860)
18-23: 21,622%
24-29: 32,432%
30-39: 32,432%
40 years or older: 13,514%
117 Dutch prostitutes (2008)
average: 29,436 (8,040)
18-23: 34,188%
24-29: 22,222%
30-39: 32,479%
40 years or older: 11,111%
Groups (I didn't record the group under which the prostitutes were categorized by hookers.nl. The groups "Northern Africa", "Western countries" and "Middle East" are not used by hookers.nl):
11,243%: Eastern Europe (of 64,238% of the women a nationality was named)
4,319%: No Group (0%)
1,862%: Africa (32,000%)
2,085%: North Africa (100%)
49,442%: Netherlands (100%)
6,701%: Western countries (100%)
3,127%: Southern Europe (47,619%)
8,563%: Asia (84,348%)
0,670%: Middle East (100%)
11,988%: Latin America (73,292%)
The nationalities mentioned (I also mention percentages in which I assume that prostitutes of whom only the group was mentioned have the same characteristics as the other prostitutes in that group)
664 (51,673%): The Netherlands
66 (6,089%): Thailand
48 (5,815%): Poland
53 (5,628%): Surinam
61 (4,747%): Germany
32 (3,398%): Brazil
16 (1,938%): Russia
24 (1,868%): Morocco
23 (1,790%): Belgium
19 (1,753%): Indonesia
15 (1,593%): Dominican Republic
9 (1,471%): Spain
6 (0,981%): Greece
7 (0,848%): Lithuania
6 (0,637%): Colombia
8 (0,623%): Turkey
5 (0,606%): Bulgaria
5 (0,531%): Venezuela
3 (0,490%): Portugal
2 (0,486%): Liberia
2 (0,486%): Ghana
4 (0,485%): Czech Republic
4 (0,485%): Hungary
4 (0,485%): Yugoslavia
5 (0,461%): China
3 (0,363%): Romania
3 (0,363%): Ukraine
2 (0,327%): Italy
3 (0,319%): Netherlands Antilles
3 (0,277%): India
1 (0,243%): South Africa
1 (0,243%): Nigeria
1 (0,243%): Cape Verde
1 (0,243%): Angola
2 (0,242%): Slovakia
3 (0,233%): France
2 (0,185%): Philippines
2 (0,156%): Tunesia
2 (0,156%): Egypt
1 (0,121%): Latvia
1 (0,106%): Jamaica
1 (0,106%): Mexico
1 (0,106%): Cuba
1 (0,106%): Argentina
1 (0,092%): Pakistan
1 (0,092%): South Korea
1 (0,078%): Denmark
1 (0,078%): Finland
1 (0,078%): Wales
1 (0,078%): Syria
The ages (mentioned by prostitutes and guesses by clients [but not including estimates mentioned in the review forms])
248 club prostitutes
average: 27,494 (SD=6,890)
younger than 18:0,403% (?, at least, that's what a client thought)
18-23: 31,048%
24-29: 36,694%
30-39: 24,597%
40 years or older: 7,258%
27 Eastern European prostitutes
average: 27,500 (SD=6,021)
18-23: 22,222%
24-29: 48,148%
30-39: 22,222%
40 years or older: 7,407%
35 Latin American prostitutes
average: 26,554 (SD=5,931)
18-23: 37,143%
24-29: 34,286%
30-39: 25,714%
40 years or older: 2,857%
106 Dutch prostitutes
average: 27,637 (SD=7,489)
younger than 18: 0,943% (?, you know I included estimates)
18-23: 31,132%
24-29: 36,792%
30-39: 21,698%
40 years or older: 9,434%
Back to 2008 to have some comparison material (also age mentioned by prostitutes and guesses by clients [but not including estimates derived from review forms]):
309 club prostitutes (2008)
average: 29,210 (SD=7,957)
18-23: 28,803%
24-29: 32,039%
30-39: 26,861%
40 years or older: 12,298%
71 Eastern European prostitutes (2008)
average: 26,476 (SD=6,420)
18-23: 36,620%
24-29: 39,437%
30-39: 18,310%
40 years or older: 5,634%
37 Latin American prostitutes (2008)
average: 29,917 (SD=7,860)
18-23: 21,622%
24-29: 32,432%
30-39: 32,432%
40 years or older: 13,514%
117 Dutch prostitutes (2008)
average: 29,436 (8,040)
18-23: 34,188%
24-29: 22,222%
30-39: 32,479%
40 years or older: 11,111%
Window Prostitutes 2005
Here I give some numbers from the past (2005) to make some comparisons with now (2008). Unfortunately I counted differently at that time. I didn't record the times of observations, so also some observations from 2002 through 2004 were counted.
I counted 1481 window prostitutes in 2005. Of 1039 window prostitutes the nationalities were mentioned. Unfortunately I didn't often record the group under which the prostitutes were categorized by hookers.nl, except where no nationality was mentioned.
The groups "Northern Africa", "Western countries" and "Middle East" are not used by hookers.nl.
23,228%: Eastern Europe (of 51,744% a nationality was mentioned)
3,309%: No group (0%)
3,106%: Africa (47,826%)
1,350%: Northern Africa (100%)
22,957%: The Netherlands (100%)
6,955%: Western countries (100%)
8,103%: Southern Europe (69,167%)
5,807%: Asia (86,047%)
0,473%: Middle East (100%)
24,713%: Latin America (57,923%)
The nationalities mentioned (I also mention percentages in which I assume that prostitutes of whom only the group was mentioned have the same characteristics as the other prostitutes in that group)
340 (23,743%): The Netherlands
56 (6,751%): Dominican Republic
42 (5,668%): Poland
39 (5,263%): Czech Republic
64 (4,469%): Germany
53 (4,301%): Thailand
34 (4,099%): Colombia
40 (4,039%): Spain
32 (3,858%): Brazil
31 (3,737%): Surinam
19 (2,564%): Russia
21 (2,532%): Venezuela
18 (2,429%): Bulgaria
17 (2,294%): Hungary
20 (2,019%): Italy
20 (2,019%): Greece
10 (1,460%): Ghana
10 (1,350%): Ukraine
15 (1,217%): Indonesia
10 (1,206%): Netherlands Antilles
16 (1,117%): Belgium
8 (1,080%): Lithuania
15 (1,047%): Morocco
6 (0,876%): Nigeria
6 (0,810%): Slovakia
6 (0,810%): Yugoslavia
10 (0,698%): France
5 (0,603%): Jamaica
5 (0,603%): Cuba
4 (0,540%): Romania
4 (0,482%): Ecuador
3 (0,405%): Albania
3 (0,362%): Puerto Rico
3 (0,362%): Mexico
3 (0,362%): Costa Rica
3 (0,362%): Argentina
5 (0,349%): Turkey
4 (0,325%): Philippines
3 (0,303%): Portugal
2 (0,292%): South Africa
2 (0,270%): Latvia
2 (0,270%): Estonia
3 (0,209%): Tunesia
3 (0,209%): Austria
2 (0,162%): China
1 (0,146%): Gambia
1 (0,146%): Cameroon
1 (0,146%): Sierra Leone
1 (0,146%): Mauretania
2 (0,140%): Denmark
2 (0,140%): England
1 (0,135%): Chechnya
1 (0,135%): Armenia
1 (0,121%): Peru
1 (0,121%): Panama
1 (0,070%): Egypt
1 (0,070%): Algeria
1 (0,070%): Finland
1 (0,070%): Sweden
1 (0,070%): Scotland
1 (0,070%): Ireland
1 (0,070%): Iceland
1 (0,070%): Switzerland
1 (0,070%): Iraq
1 (0,070%): Palestine
Unfortunately I didn't count ethnicities among Dutch prostitutes, so, Dutch Moroccan prostitutes were simply "Moroccan". And I didn't record the fact that prostitutes often mention different nationalities to different clients, I often assumed the last mentioned was the right one (I simply thought the clients were mistaken). It took many months for me to realize that prostitutes could actually lie; that Italian and Greece prostitutes are not probably not Italian or Greece but probably Bulgarian or Albanian.
Unfortunately I also didn't look at the sexual activities done by prostitutes and clients.
Or the money paid to the prostitutes, or times spent with them.
But I did record ages, unfortunately, not differentiating between estimates by clients and ages mentioned by prostitutes. But I will make a "flashback" to 2008 and include the estimates of that year too, which will make the data comparable (but I don't use the estimates in the review forms).
ages mentioned and guessed ages of 309 prostitutes:
average: 27,286 (SD=6,833)
18-23: 34,951%
24-29: 36,570%
30-39: 21,036%
40 years or older: 7,443%
ages mentioned and guessed ages of 75 Eastern European prostitutes:
average: 25,600 (SD=4,471)
18-23: 32,000%
24-29: 48,000%
30-39: 20,000%
40 years or older: 0%
ages mentioned and guessed ages of 62 Latin American prostitutes:
average: 30,169 (SD=7,697)
18-23: 22,581%
24-29: 30,645%
30-39: 30,645%
40 years or older: 16,129%
ages mentioned and guessed ages of 78 Dutch prostitutes:
average: 26,532 (SD=7,655)
18-23: 47,436%
24-29: 30,769%
30-39: 14,103%
40 years or older:7,692%
Back to 2008:
ages mentioned and guessed ages of 840 prostitutes (in 2008):
average: 27,215 (SD=6,987)
18-23: 40,833%
24-29: 32,262%
30-39: 19,762%
40 years or older:7,143%
ages mentioned and guessed ages of 446 Eastern European prostitutes (in 2008):
average: 24,866 (SD=5,049)
18-23: 53,363%
24-29: 32,063%
30-39: 13,004%
40 years or older:1,570%
ages mentioned and guessed ages of 138 Latin American prostitutes (in 2008):
average: 33,578 (SD=7,709)
18-23: 5,072%
24-29: 34,058%
30-39: 38,406%
40 years or older: 22,464%
ages mentioned and guessed ages of 141 Dutch prostitutes (in 2008):
average: 26,349 (SD=7,002)
18-23: 53,191%
24-29: 24,113%
30-39: 16,312%
40 years or older: 6,383%
I counted 1481 window prostitutes in 2005. Of 1039 window prostitutes the nationalities were mentioned. Unfortunately I didn't often record the group under which the prostitutes were categorized by hookers.nl, except where no nationality was mentioned.
The groups "Northern Africa", "Western countries" and "Middle East" are not used by hookers.nl.
23,228%: Eastern Europe (of 51,744% a nationality was mentioned)
3,309%: No group (0%)
3,106%: Africa (47,826%)
1,350%: Northern Africa (100%)
22,957%: The Netherlands (100%)
6,955%: Western countries (100%)
8,103%: Southern Europe (69,167%)
5,807%: Asia (86,047%)
0,473%: Middle East (100%)
24,713%: Latin America (57,923%)
The nationalities mentioned (I also mention percentages in which I assume that prostitutes of whom only the group was mentioned have the same characteristics as the other prostitutes in that group)
340 (23,743%): The Netherlands
56 (6,751%): Dominican Republic
42 (5,668%): Poland
39 (5,263%): Czech Republic
64 (4,469%): Germany
53 (4,301%): Thailand
34 (4,099%): Colombia
40 (4,039%): Spain
32 (3,858%): Brazil
31 (3,737%): Surinam
19 (2,564%): Russia
21 (2,532%): Venezuela
18 (2,429%): Bulgaria
17 (2,294%): Hungary
20 (2,019%): Italy
20 (2,019%): Greece
10 (1,460%): Ghana
10 (1,350%): Ukraine
15 (1,217%): Indonesia
10 (1,206%): Netherlands Antilles
16 (1,117%): Belgium
8 (1,080%): Lithuania
15 (1,047%): Morocco
6 (0,876%): Nigeria
6 (0,810%): Slovakia
6 (0,810%): Yugoslavia
10 (0,698%): France
5 (0,603%): Jamaica
5 (0,603%): Cuba
4 (0,540%): Romania
4 (0,482%): Ecuador
3 (0,405%): Albania
3 (0,362%): Puerto Rico
3 (0,362%): Mexico
3 (0,362%): Costa Rica
3 (0,362%): Argentina
5 (0,349%): Turkey
4 (0,325%): Philippines
3 (0,303%): Portugal
2 (0,292%): South Africa
2 (0,270%): Latvia
2 (0,270%): Estonia
3 (0,209%): Tunesia
3 (0,209%): Austria
2 (0,162%): China
1 (0,146%): Gambia
1 (0,146%): Cameroon
1 (0,146%): Sierra Leone
1 (0,146%): Mauretania
2 (0,140%): Denmark
2 (0,140%): England
1 (0,135%): Chechnya
1 (0,135%): Armenia
1 (0,121%): Peru
1 (0,121%): Panama
1 (0,070%): Egypt
1 (0,070%): Algeria
1 (0,070%): Finland
1 (0,070%): Sweden
1 (0,070%): Scotland
1 (0,070%): Ireland
1 (0,070%): Iceland
1 (0,070%): Switzerland
1 (0,070%): Iraq
1 (0,070%): Palestine
Unfortunately I didn't count ethnicities among Dutch prostitutes, so, Dutch Moroccan prostitutes were simply "Moroccan". And I didn't record the fact that prostitutes often mention different nationalities to different clients, I often assumed the last mentioned was the right one (I simply thought the clients were mistaken). It took many months for me to realize that prostitutes could actually lie; that Italian and Greece prostitutes are not probably not Italian or Greece but probably Bulgarian or Albanian.
Unfortunately I also didn't look at the sexual activities done by prostitutes and clients.
Or the money paid to the prostitutes, or times spent with them.
But I did record ages, unfortunately, not differentiating between estimates by clients and ages mentioned by prostitutes. But I will make a "flashback" to 2008 and include the estimates of that year too, which will make the data comparable (but I don't use the estimates in the review forms).
ages mentioned and guessed ages of 309 prostitutes:
average: 27,286 (SD=6,833)
18-23: 34,951%
24-29: 36,570%
30-39: 21,036%
40 years or older: 7,443%
ages mentioned and guessed ages of 75 Eastern European prostitutes:
average: 25,600 (SD=4,471)
18-23: 32,000%
24-29: 48,000%
30-39: 20,000%
40 years or older: 0%
ages mentioned and guessed ages of 62 Latin American prostitutes:
average: 30,169 (SD=7,697)
18-23: 22,581%
24-29: 30,645%
30-39: 30,645%
40 years or older: 16,129%
ages mentioned and guessed ages of 78 Dutch prostitutes:
average: 26,532 (SD=7,655)
18-23: 47,436%
24-29: 30,769%
30-39: 14,103%
40 years or older:7,692%
Back to 2008:
ages mentioned and guessed ages of 840 prostitutes (in 2008):
average: 27,215 (SD=6,987)
18-23: 40,833%
24-29: 32,262%
30-39: 19,762%
40 years or older:7,143%
ages mentioned and guessed ages of 446 Eastern European prostitutes (in 2008):
average: 24,866 (SD=5,049)
18-23: 53,363%
24-29: 32,063%
30-39: 13,004%
40 years or older:1,570%
ages mentioned and guessed ages of 138 Latin American prostitutes (in 2008):
average: 33,578 (SD=7,709)
18-23: 5,072%
24-29: 34,058%
30-39: 38,406%
40 years or older: 22,464%
ages mentioned and guessed ages of 141 Dutch prostitutes (in 2008):
average: 26,349 (SD=7,002)
18-23: 53,191%
24-29: 24,113%
30-39: 16,312%
40 years or older: 6,383%
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Club prostitutes 2008
I finally finished my hookers.nl club count.
I counted 1109 prostitutes in clubs and privéhuizen, far less than described in window prostitution. I want to keep the data comparable to window prostitution so I left out prostitutes which were observed outside the period between November the 14th 2007 and November the 14th 2008. This way I'm left with 891 prostitutes.
In this count it was clear that the prostitutes reviewed in Limburg and Noord Brabant were far overrepresented compared to other areas. Especially the saunaclubs in Limburg are well described. The charactaristics of the prostitutes in the rest of the Netherlands are very consistent, but in Limburg there are many "German" and Eastern European prostitutes. In Noord Brabant on the other hand the Dutch women dominate. So you must take that into account. It is also true that in sauna clubs the women far more often give blowjobs without a condom.
Hookers.nl divides the prostitutes in groups. The prostitutes are grouped as follows. I also give the percentage of the prostitutes in that group of whom a country of origin was named.
20,539% Eastern Europe (of 80,874% women a country of origin was named)
3,255% No Group (37,931%)
2,806% Africa (72,000%)
36,700% The Netherlands (100%)
7,071% Germany (100%)
2,132% Belgium (100%)
2,918% Southern Europe (84,615%)
4,938% Thailand (100%)
0,337% China (100%)
9,203% Latin America (64,634%)
3,479% Surinam (100%)
3,367% different (73,333%)
3,255% other Asian (79.310%)
The following countries of origin are named (of 784 prostitutes). I also mention a percentage in which I assume that all the other prostitutes in a certain group of whom NO country of origin is named have the same characteristics as the group who do have a country of origin named.
341 (39,190%): The Netherlands
51 (7,278%): Poland
62 (7,012%): Germany
44 (4,938%): Thailand
31 (4,345%): Hungary
24 (4,024%): Brazil
21 (2,418%): Surinam
19 (2,153%): Belgium
15 (2,075%): Romania
11 (1,875%): Colombia
13 (1,872%): Indonesia
11 (1,841%): Bulgaria
11 (1,828%): Dominican Republic
12 (1,680%): Slovakia
12 (1,639%): Russia
8 (1,335%): Morocco
9 (1,249%): Czech Republic
8 (1,050%): Italy
6 (0,833%): Latvia
7 (0,815%): "Hindustani"
5 (0,707%): Netherlands Antilles
4 (0,624%): Ghana
4 (0,539%): Spain
4 (0,539%): Turkey
3 (0,521%): Venezuela
2 (0,470%): Cuba
3 (0,442%): Tunesia
3 (0,425%): Philippines
3 (0,416%): Lithuania
3 (0,398%): Portugal
2 (0,347%): Jamaica
2 (0,312%): Sierra Leone
1 (0,296%): Belarus
1 (0,296%): "Africa"
1 (0,296%): "other Asian"
2 (0,283%): Japan
2 (0,278%): Ukraine
2 (0,265%): Greece
2 (0,224%): China
1 (0,174%): Liberia
1 (0,174%): Mexico
1 (0,174%): Haiti
1 (0,174%): Bolivia
1 (0,156%): Nigeria
1 (0,156%): Ivory Coast
1 (0,156%): Somalia
1 (0,156%): Kenia
1 (0,156%): Madagascar
1 (0,156%): Uganda
1 (0,153%): United States of America
1 (0,142%): Vietnam
1 (0,142%): India
1 (0,142%): Pakistan
1 (0,139%): Yugoslavia
1 (0,139%): Sweden
1 (0,139%): Kazachstan
1 (0,139%): Israel
1 (0,112%): Austria
This time the prostitutes were far more consistent when they mentioned nationalities, in only 12 cases there were discrepencies. The nationalities I mention on the left are what I found most obvious and which I chose in the list above.
(2x) Eastern Europe = Italy
Slovakia = Czech Republic
Latvia = Estionia, Russia
Hungary = Czech Republic
Netherlands = China
Italy = Netherlands
Indonesia = "Hindustani"
Turkey = (Tunesia/Germany)
Colombia = Brazil
Colombia = Venezuela
Netherlands Antilles = Surinam
Of 30 Dutch prostitutes (of a total of 341) a different ethnic background was mentioned:
5 Morocco
4 Indonesia
3 Netherlands Antilles
3 "foreign"
1 Poland
1 Russia
1 Yugoslavia
1 Gambia
1 Tunesia
1 Egypt
1 Italy
1 Spain
1 "Asia"
1 South Korea
1 Turkey
1 "Latin America"
1 Surinam
1 "Hindustani"
1 "black"
The situation in window prostitution changed dramatically since 3 years ago, but in the clubs the situation seems to be very similar, just like a time freeze, the Dutch prostitutes still dominate, and many Eastern European prostitutes in clubs are Polish. I realize that I didn't mention detailed information per type of prostitution for the situation 3 years ago, so the reader cannot compare for themselves. I will do it in the future.
It is striking that in clubs (and privéhuizen) the prostitutes far more often engage into unsafe sex, but this time the differences between subgroups are not as large as compared to window prostitution.
I counted the types of unsafe sex the prostitutes (and clients) went into:
of 891 prostitutes:
39,843% blowjob without a condom
67,677% kissing
68,575% cunnilingus
9,203% anal with condom
1,122% anal without condom
13,244% rimming (buttlicking)
6,734% facial
3,030% coitus without condom
Now I will differentiate between subgroups.
of 189 Eastern European prostitutes
40,741% blowjob without a condom
57,672% kissing
61,376% cunnilingus
4,233% anal with condom
0,529% anal without condom
7,937% rimming (buttlicking)
2,646% facial
0,529% coitus without condom
of 111 Latin American prostitutes
27,928% blowjob without a condom
67,568% kissing
70,270% cunnilingus
6,306% anal with condom
0,000% anal without condom
5,405% rimming (buttlicking)
3,604% facial
2,703% coitus without condom
of 341 Dutch prostitutes
35,777% blowjob without a condom
75,660% kissing
75,073% cunnilingus
11,730% anal with condom
1,173% anal without condom
15,294% rimming (buttlicking)
8,504% facial
2,346% coitus without condom
of 44 Thai prostitutes
38,636% blowjob without a condom
61,364% kissing
61,364% cunnilingus
2,273% anal with condom
2,273% anal without condom
9,091% rimming (buttlicking)
4,545% facial
13,636% coitus without condom
of 62 German prostitutes
77,419% blowjob without a condom
64,516% kissing
70,968% cunnilingus
16,129% anal with condom
1,613% anal without condom
20,968% rimming (buttlicking)
11,290% facial
3,226% coitus without condom
of 524 prostitutes younger than 30 (I also use age estimates derived from review forms)
40,267% blowjob without a condom
66,794% kissing
67,366% cunnilingus
8,015% anal with condom
0,382% anal without condom
10,687% rimming (buttlicking)
5,153% facial
0,954% coitus without condom
of 319 prostitutes 30 years or older (I also use age estimates derived from review forms)
42,006% blowjob without a condom
72,100% kissing
73,668% cunnilingus
12,226% anal with condom
2,508% anal without condom
17,868% rimming (buttlicking)
10,031% facial
6,897% coitus without condom
Ages mentioned by 222 prostitutes
Average 28,280 (SD=7,455)
18-23: 32,432%
24-29: 33,784%
30-39: 24,324%
40 years or older: 9,459%
Ages mentioned by 55 Eastern European prostitutes
Average 25,341 (SD=5,510)
18-23: 41,818%
24-29: 41,818%
30-39: 12,727%
40 years or older: 3,636%
Ages mentioned by 30 Latin American prostitutes
Average: 28,648 (SD=6,521)
18-23: 23,333%
24-29: 36,667%
30-39: 33,333%
40 years or older: 6,667%
Ages mentioned by 80 Dutch prostitutes
Average: 28,406 (SD=7,416)
18-23: 36,250%
24-29: 26,250%
30-39: 30,000%
40 years or older: 7,500%
Clients typically pay 105 euros for 55 minutes of sex. The differences between different groups of prostitutes are not big, only the Latin American prostitutes are slightly cheaper; 1,7 euros per minute compared to 2 euros per minute for the others.
I counted 1109 prostitutes in clubs and privéhuizen, far less than described in window prostitution. I want to keep the data comparable to window prostitution so I left out prostitutes which were observed outside the period between November the 14th 2007 and November the 14th 2008. This way I'm left with 891 prostitutes.
In this count it was clear that the prostitutes reviewed in Limburg and Noord Brabant were far overrepresented compared to other areas. Especially the saunaclubs in Limburg are well described. The charactaristics of the prostitutes in the rest of the Netherlands are very consistent, but in Limburg there are many "German" and Eastern European prostitutes. In Noord Brabant on the other hand the Dutch women dominate. So you must take that into account. It is also true that in sauna clubs the women far more often give blowjobs without a condom.
Hookers.nl divides the prostitutes in groups. The prostitutes are grouped as follows. I also give the percentage of the prostitutes in that group of whom a country of origin was named.
20,539% Eastern Europe (of 80,874% women a country of origin was named)
3,255% No Group (37,931%)
2,806% Africa (72,000%)
36,700% The Netherlands (100%)
7,071% Germany (100%)
2,132% Belgium (100%)
2,918% Southern Europe (84,615%)
4,938% Thailand (100%)
0,337% China (100%)
9,203% Latin America (64,634%)
3,479% Surinam (100%)
3,367% different (73,333%)
3,255% other Asian (79.310%)
The following countries of origin are named (of 784 prostitutes). I also mention a percentage in which I assume that all the other prostitutes in a certain group of whom NO country of origin is named have the same characteristics as the group who do have a country of origin named.
341 (39,190%): The Netherlands
51 (7,278%): Poland
62 (7,012%): Germany
44 (4,938%): Thailand
31 (4,345%): Hungary
24 (4,024%): Brazil
21 (2,418%): Surinam
19 (2,153%): Belgium
15 (2,075%): Romania
11 (1,875%): Colombia
13 (1,872%): Indonesia
11 (1,841%): Bulgaria
11 (1,828%): Dominican Republic
12 (1,680%): Slovakia
12 (1,639%): Russia
8 (1,335%): Morocco
9 (1,249%): Czech Republic
8 (1,050%): Italy
6 (0,833%): Latvia
7 (0,815%): "Hindustani"
5 (0,707%): Netherlands Antilles
4 (0,624%): Ghana
4 (0,539%): Spain
4 (0,539%): Turkey
3 (0,521%): Venezuela
2 (0,470%): Cuba
3 (0,442%): Tunesia
3 (0,425%): Philippines
3 (0,416%): Lithuania
3 (0,398%): Portugal
2 (0,347%): Jamaica
2 (0,312%): Sierra Leone
1 (0,296%): Belarus
1 (0,296%): "Africa"
1 (0,296%): "other Asian"
2 (0,283%): Japan
2 (0,278%): Ukraine
2 (0,265%): Greece
2 (0,224%): China
1 (0,174%): Liberia
1 (0,174%): Mexico
1 (0,174%): Haiti
1 (0,174%): Bolivia
1 (0,156%): Nigeria
1 (0,156%): Ivory Coast
1 (0,156%): Somalia
1 (0,156%): Kenia
1 (0,156%): Madagascar
1 (0,156%): Uganda
1 (0,153%): United States of America
1 (0,142%): Vietnam
1 (0,142%): India
1 (0,142%): Pakistan
1 (0,139%): Yugoslavia
1 (0,139%): Sweden
1 (0,139%): Kazachstan
1 (0,139%): Israel
1 (0,112%): Austria
This time the prostitutes were far more consistent when they mentioned nationalities, in only 12 cases there were discrepencies. The nationalities I mention on the left are what I found most obvious and which I chose in the list above.
(2x) Eastern Europe = Italy
Slovakia = Czech Republic
Latvia = Estionia, Russia
Hungary = Czech Republic
Netherlands = China
Italy = Netherlands
Indonesia = "Hindustani"
Turkey = (Tunesia/Germany)
Colombia = Brazil
Colombia = Venezuela
Netherlands Antilles = Surinam
Of 30 Dutch prostitutes (of a total of 341) a different ethnic background was mentioned:
5 Morocco
4 Indonesia
3 Netherlands Antilles
3 "foreign"
1 Poland
1 Russia
1 Yugoslavia
1 Gambia
1 Tunesia
1 Egypt
1 Italy
1 Spain
1 "Asia"
1 South Korea
1 Turkey
1 "Latin America"
1 Surinam
1 "Hindustani"
1 "black"
The situation in window prostitution changed dramatically since 3 years ago, but in the clubs the situation seems to be very similar, just like a time freeze, the Dutch prostitutes still dominate, and many Eastern European prostitutes in clubs are Polish. I realize that I didn't mention detailed information per type of prostitution for the situation 3 years ago, so the reader cannot compare for themselves. I will do it in the future.
It is striking that in clubs (and privéhuizen) the prostitutes far more often engage into unsafe sex, but this time the differences between subgroups are not as large as compared to window prostitution.
I counted the types of unsafe sex the prostitutes (and clients) went into:
of 891 prostitutes:
39,843% blowjob without a condom
67,677% kissing
68,575% cunnilingus
9,203% anal with condom
1,122% anal without condom
13,244% rimming (buttlicking)
6,734% facial
3,030% coitus without condom
Now I will differentiate between subgroups.
of 189 Eastern European prostitutes
40,741% blowjob without a condom
57,672% kissing
61,376% cunnilingus
4,233% anal with condom
0,529% anal without condom
7,937% rimming (buttlicking)
2,646% facial
0,529% coitus without condom
of 111 Latin American prostitutes
27,928% blowjob without a condom
67,568% kissing
70,270% cunnilingus
6,306% anal with condom
0,000% anal without condom
5,405% rimming (buttlicking)
3,604% facial
2,703% coitus without condom
of 341 Dutch prostitutes
35,777% blowjob without a condom
75,660% kissing
75,073% cunnilingus
11,730% anal with condom
1,173% anal without condom
15,294% rimming (buttlicking)
8,504% facial
2,346% coitus without condom
of 44 Thai prostitutes
38,636% blowjob without a condom
61,364% kissing
61,364% cunnilingus
2,273% anal with condom
2,273% anal without condom
9,091% rimming (buttlicking)
4,545% facial
13,636% coitus without condom
of 62 German prostitutes
77,419% blowjob without a condom
64,516% kissing
70,968% cunnilingus
16,129% anal with condom
1,613% anal without condom
20,968% rimming (buttlicking)
11,290% facial
3,226% coitus without condom
of 524 prostitutes younger than 30 (I also use age estimates derived from review forms)
40,267% blowjob without a condom
66,794% kissing
67,366% cunnilingus
8,015% anal with condom
0,382% anal without condom
10,687% rimming (buttlicking)
5,153% facial
0,954% coitus without condom
of 319 prostitutes 30 years or older (I also use age estimates derived from review forms)
42,006% blowjob without a condom
72,100% kissing
73,668% cunnilingus
12,226% anal with condom
2,508% anal without condom
17,868% rimming (buttlicking)
10,031% facial
6,897% coitus without condom
Ages mentioned by 222 prostitutes
Average 28,280 (SD=7,455)
18-23: 32,432%
24-29: 33,784%
30-39: 24,324%
40 years or older: 9,459%
Ages mentioned by 55 Eastern European prostitutes
Average 25,341 (SD=5,510)
18-23: 41,818%
24-29: 41,818%
30-39: 12,727%
40 years or older: 3,636%
Ages mentioned by 30 Latin American prostitutes
Average: 28,648 (SD=6,521)
18-23: 23,333%
24-29: 36,667%
30-39: 33,333%
40 years or older: 6,667%
Ages mentioned by 80 Dutch prostitutes
Average: 28,406 (SD=7,416)
18-23: 36,250%
24-29: 26,250%
30-39: 30,000%
40 years or older: 7,500%
Clients typically pay 105 euros for 55 minutes of sex. The differences between different groups of prostitutes are not big, only the Latin American prostitutes are slightly cheaper; 1,7 euros per minute compared to 2 euros per minute for the others.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Window prostitutes 2008
Finally my window prostitute hookers.nl count is done.
I counted 2289 prostitutes but I had to leave some off because the reviews were too old. I started counting on November the 14th, so I decided to only analyze the prostitutes between November 14th 2007 and November 14th 2008.
The clients can fill in review forms where they can group the prostitutes into the following subgroups. I added some numbers and percentages. This time around of many prostitutes also a nationality is mentioned in the reviews, so that is interesting (these percentages were much less 3 years ago).
827 (45,044%): Eastern European (for 87,908% a nationality is named)
376 (20,479%): Latina (79,521%)
283 (15,414%): Dutch (obviously 100%)
114 (6,209%): Southern Europe (90,351%)
49 (2,669%): other (83,673%)
44 (2,397%): German (97,727%)
39 (2,124%): African (69,231%)
33 (1,797%): Thai (100%)
23 (1,253%): no group (86,957%)
22 (1,198%): "other Asians"
13 (0,708%): Surinamese (92,308%)
10 (0,545%): Belgian (100%)
3 (0,163%): Chinese (100%)
The nationalities mentioned are the following. Many prostitutes mentioned different nationalities to different clients, so I had to make a choice which one I found the most logical. The percentages mentioned are adjusted in such a way that for instance; prostitutes who are thought by the clients to be "Eastern European" are assumed to have the same distribution of nationalities as the other Eastern European women.
Total number of prostitutes:1836
Total number of prostitutes who named a nationality:1622
304 (16,689%): The Netherlands
226 (14,002%): Bulgaria
186 (11,522%): Hungary
123 (8,367%): Dominican Republic
93 (5,758%): Romania
79 (4,873%): Poland
63 (4,292%): Colombia
59 (3,650%): Czech Republic
46 (3,134%): Brazil
42 (2,851%): Venezuela
35 (2,156%): Spain
36 (2,006%): Germany
36 (1,974%): Thailand
30 (1,809%): Italy
15 (0,929%): Lithuania
12 (0,810%): Cuba
13 (0,805%): Ukraine
13 (0,799%): Greece
11 (0,682%): Latvia
11 (0,649%): Surinam
7 (0,551%): Ghana
8 (0,547%): Morocco
7 (0,524%): Jamaica
8 (0,491%): Albania
9 (0,490%): Belgium
6 (0,462%): Nigeria
7 (0,450%): France
7 (0,445%): Austria
7 (0,434%): Slovakia
6 (0,370%): Croatia
6 (0,362%): Kosovo
5 (0,342%): Puerto Rico
5 (0,342%): Panama
4 (0,274%): Chile
3 (0,205%): Ecuador
3 (0,205%): Costa Rica
3 (0,195%): England
3 (0,186%): Slovenia
3 (0,181%): Portugal
3 (0,171%): Philippines
3 (0,169%): Indonesia
2 (0,144%): Tunesia
2 (0,137%): Mexico
2 (0,134%): Netherlands Antilles
2 (0,134%): Argentina
2 (0,127%): Turkey
2 (0,124%): Serbia
2 (0,124%): Belarus
2 (0,124%): Moldova
2 (0,116%): Macedonia
1 (0,079%): Liberia
1 (0,079%): Sierra Leone
1 (0,079%): Mauretania
1 (0,079%): Guinea
1 (0,068%): Peru
1 (0,068%): Martinique
1 (0,068%): Guyana
1 (0,068%): Trinidad and Tobago
1 (0,065%): Scotland
1 (0,065%): Switzerland
1 (0,065%): Australia
1 (0,065%): United States of America
1 (0,065%): "Arab"
1 (0,065%): Iran
1 (0,063%): "middle east"
1 (0,062%): Estonia
1 (0,062%): Armenia
1 (0,060%): Egypt
1 (0,057%): Malaysia
1 (0,057%): "Hindustani"
1 (0,054%): China
1 (0,054%): Laos
I will also mention the cases where prostitutes mentioned different nationalities. The ones on the left are the ones I found the most plausible. Prostitutes will also often say they are halfbloods, so when she says she has a Italian and Bulgarian parents I write (Italy/Bulgaria).
104 cases
Albania = Italy
Albania = Czech Republic, Serbia
Albania = Serbia
Armenia = Germany
Brazil = Cuba
Brazil = Jamaica
Bulgaria = Croatia
(3x) Bulgaria = Czech Republic
Bulgaria = (Czech Republic/Hungary), Yugoslavia, Hungary
(2x) Bulgaria = Greece
Bulgaria = (Greece/Bulgaria)
(9x) Bulgaria = Hungary
Bulgaria = Hungary, Finland
Bulgaria = Italy, Romania
Bulgaria = Italy, Hungary
Bulgaria = Lebanon, Tunesia, Turkey
Bulgaria = Poland
Bulgaria = (Poland/Germany), (Bulgaria/Germany)
Bulgaria = Romania
(2x) Bulgaria = Russia
Bulgaria = Spain, (Spain/Bulgaria)
Bulgaria = South Africa
Colombia = Argentina
(2x) Colombia = Brazil
Colombia = Dominican Republic
Colombia = Portugal, Spain
Colombia = Spain
Colombia = Venezuela
Croatia = Yugoslavia
Cuba = (Italy/Latin America)
Czech Republic = (Portugal)
Czech Republic = (Slovakia/Greece)
Dominican Republic = Brazil
Dominican Republic = Colombia
Dominican Republic = (Cuba/Brazil)
Dominican Republic = (Jamaica/Latin America)
Dominican Republic = Netherlands Antilles
Dominican Republic = (Netherlands Antilles/Indonesia)
Dominican Republic = Portugal, Colombia
Dominican Republic = Spain
Dominican Republic = Venezuela
Ghana = Jamaica
Hungary = Austria
Hungary = Italy
Hungary = Poland
Indonesia = Thailand
Italy = Greece
Latin America = Spain
Lithuania = Slovenia
Macedonia = Belgium
Martinique = France
Mauretania = France
Moldova = Russia
Morocco = Palestine
(2x) Netherlands = Greece
Nigeria = Burundi
Nigeria = Ghana, Cameroon
Philippines = Thailand, Malaysia
Poland = Austria
(2x) Poland = Italy
Poland = Russia
Romania = Bulgaria
(2x) Romania = Czech Republic
Romania = Greece, Spain
(5x) Romania = Hungary
(2x) Romania = Hungary, Bulgaria
(4x) Romania = Italy
Romania = Spain
Romania = Yugoslavia, Croatia
Russia = Germany
(2x) Russia = Poland
Slovakia = Croatia, Czech Republic
Spain = Romania
Ukraine = Czech Republic
(2x) Ukraine = Russia
Venezuela = Brazil
Venezuela = Uzbekistan
I conclude that the nationalities mentioned cannot be very reliable. But it is stunning to see how many "Bulgarian" "Romanian" and "Hungarian" prostitutes have entered Dutch window prostitution.
Many Dutch prostitutes have a foreign background. Clients also mention these backgrounds of some Dutch prostitutes.
Of the 304 Dutch prostitutes 49 were mentioned to have a non Dutch ethnicity:
8 Morocco
6 Indonesia
5 Surinam
4 China
4 Hindustani
3 Turkey
2 "Africa"
2 Italy
1 Poland
1 Russia
1 Armenia
1 Macedonia
1 Tunesia
1 Egypt
1 Sweden
1 Philippines
1 India
1 Maluku Islands
1 Syria
1 Kurdish
1 Netherlands Antilles
1 Dominican Republic
1 Brazil
Clients can also give marks on the review form for different kinds of (unsafe) sex, such as coitus without condom or kissing. Of the 1836 prostitutes mentioned, I noted what kinds of (unsafe) sex they performed with the clients. I have to add though that there are very different opinions about the level of unsafety of these kinds of sexual activity.
14,216%: blowjob without condom
28,922%: kissing
38,508%: Cunnilingus
7,843%: anal with condom
0,926%: anal without condom
10,512%: rimming (buttlicking)
4,303%: facial
3,322%: coitus without condom
Now, a closer look for different groups of prostitutes.
For 858 Eastern European prostitutes:
13,054%: blowjob without condom
23,427%: kissing
36,131%: cunnilingus
5,245%: anal with condom
0,816%: anal without condom
7,226%: rimming (buttlicking)
3,147%: facial
3,030%: coitus without condom
For 413 Latin American prostitutes
23,002%: blowjob without condom
42,615%: kissing
48,668%: cunnilingus
9,201%: anal with condom
1,695%: anal without condom
15,496%: rimming (buttlicking)
6,295%: facial
5,811%: coitus without condom
For 304 Dutch prostitutes:
6,908%: blowjob without condom
28,289%: kissing
32,895%: cunnilingus
10,526%: anal with condom
0,658%: anal without condom
11,513%: rimming (buttlicking)
4,934%: facial
2,303%: coitus without condom
For 1235 prostitutes younger than 30 (I also use age estimates derived from review forms)
10,040%: blowjob without condom
20,486%: kissing
33,279%: cunnilingus
5,911%: anal with condom
0,486%: anal without condom
7,287%: rimming (buttlicking)
2,996%: facial
2,024%: coitus without condom
For 555 prostitutes 30 years or older (I also use age estimates derived from review forms)
23,964%: blowjob without condom
48,829%: kissing
51,892%: cunnilingus
12,252%: anal with condom
1,982: anal without condom
18,378%: rimming (buttlicking)
7,387%: facial
6,306%: coitus without condom
Notice that Latin American and older prostitutes have unsafe sex far more often. The last is also true within the seperate subgroups. So older Dutch prostitutes far more often have unsafe sex than the younger, same goes for the Eastern European women.
I also analyzed the ages mentioned. Prostitutes often mention different ages to different clients. In these cases I picked the oldest possible age. I also adjusted the ages to the last observation made (so if a prostitutes on June 2006 says she was 30 and the last observation made of her was on June 2008, I will add two years). I don't think the ages mentioned are too reliable. Many prostitutes have not mentioned their ages, and there are good reasons that many lie about their ages. Also older prostitutes are less eager to mention their age. And what could also be true is that older prostitutes are less popular than the younger (what could explain why older prostitutes far more often engage in unsafe sex). I also believe Latin American prostitutes are less popular.
ages mentioned of 717 prostitutes:
average: 26,583 (SD=6,745)
18-23: 44,212%
24-29: 32,775%
30-39: 16,876%
40 or older: 6,137%
ages mentioned of 402 Eastern European prostitutes:
average: 24,632 (SD=5,041)
18-23: 55,473%
24-29: 30,846%
30-39: 12,189%
40 or older: 1,493%
ages mentioned of 101 Latin American prostitutes
average: 32,836 (SD=7,929)
18-23: 5,941%
24-29: 39,604%
30-39: 32,673%
40 or older: 21,782%
ages mentioned of 119 Dutch prostitutes
average: 25,689 (SD 6,711)
18-23: 57,983%
24-29: 23,529%
30-39: 12,605%
40 or older: 5,882%
The clients typically pay 50 euros for 25 minutes of sex. The differences between groups are not very big. Only the Latin American women are paid slightly less per minute (app 1,6 euro) compared to the rest (app 2 euro). Also prostitutes 30 years or older are paid slightly less per minute (app 1,7 euro) compared to the rest (app 2 euro).
Perhaps I will do some extra analyses in the future. Now, it's time to move on the the club and privéhuis prostitutes.
I counted 2289 prostitutes but I had to leave some off because the reviews were too old. I started counting on November the 14th, so I decided to only analyze the prostitutes between November 14th 2007 and November 14th 2008.
The clients can fill in review forms where they can group the prostitutes into the following subgroups. I added some numbers and percentages. This time around of many prostitutes also a nationality is mentioned in the reviews, so that is interesting (these percentages were much less 3 years ago).
827 (45,044%): Eastern European (for 87,908% a nationality is named)
376 (20,479%): Latina (79,521%)
283 (15,414%): Dutch (obviously 100%)
114 (6,209%): Southern Europe (90,351%)
49 (2,669%): other (83,673%)
44 (2,397%): German (97,727%)
39 (2,124%): African (69,231%)
33 (1,797%): Thai (100%)
23 (1,253%): no group (86,957%)
22 (1,198%): "other Asians"
13 (0,708%): Surinamese (92,308%)
10 (0,545%): Belgian (100%)
3 (0,163%): Chinese (100%)
The nationalities mentioned are the following. Many prostitutes mentioned different nationalities to different clients, so I had to make a choice which one I found the most logical. The percentages mentioned are adjusted in such a way that for instance; prostitutes who are thought by the clients to be "Eastern European" are assumed to have the same distribution of nationalities as the other Eastern European women.
Total number of prostitutes:1836
Total number of prostitutes who named a nationality:1622
304 (16,689%): The Netherlands
226 (14,002%): Bulgaria
186 (11,522%): Hungary
123 (8,367%): Dominican Republic
93 (5,758%): Romania
79 (4,873%): Poland
63 (4,292%): Colombia
59 (3,650%): Czech Republic
46 (3,134%): Brazil
42 (2,851%): Venezuela
35 (2,156%): Spain
36 (2,006%): Germany
36 (1,974%): Thailand
30 (1,809%): Italy
15 (0,929%): Lithuania
12 (0,810%): Cuba
13 (0,805%): Ukraine
13 (0,799%): Greece
11 (0,682%): Latvia
11 (0,649%): Surinam
7 (0,551%): Ghana
8 (0,547%): Morocco
7 (0,524%): Jamaica
8 (0,491%): Albania
9 (0,490%): Belgium
6 (0,462%): Nigeria
7 (0,450%): France
7 (0,445%): Austria
7 (0,434%): Slovakia
6 (0,370%): Croatia
6 (0,362%): Kosovo
5 (0,342%): Puerto Rico
5 (0,342%): Panama
4 (0,274%): Chile
3 (0,205%): Ecuador
3 (0,205%): Costa Rica
3 (0,195%): England
3 (0,186%): Slovenia
3 (0,181%): Portugal
3 (0,171%): Philippines
3 (0,169%): Indonesia
2 (0,144%): Tunesia
2 (0,137%): Mexico
2 (0,134%): Netherlands Antilles
2 (0,134%): Argentina
2 (0,127%): Turkey
2 (0,124%): Serbia
2 (0,124%): Belarus
2 (0,124%): Moldova
2 (0,116%): Macedonia
1 (0,079%): Liberia
1 (0,079%): Sierra Leone
1 (0,079%): Mauretania
1 (0,079%): Guinea
1 (0,068%): Peru
1 (0,068%): Martinique
1 (0,068%): Guyana
1 (0,068%): Trinidad and Tobago
1 (0,065%): Scotland
1 (0,065%): Switzerland
1 (0,065%): Australia
1 (0,065%): United States of America
1 (0,065%): "Arab"
1 (0,065%): Iran
1 (0,063%): "middle east"
1 (0,062%): Estonia
1 (0,062%): Armenia
1 (0,060%): Egypt
1 (0,057%): Malaysia
1 (0,057%): "Hindustani"
1 (0,054%): China
1 (0,054%): Laos
I will also mention the cases where prostitutes mentioned different nationalities. The ones on the left are the ones I found the most plausible. Prostitutes will also often say they are halfbloods, so when she says she has a Italian and Bulgarian parents I write (Italy/Bulgaria).
104 cases
Albania = Italy
Albania = Czech Republic, Serbia
Albania = Serbia
Armenia = Germany
Brazil = Cuba
Brazil = Jamaica
Bulgaria = Croatia
(3x) Bulgaria = Czech Republic
Bulgaria = (Czech Republic/Hungary), Yugoslavia, Hungary
(2x) Bulgaria = Greece
Bulgaria = (Greece/Bulgaria)
(9x) Bulgaria = Hungary
Bulgaria = Hungary, Finland
Bulgaria = Italy, Romania
Bulgaria = Italy, Hungary
Bulgaria = Lebanon, Tunesia, Turkey
Bulgaria = Poland
Bulgaria = (Poland/Germany), (Bulgaria/Germany)
Bulgaria = Romania
(2x) Bulgaria = Russia
Bulgaria = Spain, (Spain/Bulgaria)
Bulgaria = South Africa
Colombia = Argentina
(2x) Colombia = Brazil
Colombia = Dominican Republic
Colombia = Portugal, Spain
Colombia = Spain
Colombia = Venezuela
Croatia = Yugoslavia
Cuba = (Italy/Latin America)
Czech Republic = (Portugal)
Czech Republic = (Slovakia/Greece)
Dominican Republic = Brazil
Dominican Republic = Colombia
Dominican Republic = (Cuba/Brazil)
Dominican Republic = (Jamaica/Latin America)
Dominican Republic = Netherlands Antilles
Dominican Republic = (Netherlands Antilles/Indonesia)
Dominican Republic = Portugal, Colombia
Dominican Republic = Spain
Dominican Republic = Venezuela
Ghana = Jamaica
Hungary = Austria
Hungary = Italy
Hungary = Poland
Indonesia = Thailand
Italy = Greece
Latin America = Spain
Lithuania = Slovenia
Macedonia = Belgium
Martinique = France
Mauretania = France
Moldova = Russia
Morocco = Palestine
(2x) Netherlands = Greece
Nigeria = Burundi
Nigeria = Ghana, Cameroon
Philippines = Thailand, Malaysia
Poland = Austria
(2x) Poland = Italy
Poland = Russia
Romania = Bulgaria
(2x) Romania = Czech Republic
Romania = Greece, Spain
(5x) Romania = Hungary
(2x) Romania = Hungary, Bulgaria
(4x) Romania = Italy
Romania = Spain
Romania = Yugoslavia, Croatia
Russia = Germany
(2x) Russia = Poland
Slovakia = Croatia, Czech Republic
Spain = Romania
Ukraine = Czech Republic
(2x) Ukraine = Russia
Venezuela = Brazil
Venezuela = Uzbekistan
I conclude that the nationalities mentioned cannot be very reliable. But it is stunning to see how many "Bulgarian" "Romanian" and "Hungarian" prostitutes have entered Dutch window prostitution.
Many Dutch prostitutes have a foreign background. Clients also mention these backgrounds of some Dutch prostitutes.
Of the 304 Dutch prostitutes 49 were mentioned to have a non Dutch ethnicity:
8 Morocco
6 Indonesia
5 Surinam
4 China
4 Hindustani
3 Turkey
2 "Africa"
2 Italy
1 Poland
1 Russia
1 Armenia
1 Macedonia
1 Tunesia
1 Egypt
1 Sweden
1 Philippines
1 India
1 Maluku Islands
1 Syria
1 Kurdish
1 Netherlands Antilles
1 Dominican Republic
1 Brazil
Clients can also give marks on the review form for different kinds of (unsafe) sex, such as coitus without condom or kissing. Of the 1836 prostitutes mentioned, I noted what kinds of (unsafe) sex they performed with the clients. I have to add though that there are very different opinions about the level of unsafety of these kinds of sexual activity.
14,216%: blowjob without condom
28,922%: kissing
38,508%: Cunnilingus
7,843%: anal with condom
0,926%: anal without condom
10,512%: rimming (buttlicking)
4,303%: facial
3,322%: coitus without condom
Now, a closer look for different groups of prostitutes.
For 858 Eastern European prostitutes:
13,054%: blowjob without condom
23,427%: kissing
36,131%: cunnilingus
5,245%: anal with condom
0,816%: anal without condom
7,226%: rimming (buttlicking)
3,147%: facial
3,030%: coitus without condom
For 413 Latin American prostitutes
23,002%: blowjob without condom
42,615%: kissing
48,668%: cunnilingus
9,201%: anal with condom
1,695%: anal without condom
15,496%: rimming (buttlicking)
6,295%: facial
5,811%: coitus without condom
For 304 Dutch prostitutes:
6,908%: blowjob without condom
28,289%: kissing
32,895%: cunnilingus
10,526%: anal with condom
0,658%: anal without condom
11,513%: rimming (buttlicking)
4,934%: facial
2,303%: coitus without condom
For 1235 prostitutes younger than 30 (I also use age estimates derived from review forms)
10,040%: blowjob without condom
20,486%: kissing
33,279%: cunnilingus
5,911%: anal with condom
0,486%: anal without condom
7,287%: rimming (buttlicking)
2,996%: facial
2,024%: coitus without condom
For 555 prostitutes 30 years or older (I also use age estimates derived from review forms)
23,964%: blowjob without condom
48,829%: kissing
51,892%: cunnilingus
12,252%: anal with condom
1,982: anal without condom
18,378%: rimming (buttlicking)
7,387%: facial
6,306%: coitus without condom
Notice that Latin American and older prostitutes have unsafe sex far more often. The last is also true within the seperate subgroups. So older Dutch prostitutes far more often have unsafe sex than the younger, same goes for the Eastern European women.
I also analyzed the ages mentioned. Prostitutes often mention different ages to different clients. In these cases I picked the oldest possible age. I also adjusted the ages to the last observation made (so if a prostitutes on June 2006 says she was 30 and the last observation made of her was on June 2008, I will add two years). I don't think the ages mentioned are too reliable. Many prostitutes have not mentioned their ages, and there are good reasons that many lie about their ages. Also older prostitutes are less eager to mention their age. And what could also be true is that older prostitutes are less popular than the younger (what could explain why older prostitutes far more often engage in unsafe sex). I also believe Latin American prostitutes are less popular.
ages mentioned of 717 prostitutes:
average: 26,583 (SD=6,745)
18-23: 44,212%
24-29: 32,775%
30-39: 16,876%
40 or older: 6,137%
ages mentioned of 402 Eastern European prostitutes:
average: 24,632 (SD=5,041)
18-23: 55,473%
24-29: 30,846%
30-39: 12,189%
40 or older: 1,493%
ages mentioned of 101 Latin American prostitutes
average: 32,836 (SD=7,929)
18-23: 5,941%
24-29: 39,604%
30-39: 32,673%
40 or older: 21,782%
ages mentioned of 119 Dutch prostitutes
average: 25,689 (SD 6,711)
18-23: 57,983%
24-29: 23,529%
30-39: 12,605%
40 or older: 5,882%
The clients typically pay 50 euros for 25 minutes of sex. The differences between groups are not very big. Only the Latin American women are paid slightly less per minute (app 1,6 euro) compared to the rest (app 2 euro). Also prostitutes 30 years or older are paid slightly less per minute (app 1,7 euro) compared to the rest (app 2 euro).
Perhaps I will do some extra analyses in the future. Now, it's time to move on the the club and privéhuis prostitutes.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Weak!
http://www.metronieuws.nl/index.php?actie=nieuws&c=2&id=142152
From the Dutch newspaper Metro ('Ik deed het alleen voor ons...' [I only did it for us...'], by Milou van der Will, December 3th 2008):
From the Dutch newspaper Metro ('Ik deed het alleen voor ons...' [I only did it for us...'], by Milou van der Will, December 3th 2008):
By the way, I am busy with another count among prostitutes using a client review website. It seems that actually the number of (window) prostitutes from the Balkans has spectacularly increased during the last three years! (or maybe during the last 2 since the borders have been opened for Bulgaria and Romania) My guess is that most window prostitutes nowadays are Eastern European compared to some 20% three years ago. I think more than a quarter are from the Balkans. The number of Dutch window prostitutes has decreased.Mo took Melissa and within a day they rented a window on De Wallen. She got a pile of condoms, no lubricants and was put behind the window. When the first client knocked on the door Mo was on the opposite side [of the street] with a knife. If it would only enter her mind... "That first time I only cried, the bizarre thing is that many clients seem to get a kick out of that. Mo was very happy afterwards, he was proud of me and cuddled me. After every customer he collected the money."
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Another Turkish gang
Another large Turkish gang is active in the red light districts of the Netherlands. Two Turkish brothers (Murat and Mehmet O) and another person have been arrested on the 11th of November. They sought contact with hundreds of women on websites like chatnu.nl, netlog.com, hyves.net and partypeepers.nl . Murat was known as misterr_diamond on netlog. They brought dozens of women into prostitution. They have been operating for a number of years. They had women behind the windows of Amsterdam, Alkmaar and Utrecht. According to Harold van Gelder (the coordinator on human trafficking in Amsterdam) the pimps didn't use violence, but that's not true according to a certain Mohammed, an ex-pimp who was friends the brothers. According to Harold van Gelder these brothers moved into the vacuum left behind by the other gang after they were rounded up, but that seems unlikely to me because the bodyguards of the other gang walk around freely.
Sources:
http://www.ad.nl/denhaag/stad/2778122/Haagse_pooiers_ronselen_via_websites.html
http://www.ad.nl/denhaag/2778125/Websites_jachtterrein_Haagse_pooiers.html
http://www.hartvannederland.nl/localitem/15688/Oude_vriend_loverboys_in_exclusief_interview
Sources:
http://www.ad.nl/denhaag/stad/2778122/Haagse_pooiers_ronselen_via_websites.html
http://www.ad.nl/denhaag/2778125/Websites_jachtterrein_Haagse_pooiers.html
http://www.hartvannederland.nl/localitem/15688/Oude_vriend_loverboys_in_exclusief_interview
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Highly educated Bulgarian sex workers
Main
Okay, I think it will be better if this will involve into a newssite.......
The following is a Dutch article from the free newspaper "De Pers" (neatly translated into English)
http://www.depers.nl/binnenland/258893/Film-licht-Bulgaarse-prostituees-voor.html
Pilot Abuses among highly educated women
Film informs Bulgarian prostitutes
Maaike Boersma
5 November 2008
Highly educated Bulgarian women without perspective work in our country as prostitutes. A pilot project in Groningen and Friesland attacks abuses.
The northern provinces are going to deal with Bulgarian human traffickers much harder. Groningen and Friesland were given two tons [of euros] from the national government to start a two year pilot. ‘Since the entry of Bulgaria into the EU many Bulgarian women have come to the Netherlands to work here as prostitutes’, says the public prosecutor Oebele Brouwer.
Since two years at least 150 Bulgarian women are active in the northern provinces. According to Brouwer they mainly are highly educated women. According to him they don’t come here under false pretences. ‘But still there is a very negative choice behind this. Despite having a diploma, they can’t find work in Bulgaria. To maintain their family nevertheless, they finally decide to work as a prostitute in the Netherlands, because large sums of money are held out for them’. This is especially deceptive because once the women are working, they have to hand over nearly all their money to the traffickers. ‘They then say: “we took you here, you must pay off the debt to us.” ’
With the pilot the provinces want to be one step ahead of these abuses. One of the aspects is training Bulgarian policemen. ‘They come to here for a month of three, four and learn to work with our system’, says Brouwer. The intention is that the policemen can already do preventive work in their own country. ‘Above all we then have a better view on what happens with the women after they have been interviewed here. Now they go back to Eastern Bulgaria and we loose them. If the intimidation continues in their home country, we have no view on that anymore’, says Brouwer.
Another idea is to make a documentary about Bulgarian prostitutes in the Netherlands as a way to give the Bulgarian women a better picture about how things go in the Dutch prostitution branch.
Most abuses come to light through inspections, says Brouwer. ‘So, lately there was a 16 year old girl behind the window. She had a false passport which said she was eighteen. She worked in prostitution since she was fourteen.’
Main
Okay, I think it will be better if this will involve into a newssite.......
The following is a Dutch article from the free newspaper "De Pers" (neatly translated into English)
http://www.depers.nl/binnenland/258893/Film-licht-Bulgaarse-prostituees-voor.html
Pilot Abuses among highly educated women
Film informs Bulgarian prostitutes
Maaike Boersma
5 November 2008
Highly educated Bulgarian women without perspective work in our country as prostitutes. A pilot project in Groningen and Friesland attacks abuses.
The northern provinces are going to deal with Bulgarian human traffickers much harder. Groningen and Friesland were given two tons [of euros] from the national government to start a two year pilot. ‘Since the entry of Bulgaria into the EU many Bulgarian women have come to the Netherlands to work here as prostitutes’, says the public prosecutor Oebele Brouwer.
Since two years at least 150 Bulgarian women are active in the northern provinces. According to Brouwer they mainly are highly educated women. According to him they don’t come here under false pretences. ‘But still there is a very negative choice behind this. Despite having a diploma, they can’t find work in Bulgaria. To maintain their family nevertheless, they finally decide to work as a prostitute in the Netherlands, because large sums of money are held out for them’. This is especially deceptive because once the women are working, they have to hand over nearly all their money to the traffickers. ‘They then say: “we took you here, you must pay off the debt to us.” ’
With the pilot the provinces want to be one step ahead of these abuses. One of the aspects is training Bulgarian policemen. ‘They come to here for a month of three, four and learn to work with our system’, says Brouwer. The intention is that the policemen can already do preventive work in their own country. ‘Above all we then have a better view on what happens with the women after they have been interviewed here. Now they go back to Eastern Bulgaria and we loose them. If the intimidation continues in their home country, we have no view on that anymore’, says Brouwer.
Another idea is to make a documentary about Bulgarian prostitutes in the Netherlands as a way to give the Bulgarian women a better picture about how things go in the Dutch prostitution branch.
Most abuses come to light through inspections, says Brouwer. ‘So, lately there was a 16 year old girl behind the window. She had a false passport which said she was eighteen. She worked in prostitution since she was fourteen.’
Main
Friday, November 07, 2008
Joran
Main
Talking about Thai prostitutes, it seems that we have to welcome Joran as a new special guest.
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2008/11/holloway_suspect_trafficks_in.php
Holloway suspect 'trafficks in women'
Friday 07 November 2008
Joran van der Sloot, the young man believed to be involved the disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway on Aruba, is now involved in selling Thai women into prostitution, claims tv crime reporter Peter R de Vries.
(...)
According to this latest exposé, Van der Sloot makes €10,000 for every girl he delivers to the Dutch prostitution market. The girls will work for ‘just 300 dollars a month’ he is reported as saying on camera.
During conversations taped in a hotel in Bangkok, Van der Sloot tells a man posing as a Dutch sex industry boss that he can organise visas and passports for the girls, who think they are going to the Netherlands to work as dancers.
(...)
© DutchNews.nl
..... and that makes me wonder; lately I ignored lots of news related to prostitution here. Lots of windows in Alkmaar are closed, it is suspected that most prostitutes in the window-boat-brothels in Utrecht are forced, Jos van der Meer closed his ~40 clubs. Lots of things going on. Those brothel closures are not interesting, many brothels are under-occupied anyway, they are not missed by the prostitutes (and sex traffickers).
Main
Talking about Thai prostitutes, it seems that we have to welcome Joran as a new special guest.
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2008/11/holloway_suspect_trafficks_in.php
Holloway suspect 'trafficks in women'
Friday 07 November 2008
Joran van der Sloot, the young man believed to be involved the disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway on Aruba, is now involved in selling Thai women into prostitution, claims tv crime reporter Peter R de Vries.
(...)
According to this latest exposé, Van der Sloot makes €10,000 for every girl he delivers to the Dutch prostitution market. The girls will work for ‘just 300 dollars a month’ he is reported as saying on camera.
During conversations taped in a hotel in Bangkok, Van der Sloot tells a man posing as a Dutch sex industry boss that he can organise visas and passports for the girls, who think they are going to the Netherlands to work as dancers.
(...)
© DutchNews.nl
..... and that makes me wonder; lately I ignored lots of news related to prostitution here. Lots of windows in Alkmaar are closed, it is suspected that most prostitutes in the window-boat-brothels in Utrecht are forced, Jos van der Meer closed his ~40 clubs. Lots of things going on. Those brothel closures are not interesting, many brothels are under-occupied anyway, they are not missed by the prostitutes (and sex traffickers).
Main
Monday, November 03, 2008
Burnout
Main
Lately I mentioned the report by Ine Vanwesenbeeck called:
Burnout among female indoor sex workers [Archives of Sexual Behavior Dec , 2005, Ine Vanwesenbeeck]
The website prostitution procon mentions some quotes of her report:
This study provided evidence that female indoor sex workers in the Netherlands do not exhibit a higher level of work-related emotional exhaustion or a lower level of work-related personal competence than a comparison group of female health care workers (mostly nurses)....
The fact that findings were partly contrary to expectations and contrary to suggestions from others that sex work is intrinsically traumatizing may be explained by sample differences. Here, indoor sex workers were studied, whereas many other studies focus almost exclusively on street workers..."
I took the time to actually read the report (you can download a cheap version here)
I found out that the group of prostitutes Ine Vanwesenbeeck studied in this report is the same as in another report she (co-)wrote with Liesbeth Venicz in 2000: “Er gaat iets veranderen in de prostitutie... - De sociale positie en het psychosociaal welzijn van prostituees in prostitutiebedrijven voorafgaand aan de opheffing van het bordeelverbod” [Something’s going to change in prostitution… - The social position and psychosocial wellbeing of prostitutes the prostitution businesses prior to the lifting of the ban on brothels]. (you can download it here)
In her burnout study she mentions:
Sex workers (N=96):
Emotional Exhaustion: M=14,9 (SD=11,7)
Depersonalization: M=8,9 (SD=6,1)
Personal competence: M=27,5 (SD=7,9)
Health care workers (N=2043):
Emotional Exhaustion: M=15,3 (SD=8,1)
Depersonalization: M=6,8 (SD=4,2)
Personal competence: M=27,4 (SD=5,6)
Patients (N=142):
Emotional Exhaustion: M=26,0 (SD=9,5)
Depersonalization: M=9,3 (SD=4,9)
Personal competence: M=24,5 (SD=5,1)
She did more or less the same in her Er gaat iets veranderen study, using the same validated Dutch version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. You might guess that (even if you take into account that the males and transsexuals are not included in the Burnout version of her study) that the numbers should be more or less the same. But they turn out to be COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!!!! In her Er gaat iets veranderen study (see pages 76-77) the number for Emotional exhaustion for the prostitutes is 23,7. The number for Depersonalization was 14,2. The number for Personal Competence is 34,1. The fact that the males and transsexuals were included doesn’t explain this (except when you assume that their average number for Emotional Exhaustion exceeds 117, for Depersonalization it exceeds 70 and for Personal Competence it exceeds 104, which seems all very unlikely to me). She even calls the high score on Emotional Exhaustion worrying. It could be that Ine Vanwesenbeeck has made an error. It must be. But which are the right numbers?
And if the earlier numbers are true, the numbers of the prostitutes are in my opinion more or less comparable to those of the people (Patients) in treatment for work-related psychological problems. And if you take into account (see page 21 in the Er gaat iets veranderen study) that the researchers had the impression that during fieldwork of the research forced prostitutes didn’t want to cooperate (in addition to the quarter of the women who admitted that they have initially been forced into prostitution), you can assume that their situation is even worse.
Anyway, Vanwesenbeeck also made Correlations of Person- and Work-Related Variables with Burnout Factors in her Burnout report and these numbers correspond reasonably with those of the ones mentioned in her Er gaat iets veranderen report. These numbers show that there’s not such much a relationship between prostitution and distress per se, but in combination with having little control over interaction with clients or being forced in prostitution it could have a negative influence. Also having negative feelings about working in prostitution could cause distress. But that seems logical. Having sex per se doesn’t cause distress. Being forced to have sex or doing sexual things you don’t like could cause distress.
However, the newer Dutch reports about the social position of prostitutes in 2001 and 2006 didn’t reveal much difference between prostitutes and the general population. That’s the more surprising when you assume many prostitutes come from poor countries. In the latter report the prostitutes even had lower distress levels on average than the general population. Perhaps the situation in the brothels in the Netherlands actually did improve. This is still difficult, how much of this is related to sample biases?
The solutions to the problems prostitutes face are very simple if you would believe Ine in her burnout report:
Lately I mentioned the report by Ine Vanwesenbeeck called:
Burnout among female indoor sex workers [Archives of Sexual Behavior Dec , 2005, Ine Vanwesenbeeck]
The website prostitution procon mentions some quotes of her report:
This study provided evidence that female indoor sex workers in the Netherlands do not exhibit a higher level of work-related emotional exhaustion or a lower level of work-related personal competence than a comparison group of female health care workers (mostly nurses)....
The fact that findings were partly contrary to expectations and contrary to suggestions from others that sex work is intrinsically traumatizing may be explained by sample differences. Here, indoor sex workers were studied, whereas many other studies focus almost exclusively on street workers..."
I took the time to actually read the report (you can download a cheap version here)
I found out that the group of prostitutes Ine Vanwesenbeeck studied in this report is the same as in another report she (co-)wrote with Liesbeth Venicz in 2000: “Er gaat iets veranderen in de prostitutie... - De sociale positie en het psychosociaal welzijn van prostituees in prostitutiebedrijven voorafgaand aan de opheffing van het bordeelverbod” [Something’s going to change in prostitution… - The social position and psychosocial wellbeing of prostitutes the prostitution businesses prior to the lifting of the ban on brothels]. (you can download it here)
In her burnout study she mentions:
Recruitment of sex workers took place by means of fieldwork. Five fieldworkers, who were either prostitution social workers or ex-prostitutes, were trained specifically for this project. Together, they visited a total of 138 sex work sites, selected on the basis of the fieldworkers' network and according to considerations of geographical dispersion. Some of the interviewers were fluent in languages that are spoken by relatively high numbers of sex workers in the Netherlands (e.g., English, Spanish, and Czech) and were provided with translated questionnaires in those languages. In 67 sites (49%), at least one worker agreed to participate in the study. Because the number of sex workers addressed varied per site, it is uncertain what the response rate on the level of individuals was. A total of 105 sex workers were interviewed. Five of these were males and four were male-to-female transsexuals. They were excluded from the analyses here. The remaining 96 female sex workers were, on average, 30.6 years of age (SD = 8.4) and had, on average, worked as a sex worker for 7.3 years (SD = 6.0). Other demographic characteristics are presented in Table I.Some numbers from table III (Mean Scores on Burnout Factors for Female Sex Workers, Female Health Care Workers, and People in Treatment for Work-Related Psychological Complaints):
Burnout scores of two comparison groups were taken from Schaufeli and van Dierendonck (2000) [she means: Schaufeli, W. B., & van Dierendonck, D. (1995). A cautionary note about the cross-national and clinical validity of cut-off points for the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Psychological Reports, 76, 1083-1090.]. The first comparison group (N = 2,043) consisted of female health care workers, mostly nurses, with an average age of 36 years (SD = 10.1). The second comparison group consisted of people in treatment for work-related psychological problems (N = 142), with an average age of 41.9 years (SD = 8.9). The group was 40% female and 60% male, but no sex differences related to burnout were found. These people were from a variety of professional backgrounds, with half of them having a higher educational level. They were patients for, on average, 4.8 months (SD = 8.3).
(…)
Burnout was measured using a validated Dutch version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Utrecht Burnout Scale for the Contactual professions (UBOS-C; Schaufeli & van Dierendonck, 2000). The UBOS-C consists of 20 items and 3 factors: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal competence. Participants were asked to rate the frequency with which they experienced various feelings on a 7-point scale, ranging from 0 (never) to 6 (always/daily).
Sex workers (N=96):
Emotional Exhaustion: M=14,9 (SD=11,7)
Depersonalization: M=8,9 (SD=6,1)
Personal competence: M=27,5 (SD=7,9)
Health care workers (N=2043):
Emotional Exhaustion: M=15,3 (SD=8,1)
Depersonalization: M=6,8 (SD=4,2)
Personal competence: M=27,4 (SD=5,6)
Patients (N=142):
Emotional Exhaustion: M=26,0 (SD=9,5)
Depersonalization: M=9,3 (SD=4,9)
Personal competence: M=24,5 (SD=5,1)
She did more or less the same in her Er gaat iets veranderen study, using the same validated Dutch version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. You might guess that (even if you take into account that the males and transsexuals are not included in the Burnout version of her study) that the numbers should be more or less the same. But they turn out to be COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!!!! In her Er gaat iets veranderen study (see pages 76-77) the number for Emotional exhaustion for the prostitutes is 23,7. The number for Depersonalization was 14,2. The number for Personal Competence is 34,1. The fact that the males and transsexuals were included doesn’t explain this (except when you assume that their average number for Emotional Exhaustion exceeds 117, for Depersonalization it exceeds 70 and for Personal Competence it exceeds 104, which seems all very unlikely to me). She even calls the high score on Emotional Exhaustion worrying. It could be that Ine Vanwesenbeeck has made an error. It must be. But which are the right numbers?
And if the earlier numbers are true, the numbers of the prostitutes are in my opinion more or less comparable to those of the people (Patients) in treatment for work-related psychological problems. And if you take into account (see page 21 in the Er gaat iets veranderen study) that the researchers had the impression that during fieldwork of the research forced prostitutes didn’t want to cooperate (in addition to the quarter of the women who admitted that they have initially been forced into prostitution), you can assume that their situation is even worse.
Anyway, Vanwesenbeeck also made Correlations of Person- and Work-Related Variables with Burnout Factors in her Burnout report and these numbers correspond reasonably with those of the ones mentioned in her Er gaat iets veranderen report. These numbers show that there’s not such much a relationship between prostitution and distress per se, but in combination with having little control over interaction with clients or being forced in prostitution it could have a negative influence. Also having negative feelings about working in prostitution could cause distress. But that seems logical. Having sex per se doesn’t cause distress. Being forced to have sex or doing sexual things you don’t like could cause distress.
However, the newer Dutch reports about the social position of prostitutes in 2001 and 2006 didn’t reveal much difference between prostitutes and the general population. That’s the more surprising when you assume many prostitutes come from poor countries. In the latter report the prostitutes even had lower distress levels on average than the general population. Perhaps the situation in the brothels in the Netherlands actually did improve. This is still difficult, how much of this is related to sample biases?
The solutions to the problems prostitutes face are very simple if you would believe Ine in her burnout report:
Personnel policies, work relations, support structures, the organizational culture, and protection of personnel from violence on the work site have come forward here as relevant criteria by which "good" businesses can be distinguished from "bad" ones. Under a regulatory system, norms in relation to these aspects can be set. These would have to come about in collaboration between authorities and the parties involved so that they are broadly accepted. Departure from these norms could be met with sanctions. To promote broad application as well as other positive developments in relation to work relations, support structures and organizational cultures, both managers and sex workers may be provided with education and training. The sex business has no tradition of formal negotiation of work relations and sex workers are not used to claiming their rights as workers. A process toward better work relations, worker protection, and an improved status of sex workers, once facilitated by a legislative system as now available in the Netherlands, certainly needs further government support.Main
Finally, clearly it is not only their experience at work that threatens sex workers' health. Acceptance of their professional choice in their private lives appears vitally important as well. Legal rights for sex workers as a professional group are a precondition for adequate government intervention, but does not yet guarantee societal acceptance of sex workers. The struggle against social stigma of sex workers and the reduction or prevention of negative social reactions toward them should be an additional aim of any policy working toward improvement of sex workers' social status and well-being.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Thai women in parlours
Main
The Red Thread published a new report:
Een vergeten groep of Thaise vrouwen in (erotische) salons in Nederland (De Rode Draad, October 2008) [a forgotten group of Thai women in (erotic) parlours in the Netherlands]
http://www.rodedraad.nl/fileadmin/user_upload/internet.pdf
The report doesn’t really contain much new information compared to earlier Red Thread reports (read for instance my earlier post about Thai prostitutes).
According to the Red Thread there are some 400 Thai prostitutes in the Netherlands working in Thai massage parlours. Often they are older women who reside legally in the Netherlands. Often they seem to be the remnants of an earlier wave of human trafficking from Thailand during the seventies and eighties, at which time the victims were much younger. They hardly speak Dutch.
The Red Thread has a list of some 150 businesses of which they visited 63. There’s a very big turnover of massage parlours. Many businesses stop operating very quickly while at the same time new businesses are opened.
There are some good Thai massage parlours where the women are treated well but many others are not so good. The women work long days (like 78 hours a week) and seem to have a limited freedom of movement. They often sleep in the brothels and often spend time with girlfriends and colleagues in other massage parlours. Not many clients visit these brothels, often some two or three clients a day. The women don’t make a lot of money, often some three to five euros per hour.
Much to the surprise of the Red Thread it turned out there was a drugs problem among the Thai prostitutes. One type of drugs used was ‘ya ba’, or methylamphetamine, also known as crystal meth. It is 9 times stronger than speed.
There’s also a gambling problem among the prostitutes.
The labour relations are often not good. Often the women are supposed to be working in wage labour, but the full rights associated with this type of labour are not granted. Others are supposed to be working under the ‘opting in’-system where the woman works more or less as an independent contractor, but in this system the taxes are dealt with by the boss. Also here the rights of the women are violated.
There are also traditional Thai massage parlours which only seem to do massage. Also women visit these massage parlours. But some workers secretly also offer sex (often hand jobs). In one parlour the workers prefer men over women because the traditional massages are very intensive, and it’s a lot less hard work to erotically massage a man than to traditionally massage a woman. The extra money is for the worker.
The last thing about the prostitutes preferring sex work over ‘normal’ work really surprises me! This is another indication that working in prostitution is not so emotionally troubling at all! Perhaps Ine Vanwesenbeeck is right after all. (or maybe it is that just all wage labour is like prostitution, and that means that Marx is right after all......)
For Ine Vanwesenbeeck look on the website of prostitution.procon.org:
Is prostitution psychologically harmful to prostitutes?
For Karl Marx look on the website of marxists.org :
Private Property and Communism
Main
The Red Thread published a new report:
Een vergeten groep of Thaise vrouwen in (erotische) salons in Nederland (De Rode Draad, October 2008) [a forgotten group of Thai women in (erotic) parlours in the Netherlands]
http://www.rodedraad.nl/fileadmin/user_upload/internet.pdf
The report doesn’t really contain much new information compared to earlier Red Thread reports (read for instance my earlier post about Thai prostitutes).
According to the Red Thread there are some 400 Thai prostitutes in the Netherlands working in Thai massage parlours. Often they are older women who reside legally in the Netherlands. Often they seem to be the remnants of an earlier wave of human trafficking from Thailand during the seventies and eighties, at which time the victims were much younger. They hardly speak Dutch.
The Red Thread has a list of some 150 businesses of which they visited 63. There’s a very big turnover of massage parlours. Many businesses stop operating very quickly while at the same time new businesses are opened.
There are some good Thai massage parlours where the women are treated well but many others are not so good. The women work long days (like 78 hours a week) and seem to have a limited freedom of movement. They often sleep in the brothels and often spend time with girlfriends and colleagues in other massage parlours. Not many clients visit these brothels, often some two or three clients a day. The women don’t make a lot of money, often some three to five euros per hour.
Much to the surprise of the Red Thread it turned out there was a drugs problem among the Thai prostitutes. One type of drugs used was ‘ya ba’, or methylamphetamine, also known as crystal meth. It is 9 times stronger than speed.
There’s also a gambling problem among the prostitutes.
The labour relations are often not good. Often the women are supposed to be working in wage labour, but the full rights associated with this type of labour are not granted. Others are supposed to be working under the ‘opting in’-system where the woman works more or less as an independent contractor, but in this system the taxes are dealt with by the boss. Also here the rights of the women are violated.
There are also traditional Thai massage parlours which only seem to do massage. Also women visit these massage parlours. But some workers secretly also offer sex (often hand jobs). In one parlour the workers prefer men over women because the traditional massages are very intensive, and it’s a lot less hard work to erotically massage a man than to traditionally massage a woman. The extra money is for the worker.
The last thing about the prostitutes preferring sex work over ‘normal’ work really surprises me! This is another indication that working in prostitution is not so emotionally troubling at all! Perhaps Ine Vanwesenbeeck is right after all. (or maybe it is that just all wage labour is like prostitution, and that means that Marx is right after all......)
For Ine Vanwesenbeeck look on the website of prostitution.procon.org:
Is prostitution psychologically harmful to prostitutes?
For Karl Marx look on the website of marxists.org :
Private Property and Communism
Main
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Shared Hope
main
I read through that Shared Hope report.
There's interesting information on
http://www.sharedhope.org/what/enddemand3.asp
and there's even a 45 minute documentary featuring Toos Heemskerk-Schep and her husband Willem Heemskerk (both from the Christian organization Het Scharlaken Koord [Scarlet Cord]). This page also mentions the full report:
DEMAND. A Comparative Examination of Sex Tourism and Trafficking in Jamaica, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States
The full copy can be downloaded here: http://www.sharedhope.org/files/DEMAND.pdf
A section is about Dutch prostitution and can be separately downloaded here:
http://www.sharedhope.org/files/demand_netherlands.pdf
It contains information from Het Scharlaken Koord (Scarlet Cord) about the women who work in the RLD of Amsterdam (Wallen). See pages 52-53 (Survey report written and translated by Scarlet Cord, edited by Shared Hope International, August 2005). And some detailed information about their nationalities! What surprises me is the large number of Latin Americans mentioned. 42% of the women come from that part of the world (99 out of 237). I did a count on hookers.nl (a review site for prostitution clients) during that period, but the Latin American women weren't that prominent. Perhaps they are not so popular among the clients. Also funny is that the Scarlet Cord also encounters the usual girls from "Italy" and "Greece" (probably Eastern European women from Bulgaria, Romania and Albania).
The Scarlet Cord also says:
While I was reading through the report I felt some kind of déjà vu. I really thought; haven't I read this somewhere before? Anyway...... this really makes clear there's a real translation problem with respect to prostitution documentation. You can find tons of literature in the Dutch libraries, but only the people who have that special gift of being able to read Dutch can understand its content. This makes it extremely difficult for outsiders to study prostitution in the Netherlands. Same thing goes for other non-English speaking countries. I propose that (feminist) activists throughout the world translate all the material for free. I will cost a lot of man-hours, but some documents are really too important to overlook (just a hunch anyway).
main
I read through that Shared Hope report.
There's interesting information on
http://www.sharedhope.org/what/enddemand3.asp
and there's even a 45 minute documentary featuring Toos Heemskerk-Schep and her husband Willem Heemskerk (both from the Christian organization Het Scharlaken Koord [Scarlet Cord]). This page also mentions the full report:
DEMAND. A Comparative Examination of Sex Tourism and Trafficking in Jamaica, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States
The full copy can be downloaded here: http://www.sharedhope.org/files/DEMAND.pdf
A section is about Dutch prostitution and can be separately downloaded here:
http://www.sharedhope.org/files/demand_netherlands.pdf
It contains information from Het Scharlaken Koord (Scarlet Cord) about the women who work in the RLD of Amsterdam (Wallen). See pages 52-53 (Survey report written and translated by Scarlet Cord, edited by Shared Hope International, August 2005). And some detailed information about their nationalities! What surprises me is the large number of Latin Americans mentioned. 42% of the women come from that part of the world (99 out of 237). I did a count on hookers.nl (a review site for prostitution clients) during that period, but the Latin American women weren't that prominent. Perhaps they are not so popular among the clients. Also funny is that the Scarlet Cord also encounters the usual girls from "Italy" and "Greece" (probably Eastern European women from Bulgaria, Romania and Albania).
The Scarlet Cord also says:
EarningsThe report also contains interviews with (former) prostitutes in the Netherlands, the Shared Hope group also made field observations in the Netherlands itself. Very interesting.
The girls will not reveal to whom they give the money. We know that they can make about €500 per night. Those who work for a “loverboy” cannot keep any money for themselves. Those who work for a pimp from Eastern Europe pay about 75 percent to the pimp and keep the rest. I met a girl from Greece who was trafficked by an Albanian man. She made €60,000 for him in one year. She was 17 when she started to work with a fake passport. This information came from a brothel owner. Dutch and East European prostitutes have tattoos with the names of their pimps. This makes it a bit easier for the police, but the pimps don’t realize that. The African girls start off with a debt of €40,000; if she pays that back, she is “free.”
If you calculate that those 237 women all pay €125 per day for a room, and earn about €500 of which, based on evidence, little if any of it is kept by the woman or legally filed for tax purposes. That’s €625 total a day, €3125 per week, a little over €1 million in one year, just from one girl.
Recruitment and Transportation
We obtained information about recruitment from the Dutch and the South Americans and a little bit from the East Europeans, but that was complicated by language difficulties. South American women come to Holland by plane or train through Spain. The average age is over 40. Most of these women have been here for many years, have their Dutch papers and work to keep up their financial needs. Some ladies are over the age of 60.
Africans come by plane most of the time via Western Europe. They fly into Germany and take a train or plane into Amsterdam or Belgium. Most of them work on fake passports. They are a closed group. They like to pray and want to have books and bibles, but will never tell their stories. East European girls are also closed and don’t dare tell their stories to the police. Most of the Dutch girls have come by way of pimps, so-called “loverboys.”
Conditions
Most girls live in apartments owned by the traffickers with connections in Amsterdam. Most African girls live in the Bijlmermeer. As long as the girl has a pimp she is not free to come and go. You can see that with the Dutch girls, you see them walking with their “protectors”, but the Africans don’t have “protection” around them and they are afraid. The South Americans are free to come and go. But what is freedom if your whole family is relying on your income? These women are always under pressure from their family, parents, or children to provide financially. One woman told me that she resembles a terrorist because she sacrifices her life for her family.
While I was reading through the report I felt some kind of déjà vu. I really thought; haven't I read this somewhere before? Anyway...... this really makes clear there's a real translation problem with respect to prostitution documentation. You can find tons of literature in the Dutch libraries, but only the people who have that special gift of being able to read Dutch can understand its content. This makes it extremely difficult for outsiders to study prostitution in the Netherlands. Same thing goes for other non-English speaking countries. I propose that (feminist) activists throughout the world translate all the material for free. I will cost a lot of man-hours, but some documents are really too important to overlook (just a hunch anyway).
main
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Sneep
Main
Some highlights from the 'Schone Schijn' report. Translated, so that all the non-Dutch people can read and weep too!!!!
You can read the report 'Schone Schijn' over here:
(the webpage of the OM)
http://www.om.nl/onderwerpen/mensenhandel_en/@148766/de_signalering_van/
(the pdf-file)
http://www.om.nl/publish/pages/98059/klpd_sneep_low_res_tcm5-968601.pdf
Note that respondent 34 can be nobody other than Toos Heemskerk of the Scharlaken Koord (Scarlet Cord).
Also note that the writers extensively use the square brackets (I mean [ and ]) like I do, that's why this time I use curly brackets ({ and }) instead if I want to give comments.
Page 34:
Some highlights from the 'Schone Schijn' report. Translated, so that all the non-Dutch people can read and weep too!!!!
You can read the report 'Schone Schijn' over here:
(the webpage of the OM)
http://www.om.nl/onderwerpen/mensenhandel_en/@148766/de_signalering_van/
(the pdf-file)
http://www.om.nl/publish/pages/98059/klpd_sneep_low_res_tcm5-968601.pdf
Note that respondent 34 can be nobody other than Toos Heemskerk of the Scharlaken Koord (Scarlet Cord).
Also note that the writers extensively use the square brackets (I mean [ and ]) like I do, that's why this time I use curly brackets ({ and }) instead if I want to give comments.
Page 34:
In 2007 the analysts of the Sneep project had insight in possibly 120 victims around the network of the brothers Dürdan, of whom 78 supposed victims (see also extent, §3.6, and methods, §4.7.1). Of the 120 prostitutes there were many from Germany (36) and the Netherlands (25). In total 73 women (65%) from ‘the old EU-member states’, twenty (17%) from the member states who joined in 2005 and eleven (9%) from the member states who joined in 2007. Six women (5%) were not born in a country that is a member of the European Union. Of ten women no country of birth was known.Page 35:
(…)
Probably the women are already working in prostitution before they become part of the group Dürdan. From the information of the Sneep project there are no (supposed) victims known who did not know in advance that they would be working as a prostitute. There are several ways in which prostitutes are incorporated into the group. Mostly the prostitutes are ‘snatched’ from other pimps. Usually a prostitute is persuaded to voluntarily ‘move over’. Four women reported to the police that they were intimidated by the group. Group members stood in front of the door of these women and kept clients away. The prostitutes had a strong feeling that is was the intention that they had to work for the organization.
very scaredPage 39:
A is being called by B. B forgot to say to A that he couldn’t come this evening because his girl isn’t going to work today. A says that the girl of B was becoming cocky because she doesn’t call his girl anymore. “That is not allowed”, says B, “she could be cocky towards me but not towards them because they are her girlfriends. Although she’s cocky, what the fuck (…) {(…) in original text}. She knows that her life could become in danger then, she knows well enough that you will kill her then. The girl is very frightened of you.”
Like a little lamb
A telephone conversation between two suspects. The girl of one of them wants to spend money on clothes. The other advises him that he mustn’t let his girl do too exuberant purchases.
A: “You must sometimes say no.. I say it, sometimes you must grab them by the throat.. like grab them by the hair.. and say like I will fuck you, will do something to you and look you into the eyes and throw {them} away… that will be enough for her… I don’t lie.... I swear to you.. last time we had a quarrel and I battered her very badly, I battered her a bit. She is now like a little lamb…
-B: “She is now a pussycat and sits in the corner….”
Earn more
Suspect A call suspect B. B tells that his girl is asleep now and that she has cried. “How much has that one of you earned?” asks A. “A little”, says B.
A: “Enough to pay the rent?”
B: “No”
A: “How much did she earn yesterday?”
B: “Five hundred”
A: “Say to her that you will arrange that she will get silicones and stuff like that, so she will earn a thousand a day. She will get silicones and we will make her hair in order.”
3.8. Current state of affairsPage 72:
The first arrests of the Sneep project were done in February 2007. 28 suspects in total were apprehended. One of the suspects also was a victim. Aside from that three suspects were already detained and one suspect was subject in an investigation. During the interrogation period two victims have been apprehended due to perjury.
As of January 2008 eights suspects are still in preventive custody. These are the suspects who were regarded as pimps by the research team. The bodyguards have been released in the meantime. Apart from that all the suspects who have come into view will be prosecuted wherever possible. (…)
Fifteen victims have reported the crime to the police or made an incriminating statement. Most victims still work in window prostitution. Also the bodyguards are working again in the window prostitution areas.
Multiple respondents told us that some brothel operators aside from renting out windows, also provided accommodation to prostitutes while asking an exorbitant rent (Respondents 5 & 6). First of all this is reminiscent to the dependent position which is typical of the offence of human trafficking. Second of all this raises the question if a brothel owner commits human trafficking in the sense of article 273f Sr when he provides accommodation to victims of human trafficking: art 273 lid 1 Sub 1 Sr after all implicitly names ‘providing accommodation’. The brothel owner is with the knowledge of the crime guilty of human trafficking anyway: by renting out windows he willingly and knowingly takes advantage of the exploitive situation.Page 73:
7.5.2 Case Dürdan
A window landlord from one of the cities where the Dürdan group was active, has requested in the spring of 2005 a consultation with the department of Commercial Vice of the local police. He was worried about “German Turks” in the prostitution area where he rented out work chambers. Of some other operators of window leasing companies it might be assumed that they were aware of the fact that their female renters work for a pimp, but no other brothel operator made a formal report of this to the police.
Some window landlords explicitly state that they only hold contact with prostitutes; others also do business with pimps. From the telephone conversation given below between two main suspects it can be deducted that the window landlord involved only wants to talk with the prostitutes themselves. On the other hand the conversation makes clear that the landlord is informed about the fact that there are third persons who have a businesslike interest in the activities of the female renter.
A. is called by B. He asks if Jackie is a girl belonging to them. When A. confirms this, B. tells that their own girl from C, is expelled out of her own room in [X] and he heard that the girl next to her, Jackie, was also supposedly expelled out of the room. B. explains that he phoned to the office to ask for an explanation, but they didn’t want to tell him anything, because they only wanted to talk to the girls themselves. But they did tell that the police came. B. Says that he wants to throw in the windows of all the rooms. A. will find out what has happened and will call B. back.Page 75:
From the following passage it becomes clear that the window landlord is doing business with the pimps of the group. The Dürdan group in this municipality always uses the same workspaces. The following conversation between A. and John, a window landlord, illustrates this. The window is rented out to a woman who works for John. A. tries to reverse this.
A: ”But John, you do know, we have always…this [workplace] is only for us”
A. doesn’t succeed in getting the room and a couple of days later he tries again under the name Halit. John doesn’t seem to recognize the voice of A. and then went on to call him Halit. A. says that he is on this [location] for fifteen years. Also this conversation doesn’t yield the right result. John proposes that ‘Halit’ comes to his office. According to the criminal investigation teams of the Project Sneep multiple telephone calls have been made which point at direct contact between (co-workers of) window landlords and the suspects. From this it turns out that landlords are informed with the fact that they are dealing with pimps. In the following fragment the group is searching for living accommodation:
A. makes a call with the brothel operator and asks if he has a little apartment for two girls who come to [municipality X]. He doesn’t have that. A. is referred to a man whom is specified by the brothel operator as ‘my brother’.
On the yearly expenses of window leasing company Y was a deduction of 500.000 euro under the title ‘commission’. An audit that the tax department started after this and a conversation with the manager of this company learned that this was about protection money. To whom this was paid, the manager didn’t want to tell.
Some inspectors ask for the identification card during the inspection and have a chat to win the trust of the prostitute (Respondent 17), others focus mainly towards the validity of the papers. Some inspectors make the certificate of registration at the Chamber of Commerce and a sofi-number {~National Insurance Number} obligatory, others ask only for a passport (Respondent 12). Some inspectors aside from inspections also pay attention to loitering pimps or persons in expensive cars. Two of them indicated that it is important to be present in the prostitution zone in order to see what’s happening (Respondent 10 & 11). During the accompaniment with the prostitution inspections in turned out that they were talking with bodyguards and pimps. The suspects didn’t give the impression that they wanted to conceil their activities from the policemen. One of them even complained about a group member. In one municipality the prostitution inspections are not always planned. It is then tried to inspect an as large as possible area. During the inspections one also looks out for possible bodyguards and pimps. Outside of that {prostitution area}, as far as is known, not.Page 76:
A number of the interviewed inspectors or vice detectives find it difficult to give a reliable estimate of the percentage of prostitutes that work under force (Respondent 14). Others did dare to make an estimate. Estimates named of the percentage of women whom are forced and/or exploited, are 50% (Respondents 22 & 23), 60% (Respondent 17), 70% (Respondent 10 & 11) and 65-85% (Respondent 9).Page 78:
Eva and Pavlina want to work in Z. A. brought them there, but didn’t want to be seen with them in the street. “He said to us that he first wanted to walk into the street together with B. We weren’t allowed to walk near him. We had to walk a distance behind him and do as if we didn’t belong to them. We did have to keep an eye on them. A. was supposed to stand before a door of a window prostitution building. This would be a sign for us that we should go inside there to ask if we could work there. And so it happened that way. This later turned out to be property X. In the building we first had to wait until the police had inspected us. After this we went to work.”Page 79:
Except for the window landlords, the police is probably the most often present in the prostitution zone. They capture the most signals of trafficking in women and estimate the percentage of involuntarily working prostitutes to be high. These signals are not always very concrete though. Often these are also ‘underbelly feelings’ of the vice detectives and it’s difficult for them to lay their finger on it. Especially when the victims in question don’t want to be identified as such. The problem is that the short moments of contact during the inspection often yield few signals with a so-called ‘investigation indication’. The papers which are inspected are mostly in order. This doesn’t guarantee voluntariness on the side of the prostitute however.Page 80:
Possibly that ‘hanging around’ in the prostitution areas will yield more concrete signals. Also then the question remains why so few investigations result from so many signals (see also chapter 10).
(…)
In two of the three municipalities the social workers are positive about the cooperation with the police (Respondents 34, 35, 36 & 37), although more capacity at the police to deal with loitering pimps would be welcome (Respondent 35). One of them would also like to see that the municipality involves the brothels owners more in countering human trafficking (Respondent 34). This way it could be made compulsory that in every room in multiple languages there would be a notice board on the door with a telephone number for girls who are under force or want to leave. At this moment prostitutes don’t always know how they have to make known that they need help. One girl who wanted to step out, told her that she had tried to draw the attention from the police at the moment her pimp wasn’t there. The policemen however waved back unsuspectingly. (Respondent 34).
In the third municipality there’s according to the interviewed social workers no cooperation with the police. “Brothel owners keep matters better under control [in the prostitution zone] than the police”. When there are problems with a pimp they call in the help of the brothel operators (Respondents 38 & 63).Page 86 {a bodyguard explains after his arrest}:
Not all social workers can make judgements about the extent to which force takes place in prostitution zones. Sometimes it happens that prostitutes are forced for years and only tell that afterwards. “The barrier to work in prostitution is high, but the barrier to leave is even higher” (Respondent 37). “[On a tippelzone] there was for instance a cheerful, sociable girl. After three years it turned out the she was violently pimped” (Respondent 37). One of the social workers thinks that many women [in the prostitution zone in the city where she works] are one way or another under control of a pimp. She also adds that at the moment many Hungarian women work there who are often in a bad condition. “Some don’t know in which country they are. Some work for way too low prices and without a condom” (Respondent 38). Another female social worker estimates that approximately one half of the women enters prostitution (by way of relationships in) the criminal scene. The majority of the Eastern European women ‘enters with an individual who arranges everything’ (Respondent 34). Among these young Eastern European women furthermore the turnover is large because their pimp constantly puts them to work in different places (Respondent 35). The Dürdan group by the way is not a very good example of this so-called ‘prostitution-carrousel’: most girls constantly work(ed) in the same city and often even behind the same window.
(…)
Social workers probably have a reasonable insight into the fact if the women whom they have contact with are working voluntarily or not. One problem with this is that many victims probably talk with the social workers on the condition that their secret is safe. When social workers share too many signals with the police, the position of trust with their clients becomes damaged and no signals will come in again. Nonetheless the police and social workers do share information to a certain extent.
Question: “Can you tell something about the girls whom you know [in a certain prostitution zone]?”Page 87 {a victim of forced prostitution said:}
A: There exist [x number of] windows [in this prostitution zone]. From the smallest to the largest brick I know everyone and everything. I don’t know a lot about the girls. I don’t know their real names. Sometimes I was favoured by the police [in the prostitution zone]. I don’t work for the police. I did have good contact with the police. I always mediated when there where problems. I didn’t have fixed windows where I kept an eye on. The four women about whom I talked earlier did have fixed addresses” (interrogation, Sneep File).
Two interviewed prostitution inspectors indeed had ‘good contact’ with the bodyguards or pimps and the brothel operators (or managers). By one of the brothel operators they were invited to a new year party, by one of the prostitutes to her wedding (Respondents 10 & 11). The question arises if such a tight contact doesn’t hinder the inspection activities.
“When I see [prostitution inspectors] shake hands with pimps or [see] them throw an arm around them, and when I see [prostitution inspectors] drink coffee with the brothel operators, I have the feeling I can’t say anything anymore” (Respondent 61).Page 92:
Starting from April 2007 30 supposed victims of the Dürdan group were approached. Seventeen of them stated that they didn’t feel victims of human trafficking. Five women didn’t want or dare to make a statement. Three women made an incriminating statement. Five women reported the crime of human trafficking to the police, but later three of them wanted to withdraw it again. A number of these reports had already been done before to start of the investigation. (see also Chapter Ten about the cause of the unresponsiveness of these women.)Page 93:
Also foreign women don’t see themselves necessarily as victim. Some in the country of origin entered into a contract that after arrival in the Netherlands turned out be unjust. A wage of 15 euro per hour perhaps is a lot in the country of birth, but in prostitution in the Netherlands that is a mere pittance by comparison. Nevertheless they themselves agreed {into that} (Respondent 37). In the governmental report of an investigation into human trafficking (Donar) this is confirmed:Page 93-94:
From the research it turned out that the willingness of the women to report the crime is low. It is striking that this cannot always be blamed to fear of reprisals, but can also be explained by a difference of opinion about norms and values. In our eyes the women are exploited and abused, but not all women experience it that way. That is because the (financial) position in Bulgaria is often very bad and they earn in the Netherlands a lot more money than they would in their own country. Even when most of the money goes to the human trafficker (Donar, 2001:12) {Kernteam Noord en Oost Nederland (2001). Rapportage naar aanleiding van het Donar recherche onderzoek.}
From a research in 2001 among prostitutes in Amsterdam it turned out that many Eastern European women found it to be normal to pay a pimp or to enter into a contract with an agency. For that reason they saw no reason to report the crime. Moreover they didn’t see themselves as victims, but on the contrary as survivors:
Of course we know the men of that agency are taking advantage of us; we must pay a lot of money, but we knew what the contract was about”. We are all happy to stop working in this job once our debts have been paid, but we will not go back to Belarus. Although we are well-educated, there is no employment for us at home. […] The men in my village are also unemployed., they drink to much and they abuse their wives and children. We will find a nice man here so that we can stay; we are survivors” -Lisa, 22 (GG&GD Amsterdam, 2005:7) {GG&GD Amsterdam (2005). Intermediary project for prostitutes. Annual report 2002-2004.} {not translated! Originally in English}Page 94:
Third of all victims are difficult to be recognized based on physical features alone. In the case Dürdan two women were under pressure to earn a high target sum per day. A cheerful and provocative prostitute attracts most clients, so paradoxically enough exactly these victims looked like ‘happy hookers’. Generally during the inspections prostitutes are being talked to for a couple of minutes. Assuming the above-mentioned {happy hookers-like victims} it is unlikely that a victim at a certain moment will make clear towards an inspector that she is being forced. Victims will do everything to appear to be there voluntarily. The fact that women are being monitored by pimps and bodyguards, makes a victim testimony even more unlikely. As it happens, policemen must legitimize themselves when they inspect a prostitute. “When a pimp sees that, then you immediately try to remove them [prostitution inspectors] to outside as quickly as possible”, according to a victim. (Respondent 56). The same victim remarked that prostitution inspectors often had the tendency to step insidePage 107:
as if they were pimps themselves; as if they know what it’s all about in this world. They just should behave normally. They often come in as if they are so tough. That doesn’t really invite {you} to talk (Respondent 56).
A second respondent whom we spoke with, had the same impression (Respondent 62). Also the social workers of the Foundation Against Trafficking in Women have the impression that the women don’t have a need for ‘a chat with the police’, but they want the police to aim towards the pimps (Respondent 57).
How strong the loyalty towards the perpetrators is, turns out from the fact that two victims – despite that they have been apprehended for perjury – keep on maintaining that they work voluntarily and allowed to keep the money for themselves. The team confronted the victims with telephone conversations from which is turns out that the women don’t decide the working hours themselves, are not allowed themselves to decide who their clients are or must earn a minimum of 1000 euro per night. One of the two states as follows:Main
Sarah: “I really do it voluntarily. I don’t understand the problem. I already did this work a year before I got to know A. I work six days a week now. If I can get it in order, I do work seven days because I have to do everything now A isn’t here anymore. I have to go out shopping and cleaning and take the dog out. During the last months I have a lot of stress since A is apprehended. […]”
Policeman: “I had hoped that when you wouldn’t be under pressure of A., you would stand up for yourself. Now I have to confront you with lies and that I find a pity. I know that you didn’t tell those lies to improve your own situation but you told them under pressure. Or am I wrong?”
Sarah: “I don’t want to give an answer. I have answered enough questions. I’m not under pressure. I’m only under pressure from you because you keep on coming with these telephone conversations.”
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
The Netherlands: Trade and Tolerance Lead to Trafficking
I found an interesting English-language report about the Dutch sex industry on the website of shared hope international:
Here it is:
http://www.sharedhope.org/files/demand_netherlands.pdf
I'm reading it.
Here it is:
http://www.sharedhope.org/files/demand_netherlands.pdf
I'm reading it.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Borderline
Some bad prostitution news within a short period of time. This time an article in the Dutch newspaper ‘het brabants dagblad’:
http://www.brabantsdagblad.nl/....../.ece
It’s about Gina Kamphuis, a madam in Den Bosch who is the owner of the Chaplin Club. New taxation rules make it difficult to attract women to work in brothels. She decided to sell her brothel. Her remarks about prostitutes contrast heavily with researches done by Ine Vanwesenbeeck and Bureau Regioplan which seem to suggest that distress levels of prostitutes don’t seem to be very different from non-prostitutes. But perhaps Gina is also suffering from “underbelly” feelings?
Nooit meer een wippie als kadootje [never again a fuck as a gift]
August 18th 2008
(...)
“I am 56, two weeks ago I went upstairs myself to keep a client indoors. Today I have called 25 girls. They didn’t want it anymore. I have three left, sir. It also is becoming more silent. I am in the business for 26 years, it has become heavy. I am a mother towards my clients. But you also see al lot of things that give me a fright. Yes, criminal things too. But I also remember a man of approximately seventy years old who wanted to plompzakken [~something like “ditch-balling”], do you know that? I never heard of it. Then the scrotum is also put into the vagina, with the aid of a belt to open the woman maximally. On of the two could die of it. And then the inferiority in which you are treated. ‘Come here, baby’, they say. When they are upstairs, they grab your hair. ‘And now give me a blowjob, rotten whore’. Ah sir, when I soon get into the grave, I take a lot of secrets with me. And then it is also not allowed to smoke anymore!’
(…)
“And all those girls have borderline. Furthermore the whole [prostitution] world sniffs [coke] around me. I once took a sniff myself. I became very aggressive because of it. Never done it again. Last week I let a girl being taken away by the police. Totally addicted. I know her for eight years, have taken her in my home, paid everything for her, totally wasted.”
(…)
“But I’ve done al lot for prostitution. Still! It started with aids. My girls didn’t have to do blowjobs without a condom anymore, they didn’t have to be fucked in the ass anymore. The result was that I [only] made 250 guilders [about 125 dollars?] in three weeks time.”
(...)
http://www.brabantsdagblad.nl/....../.ece
It’s about Gina Kamphuis, a madam in Den Bosch who is the owner of the Chaplin Club. New taxation rules make it difficult to attract women to work in brothels. She decided to sell her brothel. Her remarks about prostitutes contrast heavily with researches done by Ine Vanwesenbeeck and Bureau Regioplan which seem to suggest that distress levels of prostitutes don’t seem to be very different from non-prostitutes. But perhaps Gina is also suffering from “underbelly” feelings?
Nooit meer een wippie als kadootje [never again a fuck as a gift]
August 18th 2008
(...)
“I am 56, two weeks ago I went upstairs myself to keep a client indoors. Today I have called 25 girls. They didn’t want it anymore. I have three left, sir. It also is becoming more silent. I am in the business for 26 years, it has become heavy. I am a mother towards my clients. But you also see al lot of things that give me a fright. Yes, criminal things too. But I also remember a man of approximately seventy years old who wanted to plompzakken [~something like “ditch-balling”], do you know that? I never heard of it. Then the scrotum is also put into the vagina, with the aid of a belt to open the woman maximally. On of the two could die of it. And then the inferiority in which you are treated. ‘Come here, baby’, they say. When they are upstairs, they grab your hair. ‘And now give me a blowjob, rotten whore’. Ah sir, when I soon get into the grave, I take a lot of secrets with me. And then it is also not allowed to smoke anymore!’
(…)
“And all those girls have borderline. Furthermore the whole [prostitution] world sniffs [coke] around me. I once took a sniff myself. I became very aggressive because of it. Never done it again. Last week I let a girl being taken away by the police. Totally addicted. I know her for eight years, have taken her in my home, paid everything for her, totally wasted.”
(…)
“But I’ve done al lot for prostitution. Still! It started with aids. My girls didn’t have to do blowjobs without a condom anymore, they didn’t have to be fucked in the ass anymore. The result was that I [only] made 250 guilders [about 125 dollars?] in three weeks time.”
(...)
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Schone Schijn
For the ones who are interested and who can read Dutch;
You can read the report 'Schone Schijn' over here:
(the webpage of the OM)
http://www.om.nl/onderwerpen/mensenhandel_en/@148766/de_signalering_van/
(the pdf-file)
http://www.om.nl/publish/pages/98059/klpd_sneep_low_res_tcm5-968601.pdf
You can read the report 'Schone Schijn' over here:
(the webpage of the OM)
http://www.om.nl/onderwerpen/mensenhandel_en/@148766/de_signalering_van/
(the pdf-file)
http://www.om.nl/publish/pages/98059/klpd_sneep_low_res_tcm5-968601.pdf
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
A negative view
Main
Some quotes by a former prostitute from an article in the Dutch weekly magazine 'Mijn Geheim' ['My Secret'] (nr 8/19 2008) The 18 years old Vlinder meets Wessel and is forced / manipulated by him to work in a club. Remarkably Wessel has a good job, is married and has children. She has a very negative few about prostitution and prostitutes, but beware that all the information indicates she worked in only one single Dutch club (so not really representative).
DOSSIER - In de klauwen van loverboys - Vlinder wil weer vliegen... [File - In the claws of loverboys - Butterfly wants to fly again...]
(…)
The next day I went back and then I was a bit taken care of by a woman who worked here for quite a long time. She came from the world of swingers, with lots of varying sex contacts, and she made her hobby her work. She found it pleasant and on top of it she also could make a lot of money. She was one of the few women whom I met in those years who were there voluntarily. The others were all forced. Me too, I realise in hindsight. I was there because I couldn’t devise another way to get money and because Wessel manipulated me in that direction.
(…)
I became hardened because of my work. Prostitution is a very dirty branch of industry, where everybody succumbs. What happens is humanly disgraceful. You sustain scars which will never disappear. You also become rock and rock-hard because of it. I have experienced terrible things. I have seen boys [young men], heterosexual boys, who were forced into gay prostitution. Some didn’t know any other solution for their shame than to end their life. I had ninety year old guys who came by three times a week to do it with me. Then we talk about an age difference of almost seventy years. Whore-hoppers are jerks, jerks, all of them. The world of prostitution is one of those places where the upper world and the underworld meet each other. There were men who went with me in those dirty, stinking, dimly lit little rooms whom I later saw on television in the Lower House. Well known Dutch people who came by. Nice, a quick visit to a whore, quickly grab a girl. Disgusting. Hired assassins whose mugs you sometimes see in the newspaper, who went over me. A client who quickly, quickly raped me without a condom. ‘In about a month or six you know what kind of present I gave you!’ he shouted when he ran away. It was clear what he meant: only after six months it can be verified if you have HIV.
You also mustn’t have a romantic idea about the relationships between the girls. They are rock-hard for each other, every weakness is punished mercilessly. They all try to make as much money as possible with the littlest effort possible. You try to get the best clients for yourself and you send the beasts with the other girls to upstairs. What happens to them, at least spares you. You are alone, you have to do everything yourself. You don’t have a sense of time anymore, you live at night. After every client your soul crumbles further, but in the long run your grieve sinks away. Everything evolves around money.
(...)
Main
Some quotes by a former prostitute from an article in the Dutch weekly magazine 'Mijn Geheim' ['My Secret'] (nr 8/19 2008) The 18 years old Vlinder meets Wessel and is forced / manipulated by him to work in a club. Remarkably Wessel has a good job, is married and has children. She has a very negative few about prostitution and prostitutes, but beware that all the information indicates she worked in only one single Dutch club (so not really representative).
DOSSIER - In de klauwen van loverboys - Vlinder wil weer vliegen... [File - In the claws of loverboys - Butterfly wants to fly again...]
(…)
The next day I went back and then I was a bit taken care of by a woman who worked here for quite a long time. She came from the world of swingers, with lots of varying sex contacts, and she made her hobby her work. She found it pleasant and on top of it she also could make a lot of money. She was one of the few women whom I met in those years who were there voluntarily. The others were all forced. Me too, I realise in hindsight. I was there because I couldn’t devise another way to get money and because Wessel manipulated me in that direction.
(…)
I became hardened because of my work. Prostitution is a very dirty branch of industry, where everybody succumbs. What happens is humanly disgraceful. You sustain scars which will never disappear. You also become rock and rock-hard because of it. I have experienced terrible things. I have seen boys [young men], heterosexual boys, who were forced into gay prostitution. Some didn’t know any other solution for their shame than to end their life. I had ninety year old guys who came by three times a week to do it with me. Then we talk about an age difference of almost seventy years. Whore-hoppers are jerks, jerks, all of them. The world of prostitution is one of those places where the upper world and the underworld meet each other. There were men who went with me in those dirty, stinking, dimly lit little rooms whom I later saw on television in the Lower House. Well known Dutch people who came by. Nice, a quick visit to a whore, quickly grab a girl. Disgusting. Hired assassins whose mugs you sometimes see in the newspaper, who went over me. A client who quickly, quickly raped me without a condom. ‘In about a month or six you know what kind of present I gave you!’ he shouted when he ran away. It was clear what he meant: only after six months it can be verified if you have HIV.
You also mustn’t have a romantic idea about the relationships between the girls. They are rock-hard for each other, every weakness is punished mercilessly. They all try to make as much money as possible with the littlest effort possible. You try to get the best clients for yourself and you send the beasts with the other girls to upstairs. What happens to them, at least spares you. You are alone, you have to do everything yourself. You don’t have a sense of time anymore, you live at night. After every client your soul crumbles further, but in the long run your grieve sinks away. Everything evolves around money.
(...)
Main
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Newsflash!
Main
A nice translation by me of the article 'Amper Zicht op Vrouwenhandel' from the paper Het Parool:
http://www.parool.nl/parool/nl/7/Misdaad/article/detail/26721/2008/08/09/Amper-zicht-op-handel-in-vrouwen.dhtml
Barely insight in trafficking in women.
Paul Vugts, August 9th, 2008
The government barely had insight in trafficking in women during the last years. That for ten years, on de Wallen in Amsterdam and in other red light districts women were exploited on a huge scale, was barely noticed.
That’s what the public prosecutor concluded in the report Schone schijn [~Keeping up appearances], [the report is] a response to the large organization of women traffickers led by the Turkish-German brothers Saban and Hasan B. They recently were convicted because their group exploited with brute force 78 to 120 prostitutes on de Wallen and the red light districts of Utrecht and Alkmaar. [note: Saban was sentenced for 7 and a half years, Hasan for 2 and a half years. 4 others got sentences between 8 months and 3 years. 3 of the 6 suspects are to pay compensation up to 50.000 euros. Well, that will take at most 3 years before 5 of 6 suspects will be free and continue with what they were doing in the first place…….]
Police inspections didn’t bring the serious abuses to light and social workers didn’t sound the alarm. Insiders in the prostitution business, such as the people who rent out the windows, knew about the situation, but did nothing.
“The current prostitution policy is not well equipped to signal human trafficking,’ conclude the researchers. The government wrongly assumes that inspections and license systems bring human trafficking to light.
The case against the group of the brothers B. shows that ‘even when there are useful signals of human trafficking, these are not always adequately followed up.’
The researchers have nineteen recommendations which should improve the [prostitution] policy so much that women traffickers have no freedom of movement anymore. Following the recommendations which have already been done during the research, the municipality of Amsterdam in the mean time works hard on improvements.
The size of trafficking in women is unknown. Specialized inspectors of the police in the three cities, who inspect all the window brothels four times a year, estimate that ‘fifty to ninety’ percent of all window prostitutes work involuntarily. In Amsterdam that would mean at least four thousand victims, since in the city there work according to the municipality between eight and ten thousand prostitutes. After keep-asking the researchers learned that the police [inspectors] based their estimate ‘on their underbelly’, not on substantiated countings.
The number of cases that the judiciary in Amsterdam received during 2001 and 2005, are in big contrast to the estimates of the inspectors. In those five years the public prosecutor received ‘only’ 92 cases, in 2005 itself it were eleven. Regarding these numbers the researchers notice that in all three investigated cities cases are lying ‘on the shelf’, while in the Aanwijzing Mensenhandel [Direction on Human Trafficking] of the national judicial summit this is explicitly prohibited.
That's interesting! So estimates like the '90 percent' of the Eastern European prostitutes being 'in the power' of 'pimps, madams and human traffickers' made by TAMPEP could also be based on underbelly feelings? That would make my quest it bit easier; just remove all the guesstimates! Too bad that subtiantiated countings are also unreliable. Most prostitutes that are forced will tell that they are doing fine anyway.
Main
A nice translation by me of the article 'Amper Zicht op Vrouwenhandel' from the paper Het Parool:
http://www.parool.nl/parool/nl/7/Misdaad/article/detail/26721/2008/08/09/Amper-zicht-op-handel-in-vrouwen.dhtml
Barely insight in trafficking in women.
Paul Vugts, August 9th, 2008
The government barely had insight in trafficking in women during the last years. That for ten years, on de Wallen in Amsterdam and in other red light districts women were exploited on a huge scale, was barely noticed.
That’s what the public prosecutor concluded in the report Schone schijn [~Keeping up appearances], [the report is] a response to the large organization of women traffickers led by the Turkish-German brothers Saban and Hasan B. They recently were convicted because their group exploited with brute force 78 to 120 prostitutes on de Wallen and the red light districts of Utrecht and Alkmaar. [note: Saban was sentenced for 7 and a half years, Hasan for 2 and a half years. 4 others got sentences between 8 months and 3 years. 3 of the 6 suspects are to pay compensation up to 50.000 euros. Well, that will take at most 3 years before 5 of 6 suspects will be free and continue with what they were doing in the first place…….]
Police inspections didn’t bring the serious abuses to light and social workers didn’t sound the alarm. Insiders in the prostitution business, such as the people who rent out the windows, knew about the situation, but did nothing.
“The current prostitution policy is not well equipped to signal human trafficking,’ conclude the researchers. The government wrongly assumes that inspections and license systems bring human trafficking to light.
The case against the group of the brothers B. shows that ‘even when there are useful signals of human trafficking, these are not always adequately followed up.’
The researchers have nineteen recommendations which should improve the [prostitution] policy so much that women traffickers have no freedom of movement anymore. Following the recommendations which have already been done during the research, the municipality of Amsterdam in the mean time works hard on improvements.
The size of trafficking in women is unknown. Specialized inspectors of the police in the three cities, who inspect all the window brothels four times a year, estimate that ‘fifty to ninety’ percent of all window prostitutes work involuntarily. In Amsterdam that would mean at least four thousand victims, since in the city there work according to the municipality between eight and ten thousand prostitutes. After keep-asking the researchers learned that the police [inspectors] based their estimate ‘on their underbelly’, not on substantiated countings.
The number of cases that the judiciary in Amsterdam received during 2001 and 2005, are in big contrast to the estimates of the inspectors. In those five years the public prosecutor received ‘only’ 92 cases, in 2005 itself it were eleven. Regarding these numbers the researchers notice that in all three investigated cities cases are lying ‘on the shelf’, while in the Aanwijzing Mensenhandel [Direction on Human Trafficking] of the national judicial summit this is explicitly prohibited.
That's interesting! So estimates like the '90 percent' of the Eastern European prostitutes being 'in the power' of 'pimps, madams and human traffickers' made by TAMPEP could also be based on underbelly feelings? That would make my quest it bit easier; just remove all the guesstimates! Too bad that subtiantiated countings are also unreliable. Most prostitutes that are forced will tell that they are doing fine anyway.
Main
Friday, May 30, 2008
Surprise - part 4
Main
Last year there was a report published stating that the illegal prostitution industry in the Netherlands largely doesn't exist. (I mean this report:
Verboden bordelen; evaluatie opheffing bordeelverbod: niet-legale prostitutie, more on this in my post: surprise!!)
I stumbled upon a new report (of the same year) about the escort industry in Amsterdam. It states the complete contrary; there is large illegal escort industry in Amsterdam and in the middle and lower segments of that industry mainly Romanian prostitutes are heavily exploited.
I mean this report:
Escort in Amsterdam Revisited: De Amsterdamse Escortbranche Anno 2007 (2007, Marnix W.B. Eysink Smeets, Leon van Lier, Renée Römkens, Margreth Egelkamp, Jenneke van Ditzhuijzen, m.m.v. Peter Klerks, Pauline Naber en Annet Speelberg)
More about this report at the bottom of my post about Eastern European prostitutes.
The soap about the conflicting reports continues.......
Main
Last year there was a report published stating that the illegal prostitution industry in the Netherlands largely doesn't exist. (I mean this report:
Verboden bordelen; evaluatie opheffing bordeelverbod: niet-legale prostitutie, more on this in my post: surprise!!)
I stumbled upon a new report (of the same year) about the escort industry in Amsterdam. It states the complete contrary; there is large illegal escort industry in Amsterdam and in the middle and lower segments of that industry mainly Romanian prostitutes are heavily exploited.
I mean this report:
Escort in Amsterdam Revisited: De Amsterdamse Escortbranche Anno 2007 (2007, Marnix W.B. Eysink Smeets, Leon van Lier, Renée Römkens, Margreth Egelkamp, Jenneke van Ditzhuijzen, m.m.v. Peter Klerks, Pauline Naber en Annet Speelberg)
More about this report at the bottom of my post about Eastern European prostitutes.
The soap about the conflicting reports continues.......
Main
Saturday, November 17, 2007
History
Main
I like to add some history to my blog about prostitution in the Netherlands. It seems that throughout history nearly all prostitutes have been slaves, but only in the 1960s there seems to have been a revolution where the situation turned somewhat for the better.
From the book"Het Amsterdams Hoerdom - Prostitutie in de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw" [The Whoredom of Amsterdam - Prostitution in the eighteenth and nineteenth century] (Lotte van der Pol, 1996).
First a short explanation: playhouses [speelhuizen in Dutch] are brothels where also music is played. The prostitution doesn't take place in the playhouses themselves. Most brothels weren't playhouses. But there was an overlap between different forms. Prostitutes often worked in different kind of brothels at the same time.
Lotte van der Pol also refers to the seventeenth century book written by an anonymous person: T'Amsterdamsch hoerdom. Behelzende de listen en streken, daar zich de hoeren en hoere-waardinnen van dienen; benevens der zelver maniere van leeven, dwaaze bygeloovigheden, en in 't algemeen alles 'tgeen by dese juffers in ghebruick is (1681). It contains a lot of information about prostitution in Amsterdam at that time, Lotte van der Pol considers it to be very reliable.
Page 34 (quote):
A short explanation: Ottho Gerhard Heldring was a countryside reverend and founded the Heldring-foundations after a visit in 1847 to the only female prison in the Netherlands in Gouda (p. 103). He was shocked to see how young women were recruited for prostitution; the young women were in prison together with madams (p. 103). He opened Asyl Steenbeek in Zetten to shelter fallen women (not only prostitutes) (p. 110). The daily direction was under Petronella Voûte (p. 111). Heldring died in 1876 and in the beginning of 1877 he was followed by Hendrik Pierson (p. 129). On April 14th 1877 Asyl Steenbeek was destroyed in a fire which also killed Petronella Voûte (p. 123). It was rebuilt.
Page 117-118 (quote):
Page 252-253:
Short explanation: this is a very interesting book about the old Zandstraat of Rotterdam where much prostitution took place. Much information comes from an old major of the police and a detective who gives a tour. With the “Polder” they probably mean the area of the Zandstraat.
Page 9: [according to M.J. Brusse]
Short explanation: Nel Hoenderdos grew up in the red light district of Amsterdam.
Page 151:
Page 37:
I like to add some history to my blog about prostitution in the Netherlands. It seems that throughout history nearly all prostitutes have been slaves, but only in the 1960s there seems to have been a revolution where the situation turned somewhat for the better.
From the book"Het Amsterdams Hoerdom - Prostitutie in de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw" [The Whoredom of Amsterdam - Prostitution in the eighteenth and nineteenth century] (Lotte van der Pol, 1996).
First a short explanation: playhouses [speelhuizen in Dutch] are brothels where also music is played. The prostitution doesn't take place in the playhouses themselves. Most brothels weren't playhouses. But there was an overlap between different forms. Prostitutes often worked in different kind of brothels at the same time.
Lotte van der Pol also refers to the seventeenth century book written by an anonymous person: T'Amsterdamsch hoerdom. Behelzende de listen en streken, daar zich de hoeren en hoere-waardinnen van dienen; benevens der zelver maniere van leeven, dwaaze bygeloovigheden, en in 't algemeen alles 'tgeen by dese juffers in ghebruick is (1681). It contains a lot of information about prostitution in Amsterdam at that time, Lotte van der Pol considers it to be very reliable.
Page 34 (quote):
In the period of the late middle aged regulation there existed a word for pimp: in many keuren [~laws] ‘poytier’ exists in this meaning. In the early modern period a separate word for pimp is absent. During this period there is a clear unwillingness to view men as actively involved in the organization of prostitution: women, not men were viewed as the instigators of this evil. But also the type of the pimp seems to be rare in reality. In some occasions a ‘hoerenbeschermer’ [protector of prostitutes] appears before court, paid by kruishoeren [street prostitutes] to assist them in times of emergency. And in the eighteenth century some prostitutes have a man whom they call their ‘liefste’ [sweetheart], with whom they lived together and who lived of their earnings. In general no large and clear role was granted to him in prostitution during this period.Page 87 (quote):
Successful landladies had little problems finding a man, what turns out from the fact that whore-landlords were often younger, often many years younger than the landladies with whom they lived. The earnings of prostitution from a whorehouse were the business of the landlady; this form of procuration after all was women’s labour, just like keeping supervision over female personnel and the retail trade. (…) The role of the landlord was supposed to be limited to server of beverages and bouncer of difficult clients. That the landlord in fact lived of the earnings of his wife, and in a certain way this involved tainted money, was humiliating for the man. Men who were accused of being a whore-landlord, often testify before court that they knew nothing of it and were not involved in it, because the housekeeping and therefore the whore-housekeeping only concerned their wife.Page 120 (quote):
It regularly occurred that a woman left a whorehouse for a man who wanted to keep her as a mistress [he wanted to ‘maiteneren’ her in Dutch, like maitenee in French]. In most cases he had to ‘release’ [‘lossen’ in Dutch], that is to pay off her debts.Page 199 (quote):
The confession books in this period [1578-1650] paint a picture of prostitution which is small-scale and yet not much professionalized, and of prostitutes who operated fairly independently.Page 214 (quote):
Also orphans enjoyed special protection by the city. The mayors after all had the [in old Dutch] ‘supreme guardianship over widows and orphans’ and swore an oath at taking up office that they would shield and protect [in old Dutch] ‘the city’s gates, widows and orphans’. When a child was abandoned by the parents, the formula was used in which the [in old Dutch] ‘Gentlemen Mayors have accepted the child’ and that [in old Dutch] ‘on the order of the Gentlemen Mayors’ it was taken to the Aalmoezeniershuis [Chaplain’s house]. The government took the position of the parents and ‘debauching’ a girl from a orphanage was taken very seriously. The government was involved with the two municipal orphanages, the Burgerweeshuis [Civilian Orphanage] and the Aalmoezeniersweeshuis [Chaplain’s orphanage], where the children resided from the poorest families and the families least rooted in Amsterdam. (…)Page 223 (quote):
The protection of girls who still lived in an orphanage, seems to have been reasonably effective. The many poor and orphaned chaplain’s girls could have been an easy prey for prostitution, but judging from the confession books the whore-landladies left them alone, like they also didn’t want to burn their fingers on girls with a family in the city.
One of the most important instruments the government had at its disposal in her battle, was striking the industry in it’s capital. When the seventeenth century whorehouses were continuously ‘interrupted’ and routed, the prostitution businesses stayed small. Because of the high chance of raids and forced relocations it was not responsible to make investments; furthermore a large business escapes less from the attention of the law than a small one. When the playhouses came into fashion, around 1675, the government mostly left these businesses and their landlords alone. Only the prostitutes were arrested. This led to big businesses which operated very openly; this period therefore had been a bloom of prostitution.Page 223-224 (quote):
It was much more effective to hit the whore-landladies and landlords rather than the prostitutes. The large-scale arrests of prostitutes in playhouses in the last quarter of the seventeenth century hardly helped to decrease prostitution, especially when the girls were lightly punished and quickly returned to business. The organizers had more means at their disposal to withdraw from persecution than prostitutes, and the first did their utmost best to shift the risks to the last.Page 272 (quote):
Until 1670 it often occurred that a house where prostitutes lived, was more like a ‘dishonourable sleeping house’ than a brothel. Prostitutes were less personally committed to a landlady and prostitution was in general less professional in character. The prostitute therefore had more freedom and could more easily leave the life.Page 282 (quote):
In the better playhouses they were only admitted when they were beautifully dressed, but not rarely they had gotten themselves into debts at a whore-landlady for those clothes. This person therefore didn’t loose sight of them, and many prostitutes only went to the playhouses under the guidance of the landlady or her maid.Page 300-301 (quote):
The theme of debts runs like a red thread through the history of prostitution. Perhaps even more than dire poverty this comes forward as a reason to prostitute and as an obstruction to stop. This is also true for early modern Amsterdam. The whore-landlady had the connections which were necessary to acquire customers and could offer the protection to actually let them pay. But the most important capital was equipment. The landlady distinguished herself from the prostitute because she had money or credit. With that she could hire a house or acquire things like food and clothes, but it especially brought her into the position to lend a whore money or to take over her debt. A woman who was pregnant, could give birth in a whorehouse; a woman who was ill, could be nursed there; who was unemployed, could bridge the time there until a new employment. Sooner or later the bill had to be paid off later through prostitution.Page 301 (quote):
Debts were also built up at the beginning of a life as a whore, for the acquirement of clothes and adornment. Beautiful clothes were required as professional garment, but were for girls from the poorer sections of the population at the same time an important temptation to become a prostitute. Clothes were actually very expensive and the debts which were made this way, could only be paid off with big efforts.Page 302 (quote):
Many whores handed over all their earnings to pay off their debts or in order that the landlady would provide them clothes. (…) Especially young and novice prostitutes tell that they themselves earned little or nothing. Their inexperience will have played tricks on them; at the same time most money could be earned from novices.
For instance, in the years 1692-1694 the following amounts of debt were given [in the confession books]: 9, 10, 11, 12, 20, 30, 40, 40 to 57 and 87 guilders. In half of the cases this was more than the annual pay of a housemaid. (…)Page 305 (quote):
The debts caused that the prostitutes were in the power of the whore-landladies, who - with debt included - then could also sell (‘lossen’) them off to another landlady or landlord. Aaltje van Arnhem, taken from the whore-basement of Anna Vlam in the Wijde Kapelsteeg, told that [in old Dutch] ‘companian last Sunday is released [‘lossen’] and then went to the whorehouse on the Zeedijk at Magteld [they probably mean Magteld as a madam]’. The court then asked [in old Dutch] ‘what is meant by saying to be released [‘gelost’]’, where Aaltje answered ‘that Magteld paid for her debt to the landlord and landlady.’ More often in these cases with these transactions the words ‘buying’ and ‘selling’ were used: the woman whom was released for 60 guilders [‘gelost’], was bought [‘gekogt’] a month earlier for 80 guilders. These were normal transactions to satisfy the demand for new faces. The female whore-contractors [hoerenbesteedsters] who didn’t keep women for themselves but who only mediated, received a commission for this which simply was added again to the debt of the girls.
The method of coercion to prostitute was nearly always the debt of the whore to the landlady, and lending money was obviously not punishable. According to Het Amsterdamsch Hoerdom the women who were in the power of the landlady through debts never succeeded to get out on their own accord: they had to be able to flee, or else find a man who wanted to purchase their freedom, in the words of this book [in old Dutch] ‘that they can grab an idiot by the leg, who redeems the debt, and then fulfils all that is necessary, to have a stinking pisshole for themselve alone.’Page 305 (not a quote) !!!!:
The debts were recognized by the government.Page 306 (quote):
When in 1762 the German [Johann] Beckmann in all kinds of playhouses asked the girls about their dishonourable life, he got the standard answer that the girls migrated to family members in Amsterdam but that they had diseased and thereafter ended up in the hands of whore-landladies through debts [Kernkamp G.W., ‘Johan Beckmann’s dagboek van zijne reis door Nederland in 1762’, Bijdragen en Mededeelingen van het Historisch Genootschap 33 (1912), pp. 311-473]. This seems to have become a fixed point of excuse, but indeed the debts seem to have been viewed as something obvious in the eighteenth century.Page 307 (quote):
In prostitution clothes have played an important role. Especially through clothes and other adornment prostitutes have gotten into debt. Beautiful clothes belonged to the standard outfit, the labour capital of the prostitute. In the property inventories among the poorest groups of Delft in the eighteenth century, beautiful clothes were found among prostitutes. The clothes were an important bait to seduce women to prostitution. A girl from the common people possessed over a limited wardrobe, with until late in the eighteenth a simple brown or black skirt. She could never afford the beautiful clothes, cheerful colours and adornment of the women of the higher classes which she saw continuously; even a cheep imitation of this fashion was beyond her reach. Articles of clothes of any kind were too expensive but were also of a quality that was very endurable.Page 308 (quote):
The system of debts through clothes stayed in vogue until the end of the nineteenth century; supposedly this came to an end with the fabrics becoming cheaper and the rise of the confection-industry, which caused a greater variety of nice clothes coming within the reach of ordinary women.Page 312 (quote):
Such an expensive outfit seems only to have come into fashion with the development of the playhouses. Until 1680 only two times the acquirement of clothes was mentioned, from 1680 onwards this is mentioned many times.Page 314 (quote):
The tabbaards, samaren and fontanges [very strange Dutch words for some clothing!!!] attracted the most attention of contemporaries and the law, but because of the costs will likely not have belonged to the standard dress of the prostitute. Also Het Amsterdamsch Hoerdom describes aside from those who pretend to be ladies, many ‘conventionally’ [burgerlijk] dressed whores, even dressed like woman farmers, so that many types of people were attracted.Page 326 (quote):
Within a whorehouse it seems that only one are a couple of clients a day or even per week were received. The organization and association with a client costs a lot of time in itself: often a woman had to be brought over, there was dancing, drinking and eating together, and sometimes the man slept over the whole night or dated the same girl for several days.Page 329 (quote):
Paedophilic wishes of clients stay in the dark, rarely prostitutes were rarely found who were younger than fifteen years. Child prostitution on any scale has not been there, although there are also stories, rumours and accusations which suspect that things like that did exist.Page 336 (quote):
The travel stories of the second half of that [seventeenth] century report that visitors on entry of a playhouse were given a bottle of wine of one guilder, whether one drinks it or not. A prostitute had the task to entice a man to drink and to drink as much on his cost herself; a good whore, who brings in lots of money in is able to [in old Dutch] ‘awfully drink’ according to Het Amsterdamsch Hoerdom.Page 339-340 (quote):
The 6 to 8 guilders which an average prostitute must have earned per week, were approximately equal to the weekly income of a schooled labourer in Amsterdam and two or three times as much as a woman with equal labour could have earned. After reduction of board and contribution to the landlady she could have saved up a couple of guilders per week; yearly some 100 to 150 guilders, three to five times the annual pay of a housemaid. Many prostitutes had debts, and then the question remains if one saved money in this milieu. Het Amsterdamsch Hoerdom writes that the whores spend the earned money very easily, an observation that can also be found in nineteenth and twentieth century prostitution research.Page 351 (quote):
To give the guest what they came for – and what they had read about -, investments were made in the rent of spaces and musicians, in the acquisition of furniture, clothes and adornment. These investments have professionalized the prostitution business and thrown the prostitution into debt.From ‘Het Mysterie van de Verdwenen Bordelen’ [The mystery of the disappeared brothels]
A short explanation: Ottho Gerhard Heldring was a countryside reverend and founded the Heldring-foundations after a visit in 1847 to the only female prison in the Netherlands in Gouda (p. 103). He was shocked to see how young women were recruited for prostitution; the young women were in prison together with madams (p. 103). He opened Asyl Steenbeek in Zetten to shelter fallen women (not only prostitutes) (p. 110). The daily direction was under Petronella Voûte (p. 111). Heldring died in 1876 and in the beginning of 1877 he was followed by Hendrik Pierson (p. 129). On April 14th 1877 Asyl Steenbeek was destroyed in a fire which also killed Petronella Voûte (p. 123). It was rebuilt.
Page 117-118 (quote):
Fortunately for Heldring he knew less doubt in other respects - and more public support. Like this, he succeeded in 1859 to touch a tender spot by comparing the fate of prostitutes empathically with those of female slaves. (…) His brochure with the title the rhetorical question Is er nog slavernij in Nederland? [Is there still slavery in the Netherlands?] has since then gained a certain fame, not only because of the signal function, but also because of the political effect that it did reach this time. Once again it evolved around debt [in Dutch the word for debt and guilt is the same] and punishment, but this time in a totally different meaning.Page 152 (quote) [Hendrik Pierson responds to a law which obligated brothel keepers, in the presence of mayor or one of his servants, to announce to the women what kind of work they would be doing]:
‘The debt’, that was the sum which the prostitute usually owed to the female brothel keeper, the ‘punishment’ was the slave existence which she was condemned to because of that. Some five years before Jacob van Lennep let Klaasje Zevenster fall in such a trap, Heldring in the meantime - based on the ‘adventures and messages of asylists’ in Steenbeek - paints the dramatic scenario: young daughter is brought by procuress on the wrong path, cast off the parental home, ‘miss’ – not miss Voûte, but a Mama Canaille – takes care of her, puts her into ‘the finest outfits’, ‘the good woman lends everything’, but immediately it turns out that those ‘splendour of clothes’ are the first chain in the slave chain, not only is she now served to ‘the rich sophisticated lecher’, but also her debt increases steadily, because everything costs money, board and lodging, clothing and laundry, reparations and medical examination, everything two to three times the normal price, so that the repayment of debt, escaping the slave chain is impossible, or one of those rich sophisticated lechers had to buy her freedom, that mostly means being abused as a private slave, or another madam wants to take her over, after which there is bargaining over her like over a head of cattle, and she continues her slave existence in another brothel, and after a while another brothel again, right until she is becoming old and worn-out and has no value anymore and becomes discarded, and eventually wins her freedom, the freedom to suffer like a beggar woman or a vagrant. ‘That such a traffic in people exists (…) [(…) in book ‘Het mysterie….’] in the civilized Netherlands,’ concludes Heldring formally, ‘that is irresponsible.’
From his Steenbeek experience he knew which ‘magic power’ the brothel keeper ‘or even more the brothelkeepster’ exerted over a ‘pensionnaire’, to let her say what the mayor wants to hear. No, the only ones who could henceforth find ‘a support in the law’, that were the brothel keepers themselves. Their profession was now, unfortunately, lawfully recognized.Page 214-215 (quote):
At the suggestion of the medical practitioner A. Voûte it was decided that there should be started a detailed investigation into the nature and size of prostitution, and most importantly – for the first time in the nation – by the members of the city council [of Amsterdam] itself. Aside from Voûte and colleague-physician C.F.J. Blooker also Fabius and J.G. Schölvinck, two of the eleven initiators, and P. Nolting were appointed into the committee.From “Kuisheid voor mannen, vrijheid voor vrouwen” [chastity for men, freedom for women] by Petra de Vries (1997)
If even the establishment of the council committee is already remarkable, because of the ambitious method of working, her research report became all the more special. Figures provided by the police and register (of birth, death and marriages), were completed with information by the middernachtzendelingen [midnight missionaries]. Also some members of the committee set off themselves, dropping by in the brothels, armed with questionnaires in French, the mother language of most prostitutes working there. (…)
This way it took the committee more than a year, but her conclusion presented on January 20th 1897, was quite explicit. ‘The public houses of debauchery should disappear,’ was her unanimous verdict. The underlying line of reasoning was bunched into one emotionally trembling sentence: ‘that continuing the brothels means continuing the degrading traffic in women; continuing the aggravating temptation to the vilest forms of debauchery; continuing eventually the dependency bordering slavery, where the fellow [wo]men are brought and kept by the scum of society.’
It especially were the answers of prostitutes which made the biggest impression on the members of the committee. The labour circumstances in the brothels, with their dictatorial governesses, their lying placeurs and their fixed high prices for all kinds of things, were the sheerest exploitation; (…)
Page 252-253:
In the autumn of 1901 the policeman J. Balkenstein, a man who was sympathetic towards the work of the Middernachtzending [Midnight mission], went for a visit to the brothels of Amsterdam. This remarkable step was connected to the assignment he got from the Nationaal Comité [National Committee] to do research into ‘the nature and size’ of the problem of traffic in women and children. Under the cover of ‘client’ he held conversations with prostitutes, as policeman he followed the trails of certain suspected ‘employers’, ‘placeurs’ and ‘traffickers’, and he personally helped to set girls free from brothels where they had ended up against their will. He laid down the result of his efforts in a detailed report that can be viewed as a unique historical document about women trafficking around 1900. The research had a strong empirical character where clearly the hand of the policeman, used to objective descriptions of ‘cases’, could be recognized, and where without much ideological trimmings an answer came to the question which frustrated the abolitionists: how it was actually possible that deceived girls not immediately made a U-turn when they noticed they had ended up in a brothel. The report Balkenstein for instance showed how young, minor French girls through deception and false documents ended up in the luxurious brothel Maison Weinthal in Amsterdam, how the women were intimidated, how many of them in the so-called closed brothels practically rarely or never came outside and that some had no clothes to show themselves on street, how indifferently the police responded on violence against the women. Also what nowadays is called ‘trauma’ resounded, some women didn’t even know that something like a brothel existed before they ended up there; in one cases there was a girl that continuously ‘wept’ and with the help of other women knew literally to escape. A tried and tested method seems to have been to instil fear for the police into the woman, especially because her ‘documents’ were not in order. In connection with this several abolitionists later noticed the same female weakness: “Every woman, but especially an uncivilized one has a natural fright for ‘papers and documents’”From ‘Het rosse leven en sterven van de Zandstraat’ [Red Light living and dying of the Zandstraat] (M.J. Brusse, originally 1912, second edition of 1917, with illustrations)
The report by Balkenstein was because of delicacy towards the Dutch government, which had ‘granted such a loyal collaboration’, not published, but it nevertheless gained through the French and German translations large international fame. For the abolitionists the report was important for political propaganda, because it now definitively was demonstrated that in the whole of Europe there existed an ‘organized traffic’.
Short explanation: this is a very interesting book about the old Zandstraat of Rotterdam where much prostitution took place. Much information comes from an old major of the police and a detective who gives a tour. With the “Polder” they probably mean the area of the Zandstraat.
Page 9: [according to M.J. Brusse]
I have seen many old madam, who has trained who knows how many innocent girls, lisp about Juliaantje [crown princess of the Netherlands at that time] with tears in their eyes.Page 22:
And old major of the police told me about the past of den Polder:Page 26: [according to the major]
“In [18]77 I made my first walk in the Zandstraat, and since then I have walked there for years, but never suffered a blow or punch. Because there it was after all always pleasant. And when it was sometimes necessary, you could do with a big mouth a lot more than with a sabre or pen and ink for a booking.
But the miserable disgrace of pimps was totally unknown right then, and thus also the blackmail and the robbery!Page 29: [according to the major]
“But what’s the worst? – Yes, how did it go in earlier years? Then it especially were girls, who were too lazy to work, and from their own free will would rather work in de Zandstraat. Nowadays it is often those young day-maids and factory girls, which you didn’t have in my time. They are free in the evening, then go dancing in the Zandstraat, as if it isn’t a disgrace anymore for a middle class daughter. How many parents still follow the movements of their children stringently enough? How many children are still disturbed by that stringent supervision, by the hour of coming how in the evening? – Just as long until it’s too late, and they fall into the hands of these unscrupulous loafers, whose only goal is to train such girls, so that they will soon earn a living for them in disgrace...”Page 44-46 [according to the inspector]:
And the smart Polder characters are observant on the foolishness of many parents, who sometimes very quickly put the catch on the door, and for once don’t let their lawless daughter for one night, to her punishment! – You have those pimp-types, who make a system from that. At first they pose as the most honourable gallants, who want to start a “decent courtship”; speaking of wedding plans, like real “seducers”, of whom you read a lot in episode novels… But during dancing they make it later and later… Until father finally boiling over with anger roars from the upper window: “Jaan, well I’ll be darned, you just stay outside tonight!”Page 61-63 [according to the inspector]:
Thèn the loafer has his way… Accommodation enough for the night in all those lodgings and rendezvous of the Polder, for such cast off sheep and her protectors. Or if the girl doesn’t want it yet, you’ll have beer and a gentle mom there, who tenderly takes care of such a minor girl in her knipje [brothel], be it up there in a empty room. And mom, be it Belze Jeanette or Scheele Dien, promises it by selling her soul for it, that she will never betray the lost daughter, if Jaan then will “verkotst” [vomits out?] it to nobody, what she in case will see in mom’s little business and… experiences herself, in case.
But as a rule the chivalrous gallant proposes to do the things with each other, and in the meantime live in such a furnished little home on the Polder, while waiting for all the fiddling about to get married as soon as possible… That’s mostly the normal procedure. The boy at the moment doesn’t make one penny though – he is a stereotypical “loswerkman” [loose worker?] – but ah, there drops something off every once in while [?], when he is with his buddies…
Until the first consequences of living together come, which bind the girl even closer to her “guy”, and when he slowly starts with the drilling, to toughen up her feeling of shame, with the help usually of his own bad buddies, or with threats and violence. Because that’s the intention. It started for no other reason, than that she, the earlier the better, makes a living for him, and preferable a lot and nicely. For that purpose he drives his sweetheart on de Blaak; even follows her on the opposite side.... And if she doesn’t have enough guts, in the beginning; not shamelessly fulfils her task, which he trained her to do, then there will be hell to pay during the night… But as a rule the method has been put to the test, and within a week or something he can let her solicit the streets on or own; she regularly brings the tax home, which he imposed on her…
Than the Polder population has been supplemented with another smart prostitute. And ah, under the same leadership, under the familiar traffic with pickpockets, ladenlichter [I believe they mean people who steal from drawers], kwartjesvinders [quarter finders], thieves and burglars – where the guild of pimps goes along with, among things for pastime outside the Polder, when they walk schaailoos [???], because their girls are after all occupied on the home, - ah, in that criminal environment the transition from prostitution to robbing the clients is often just only one step.
If her “guy” sometimes is apprehended for an unfortunate blow [they mean criminal act] and mostly put away for years, well then she usually mourns and whines for a little while because of his misery and her want for cruel love violence, - but among the buddies there are enough to comfort her and maintain the business on an equal footing. But it’s just a phenomenon, that the buddies among each other – be it concealed then in the letters to the prison – take over the sweethearts during that period, for the ones who have to serve their time in prison once again. Every once in a while the girl stays loyal in as far that she doesn’t choose a steady substitute, but independently, or together with a girlfriend, goes living in a semi-furnished room, to run her own business until he is released again. Or that some madam temporarily “rents her a room”, as it is called since the ban on brothels, until her “guy” is released then again… But as a rule is the servile need for male “support” in the life so uncontrollable, that today or tomorrow she will take “temporary help” all along. And so grows the detestable pimphood – especially after the implementation of the proposal of – Van Staveren – even more alarmingly: and truly not only in the Polder! Because the abolition of brothels drives the women mostly into seeking “protection” with this kind of men.
(…) But those dirty guys complete wrap in such a girl, and sometimes it is like they are enchanted by those pimps.“Kind onder de hoeren – Herinneringen uit de rosse buurt van Amsterdam van 1913-1937” [child among the whores – Memories from the red light district of Amsterdam from 1913-1937] (Nel Hoenderdos, 1976)
“You have among them, of these loafers, mostly in the age between eighteen and twenty-four – you would send them your own daughter to hear her confession. Nicely dressed, decent face sometimes, very respectable in talking, if they want to. Because there are of all kinds of ranks in the Polder; of well-known families, real gentlemen, who are just lazing and debauching on the earnings of such a poor girl. And you don’t understand what that these young kids like about them; what these pimps have, where they become so crazy about, these girls. But the police keeps their eye on it, and as soon as we see these innocent girls talking with these pea jackets, they are warned and informed.
“Because such guys, those are the biggest danger. There are among them, of whom we know, that they have brought some five, six girls in a row from outside the Polder in prostitution. It’s a factory of prostitutes; and then those masses of prostitutes. But during recent time they are fortunately taken away from the destruction by the government… Ah, and for the girls themselves, when they eventually live together which such a pimp, then usually nothing can be done about it anymore. Then they are so completely spun in; sometimes by love, sometimes out of fear, mostly by both at the same time. Because it happens often enough, that they will complain about their distress at the vice police… A girl: black Sien, a young girl still, has even told, that that Macaroni demanded five guilders every evening, or she will get a beating without mercy. But that’s not enough yet. If she has sometimes been with gentlemen, with married ones especially, then he demands from Sientje, that she will extort money from them, for example some fifty guilders, - or else that he will visit their homes. And Sientje doesn’t want that, she’s too decent for that. But what must she do know? Because that Macaroni has her completely in his power. She doesn’t dare running away from him, so scared to death and still so very much in love they seem to be with such a guy.
And a wonderful means of these loafers to make the girls crazy: these are the dance houses, - “What’s the fuzz about a little dance?” – is what these day maids, those factory workers, ironers, and all these young kids think, who are free in the evening. Dancing is fun; is done at every opportunity, at every party and in all circles? – But the pernicious of dancing here is, that it lures girls of sometimes only fourteen or fifteen years into the Polder, among the Polder population, in a whirling and swaying with prostitutes, with seamen under influence, who expect nobody else than prostitutes; and with those cunning bird-watchers: the pimps! Because for every one of them dancing is after all not a goal: but only a means to the worst moral evil…”
Short explanation: Nel Hoenderdos grew up in the red light district of Amsterdam.
Page 151:
Those beautiful ladies, these whores had only little money. They received a lot but only an awful bit remained for themselves. They were on the half, that means that the whore madam, who rented or bought the room, immediately took half of the earnings already. Then they nearly all had a so-called protector who regularly claimed a large proportion of the remainder to try to cut a dash with it. This way these caged women, these white slaves had nearly nothing themselves.“Doden spreken niet – Veertig onopgeloste moorden” [The dead don’t speak – forty unsolved murders] (A.C. Baantjer, 1981) [Baantjer worked as an inspector in the RLD of Amsterdam since 1955 for 38 years]
Page 37:
Prostitution is a simple business with little exploitation costs and relatively high earnings. It should be expected, that many prostitutes should belong to the class of comfortable circumstances. Nothing is further from the truth. Most of them are penniless and live from one day to the next. They spend their money as quickly as they earn it. And often even quicker. Furthermore there are plenty of competitors. Shrewd madams/brothel keepsters and clever pimps are outstanding examples of profiteers. They manoeuvre the prostitutes, mostly in a position, where you cannot speak of independent exploitation. She is being exploited. Of the high earnings factually only little remains for the perpetrator of debauchery.Main
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Unsafe sex
Main
I lately realised that I actually forgot to mention unsafe sex in prostitution on my blog. I the beginning of 2006 I did a sample survey on hookers.nl in which I mapped how many times prostitutes in Belgium performed unsafe sex. I sampled 301 prostitutes in Belgium who worked in brothels (not window prostitution). Of these prostitutes 56% (N=168) had oral sex without protection and 76% (N=229) kissed.
I did a sample (on September the 6th, 2007) on the website privedames.nl (a Dutch website where mostly prostitutes residing in the Netherlands place ads) and of the 687 prostitutes sampled:
75% (N=517) offer cunnilingus without protection
72% (N=496) offer French kissing
57% (N=393) offer oral sex without protection.
28% (N=191) offer anal sex with condom
2,2% (N=15) offer anal sex without condom
Another interesting thing is that:
20% (N=136) offer to be video-recorded
27% (N=186) offer to be photographed
Overall 27% (N=187) either way offer to be photographed or video-recorded. This suggests a large overlap between the prostitution-industry and the porn-industry. For instance; 28% of the 119 street- and escort-prostitutes in Phoenix Arizona interviewed in a study by Lisa A. Kramer had also engaged in pornography (see “emotional experiences of performing prostitution” in “prostitution, trafficking and traumatic stress” edited by Melissa Farley, 2003).
Main
I lately realised that I actually forgot to mention unsafe sex in prostitution on my blog. I the beginning of 2006 I did a sample survey on hookers.nl in which I mapped how many times prostitutes in Belgium performed unsafe sex. I sampled 301 prostitutes in Belgium who worked in brothels (not window prostitution). Of these prostitutes 56% (N=168) had oral sex without protection and 76% (N=229) kissed.
I did a sample (on September the 6th, 2007) on the website privedames.nl (a Dutch website where mostly prostitutes residing in the Netherlands place ads) and of the 687 prostitutes sampled:
75% (N=517) offer cunnilingus without protection
72% (N=496) offer French kissing
57% (N=393) offer oral sex without protection.
28% (N=191) offer anal sex with condom
2,2% (N=15) offer anal sex without condom
Another interesting thing is that:
20% (N=136) offer to be video-recorded
27% (N=186) offer to be photographed
Overall 27% (N=187) either way offer to be photographed or video-recorded. This suggests a large overlap between the prostitution-industry and the porn-industry. For instance; 28% of the 119 street- and escort-prostitutes in Phoenix Arizona interviewed in a study by Lisa A. Kramer had also engaged in pornography (see “emotional experiences of performing prostitution” in “prostitution, trafficking and traumatic stress” edited by Melissa Farley, 2003).
Main
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Black Hole Land
Main
Hey you guys, I never actually heard of compulsion in the webcam industry, so perhaps I thought I could give it a try with a webcam lady.
After all, life is all about acquiring peak experiences. Well, this is one of my conversations:
(**=me, __=the webcam lady)
**Are you Brittish?
**Or British?
__neither
__but you?
**You speak the language well
**I'm Dutch
__well i'm from nowhere land
__do u know where that is?
__i bet u have a guess
**Anonymous land
**Okay, really have to leave
__land of nobody i call it...shit land ....black hole...
__nice meeting u
**Are you really feeling that bad?
__one word"romania" tells it all
**Wow, lucky that's now a part of the EU
**Say, you are not forced to do this are you?
__yup ..hope my gradchildren will live better
__nope.the bonus i have to get ugrges me badly ..so i'm sorryu if i stall and keep u more
**Okay, bye!
__scared u off
__truth hurts
Hmmm, I really don't know. This costs me a whole lot of money, so perhaps I should stop.
Don't know what to think anymore of the sex industry (if working in prostitution really has not effect on your mental well-being).
In the mean time a few days later: I just asked another Romanian webcam girl how much money she earns per minute. Of the 80 eurocents I pay per minute, she only recieves 10.... oopss... Anyway, I should have known because it's all explained on the website "Camgirlnotes". You should especially read Global differences in payscale on this website. They actually report that:
The Czechs and Slovaks earn about one dollar to a $1.20, and the Bulgarians, Estonians and Russians about 0.70 cents to 0.80 cents. The Ukrainians were near the bottom of the global pay-scale, only earning between 0.25 to 0.30 cents per minute plus their measly hourly fee. Bulgarian Models on LJ only earn 0.25 cents per minute, while some Romanians are reportedy paid a little as 0.10 per minute for flashing themselves -a fee they must then split with their studios - leaving them with only a nickel.
(actually I already read this way before my webcam-experiments, but I simply forgot)
Main
Hey you guys, I never actually heard of compulsion in the webcam industry, so perhaps I thought I could give it a try with a webcam lady.
After all, life is all about acquiring peak experiences. Well, this is one of my conversations:
(**=me, __=the webcam lady)
**Are you Brittish?
**Or British?
__neither
__but you?
**You speak the language well
**I'm Dutch
__well i'm from nowhere land
__do u know where that is?
__i bet u have a guess
**Anonymous land
**Okay, really have to leave
__land of nobody i call it...shit land ....black hole...
__nice meeting u
**Are you really feeling that bad?
__one word"romania" tells it all
**Wow, lucky that's now a part of the EU
**Say, you are not forced to do this are you?
__yup ..hope my gradchildren will live better
__nope.the bonus i have to get ugrges me badly ..so i'm sorryu if i stall and keep u more
**Okay, bye!
__scared u off
__truth hurts
Hmmm, I really don't know. This costs me a whole lot of money, so perhaps I should stop.
Don't know what to think anymore of the sex industry (if working in prostitution really has not effect on your mental well-being).
In the mean time a few days later: I just asked another Romanian webcam girl how much money she earns per minute. Of the 80 eurocents I pay per minute, she only recieves 10.... oopss... Anyway, I should have known because it's all explained on the website "Camgirlnotes". You should especially read Global differences in payscale on this website. They actually report that:
The Czechs and Slovaks earn about one dollar to a $1.20, and the Bulgarians, Estonians and Russians about 0.70 cents to 0.80 cents. The Ukrainians were near the bottom of the global pay-scale, only earning between 0.25 to 0.30 cents per minute plus their measly hourly fee. Bulgarian Models on LJ only earn 0.25 cents per minute, while some Romanians are reportedy paid a little as 0.10 per minute for flashing themselves -a fee they must then split with their studios - leaving them with only a nickel.
(actually I already read this way before my webcam-experiments, but I simply forgot)
Main
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Quality Labels [2]
Main
Finally, I managed to work through another boring bureaucratic report, this one studies the feasibility of quality labels for the sex industry:
http://www.dikkelul.nl/thumbs/pics/FinalReportQualityLabels.pdf
(watch out, it's on a porn site)
A pilot study on the development and the feasibility of introducing European quality labels in the prostitution sector in the Netherlands (By Dr. Conny Rijken and Linda van Krimpen)
I must add that they call every ‘she’ a ‘he’.
For businesses being part of the prostitution sector, they think it is best to make some guarantees to get a quality label. In my eyes, two of the most important guarantees listed are the following (see for instance page 236):
I’ve actually wondered myself if it is actually possible in the first place. I was thinking about if perhaps there could be a system of psychiatrist who can first check a woman who wants to work in prostitution if she is mentally fit to do this work and perhaps also check if she is forced. But, in a situation where a boyfriend is the perpetrator I guess you have the situation that perhaps it is a violation of the woman’s privacy to ask such questions. That means that it is even illegal to stop some forms of forced prostitution in legal brothels.
This is a hell of a situation because I actually believe there are a substantial number of women who are actually voluntarily working in prostitution. I’m also of the opinion that prostitution in itself is not bad at all and doesn’t have a negative effect in itself on the women in the industry.
But I’m starting to believe that there will never ever be a system for prostitution clients to distinguish the forced from the voluntary prostitutes.
At the end, I can only hope the problem of forced prostitution will someday simply disappear.
Main
Finally, I managed to work through another boring bureaucratic report, this one studies the feasibility of quality labels for the sex industry:
http://www.dikkelul.nl/thumbs/pics/FinalReportQualityLabels.pdf
(watch out, it's on a porn site)
A pilot study on the development and the feasibility of introducing European quality labels in the prostitution sector in the Netherlands (By Dr. Conny Rijken and Linda van Krimpen)
I must add that they call every ‘she’ a ‘he’.
For businesses being part of the prostitution sector, they think it is best to make some guarantees to get a quality label. In my eyes, two of the most important guarantees listed are the following (see for instance page 236):
- that all employees have given their informed consent freely, in the required legal form and expressed or evidenced in writing (contract). This contract contains information on the working conditions, the minimum wage and rights and duties in general.They asked some prostitutes what they thought about it (page 247):
- that no consent has been given when use is made of the following means: threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.
They think a quality label could be a helpful additional instrument against trafficking in human beings although they state that trafficking in human beings is very difficult to recognise and it is not certain that the introduction of a quality label will be a large contribution to fight trafficking in human beings.They asked some organizations not part of but nevertheless involved in the sector what they thought about it (like the Red Thread or the National Rapporteur on human trafficking) (see page 251):
Although all agree that a contract should be the basis for all work of the prostitutes, some important remarks were made. They said this rule does not say anything since a woman who is forced to work in prostitution will nevertheless sign. One person thought many women do not want to sign a contract so this rule would not work in practice. Another adds that most women only work for each entrepreneur for a short time so he wonders how this will work in practice. Furthermore, remarks are made on the fact that the free consent is very hard to check and that the responsibility is not with the entrepreneur. One person points out the downside of this rule, namely, that it can turn against the woman if she has signed a contract and she wants to report forced prostitution. However, he thinks it would be good to oblige entrepreneurs to interview the new employee in order to find out if she is being forced. Most agree that it is hard to find a solution for the problem of the absence of free consent, but it is thought that employees should at least be told about the role of help businesses like SHOP when they enter into an employment contract.On page 257:
First of all, the rule that the consent of the prostitute has to be expressed in a legal contract is no protection since women who are forced to work in prostitution will also sign the contract. In this way, the contract does not say anything about the woman’s consent. Of course, the employer should focus on whether or not the woman is forced, but a legal contract will not prevent force. The suggestion of one interviewee to oblige the employer to interview every woman that wants to work in his club in order to find out if she is being forced may help, but it is still not a guarantee that she gave her free consent.And they asked some law enforcement authorities about this issue(page 263):
One interviewee thinks a quality label could possibly change the atmosphere in Europe by making the sector healthier. In this way, the sector could get a better reputation, which may stimulate the sector to try to do more than only live up to the minimum standards. However, he does not think a quality label will decrease trafficking in human beings because this did not happen after the legalisation either.The researchers also mention quality labels for street prostitutes (page 265):
It was stated by one of the interviewees that the policy with regard to street prostitution in Arnhem is different from the policy in Utrecht. In Arnhem, 85 street prostitutes have a licence but the municipality tries to reduce this number to a total of 35 by not issuing any new licences. Women working in the streetwalkers’ district meet four criteria: they are homeless, they have mental problems, they are severely addicted, and they are problematic.Page 266:
One interviewee is opposed to putting the element of free consent in the contract since women who are forced will also sign. He is not opposed to an employment contract, but this contract should be adapted to prostitution. Furthermore, he thinks that if an employer finds out his employee is being forced, he should be obliged to contact the police or the STV (Foundation against Trafficking in Women). Another person also does not think a contract will help since every prostitute, forced or voluntary, will sign. It was added that the responsibilities of the employer should be formulated very carefully since they act not always very responsible.Page 267-268:
Furthermore, it was added that there should be a reporting obligation if the employer suspects his employee to be forced by a pimp. This idea was discussed with other interviewees as well and the impression was that this obligation was greatly approved by both the sector and the law enforcement agencies. As stated above, in order to give shape to such an indicator the entrepreneurs must know the indicators as developed by the Board of Procurators General and discussed above.Page 272:
One entrepreneur stated that colleagues of the prostitutes know better when a person is a possible victim of trafficking in human beings. However, those prostitutes interviewed did not want to report to the police if they have any suspicion. They thought it a private matter for the colleague and were also afraid that they could lose their anonymity if they reported.
Another concern with regard to the content of the quality label is the norm about the expression of free consent in a employment contract. Many of the respondents think this is a false protection since women who are forced to work as a prostitute will also sign the contract. In order to build in some guarantees that the woman is working voluntarily, a few more concrete indicators were suggested, for instance, a more elaborate intake with new employees. Such an interview can help to filter out victims of trafficking in human beings. It would be a good idea to develop a model questionnaire for the intake which is to be used by the entrepreneurs.The research ends with a final list of indicators for independent prostitutes among which I will highlight some indicators (page 276):
- in order to find out whether the person is working voluntarily within our business an intake will take place before the actual work can commence. [footnote at the bottom of that page: For this intake, a standard questionnaire must be developed which includes questions on the existence of a voluntary basis for working in prostitution. ] Accompanying persons are never allowed to participate in the intake.Page 277:
- that the business will report to the police or ‘Meld misdaad anoniem’ in case there are indications that a self employed person is a victim of trafficking in human beings. To this end the entrepreneur must know the indicators included in the guideline on trafficking in human beings.Now, the end conclusion must be that according to many respondents it is not possible to filter out victims of human trafficking. This is a problem, because that would mean even if one would start a female-loving brothel, it would be impossible to stop forced prostitutes from working in such a brothel. And even if you would devise a system of quality labels you could and will have the strange situation that you have a brothel with a quality label which is full of victims of human trafficking, and where such a situation is even tolerated (because it is impossible to stop anyway). In that situation men will be guided to places where they legitimately can rape women.
I’ve actually wondered myself if it is actually possible in the first place. I was thinking about if perhaps there could be a system of psychiatrist who can first check a woman who wants to work in prostitution if she is mentally fit to do this work and perhaps also check if she is forced. But, in a situation where a boyfriend is the perpetrator I guess you have the situation that perhaps it is a violation of the woman’s privacy to ask such questions. That means that it is even illegal to stop some forms of forced prostitution in legal brothels.
This is a hell of a situation because I actually believe there are a substantial number of women who are actually voluntarily working in prostitution. I’m also of the opinion that prostitution in itself is not bad at all and doesn’t have a negative effect in itself on the women in the industry.
But I’m starting to believe that there will never ever be a system for prostitution clients to distinguish the forced from the voluntary prostitutes.
At the end, I can only hope the problem of forced prostitution will someday simply disappear.
Main
Monday, July 30, 2007
Wow!!
I managed to find out how large the total information on my blog really is (drag it to WORD).
On A4-sized paper this is near 200 pages, and when you print it as a pocket-sized book it would be over 400 pages!!!
I already wondered why I lost overview over my blog.
It is really meant as a short summary for potential clients of prostitutes (not that they would ever use this information).
Hmmmm, perhaps I should make a short summary of a summary.
On A4-sized paper this is near 200 pages, and when you print it as a pocket-sized book it would be over 400 pages!!!
I already wondered why I lost overview over my blog.
It is really meant as a short summary for potential clients of prostitutes (not that they would ever use this information).
Hmmmm, perhaps I should make a short summary of a summary.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Goals, Methodology and Conclusions
Main
I will try to give my research a more scientific basis by stating the goals and working methods. I’m thinking long and hard how to do this and it’s extremely difficult. I’m still not satisfied so there will be a lot of tinkering. Actually, this is part of a complete overhaul, but I have no time to waste.
Goal:
The Goal is to find out from a viewpoint of a critical consumer which prostitute is forced and which one is not. I will use the following ideas of what voluntary/forced prostitution is:
-The right of sexual self-determination of a prostitute. As long as she cannot decide for herself what she does with her body than I consider that person as forced. So when there’s somebody in the background who decides when and where the prostitute works then I see the prostitute as forced. I don’t believe it makes a difference if the woman knew that she would work as a prostitute or if she already was a prostitute before she enters a situation of forced prostitution. I believe also prostitutes have the right to sexual self-determination. I look wider than only physical force, also emotional and financial force by third persons I consider as forced.
-The prostitute must have the ability to exert her own will. Somebody who works to maintain a drug addiction or who is psychologically not in order I also consider as forced, because that person cannot voluntarily decide to work in prostitution.
Methodology:
I will list some methods I used to study prostitution in the Netherlands and some of their results.
-The first and most obvious thing you would do is to find out if you can directly see if a prostitute is forced.
But in my opinion you cannot judge by the behaviour of a prostitute if she is forced. I base myself on eyewitness reports but also on common sense. Of men who have visited prostitutes I know that prostitutes who offered good quality service including the “girlfriend-experience” afterwards turned out to be victims of human trafficking after all. I know for instance from clients who visit FKK-clubs in Germany that many Eastern European prostitutes who work there do that under the pressure of pimps, but these women still offer much better quality than for instance Dutch prostitutes in the Netherlands.
I seems that everybody thinks that clients are clairvoyant. Take for instance Maria de Cock of the Foundation against Human trafficking (Interview from Het AD, 12 September 2005, translated from Dutch):
A victim of human trafficking can under pressure of virtual debts and threats of violence act as if she enjoys her work to satisfy the clients. Also looking for loitering pimps won’t yield anything. Many victims of human trafficking are not guarded 24 hours a day. Many times the threats of violence towards the victim and her family members are enough to comply. Also many women who work for their boyfriend or husband are often not guarded, and won’t ooze out that they are coerced, these women often don’t believe that they are forced. On hookers.nl I count of the almost 4000 prostitutes reviewed in the Netherlands, at most 30 women where the client notices that she could be forced by a pimp. That’s less than 1 percent. In those cases there’s clearly a guy circling around the woman or she has a showy tattoo on her body with an Arab or Turkish name. That nearly always happens in window prostitution followed on a large distance by prostitution at home (privéontvangst, private reception). Controlling pimps in these sectors of prostitution are much better visible. In a club you won’t find a pimp hanging around (except for FKK-clubs in Germany where this does often happen).
Also you will not see bruises on the prostitutes (on hookers.nl I count three prostitutes where the client says that she has bruises). By the way, that is a mystery to me. Especially because of the fact that human traffickers often use excessive violence against the prostitutes, you would expect that (if human trafficking is indeed such a huge problem) that there must be a lot of prostitutes behind windows with visible bruises. Yet I’ve never seen them.
In some Volkskrant-articles written by Menno van Dongen some possible explanations are given for this contradiction. In the article “een geraffineerd spel” [A clever game] (May 12th 2007) a human trafficking gang is described (translated from Dutch):
It is not necessarily so that a loitering man who keeps an eye on the prostitute means any harm. It could be out of genuine concern that her boyfriend keeps an eye on her. The Norwegian researchers Cecilie Hoigard and Liv Finstad studied street prostitutes in the eighties in Oslo (see the book: “Backstreets: Prostitution, Money and Love”, 1992). It occurred to them that actually the men who were loitering around in the neighbourhood of the prostitute actually were the nicer pimps. Men who use violence on their women often just sit down at home!!!!
In my views I feel confirmed by the fieldwork of Liesbeth Venicz. In the period 1997/1998 she has done fieldwork among window prostitutes in Groningen. Her experiences are written down in the report: “Achter de ramen – veldwerk onder raamprostituees in Groningen” [Behind the windows – fieldwork among window prostitutes in Groningen] (1998). She says:
(translated from Dutch)
On page 3:
Main conclusion: clients cannot judge from the behaviour of the prostitute if she is forced or not, except perhaps under extreme conditions.
The next question is then, are there other ways to know for a client to know if a prostitute is working voluntarily? Obviously, if you personally know a prostitute, then it’s possible. I can image that via an internet forum you could get in contact with a prostitute and first get to learn that person. Or perhaps another client knows several prostitutes really well and is certain that they are free, and who could refer you to them or vice versa. But this is very time-consuming I guess, you have to build a real network for this to be possible. I think it is possible. But for many potential clients this would cost too much time, so there must be other ways.
Perhaps there are certain brothels where they take care of these things? For instance, making sure no prostitute enters the brothel who is forced?
The sad answer is NO!!!! Not according to a research by criminologist Frank Bovenkerk and others. I quote from their report: 'Loverboys' of modern pooierschap in Amsterdam [‘Loverboys’ or modern pimphood in Amsterdam] (2004)
(translated from Dutch)
Page 60-61:
-I have tried to compare the characteristics of victims of human trafficking with the characteristics of prostitutes in general. Unfortunately, information about victims of human trafficking is present but not of prostitutes in general. I had to search the client-reviews on the website hookers.nl to search for characteristics of prostitutes. I mainly look for ages and nationalities. Unfortunately I didn’t do it really thoroughly. For instance, I didn’t note down per prostitute what was the period when she was observed. But the largest segment of prostitutes were observed in 2005 and a smaller group in 2002-2004. But that causes few problems nonetheless. You can now look what are the differences and similarities between the prostitutes described on hookers.nl and victims of human trafficking like they are described by the Foundation against Trafficking in Women. If it’s true that certain groups of victims are underrepresented then it could be that also in reality there are relatively fewer of them. The problem only is then that you have to assume that victims like they are registered are representative of the victim of human trafficking. That is probably not true because you cannot easily separate the voluntary from the forced prostitutes, there probably is a more gradual transition. I have the strong suspicion that the characteristics of the victims like registered at the Foundation Against Trafficking in Women don’t give a representative picture of persons in general who you could describe as victim of human trafficking. What strikes me is that in the media-articles and in many studies which describe victims of human trafficking by far most victims didn’t know that they would work in prostitution, and they were also subjected to lots of violence. The reality in the field is that probably the large majority of the prostitutes who fall under the definition of human trafficking actually knew that they would work in prostitution.
You could also wonder if the prostitutes reveal their real ages and nationalities to the customers on hookers.nl. For instance, it is known that in the nineties many Russian prostitutes worked with forged Polish passports to circumvent the visa requirements (see the report "Mensenhandel vanuit Centraal- en Oost Europa", 1997 by the IPIT and IRT Noord en Oost Nederland).
The end result of this method is that when you take all the statistics literally, then you must conclude that:
1. The percentage of the prostitutes who are victims of this crime probably doesn't reach the 10 percent.
2. That Latin American and Thai prostitutes are far less often victims of human trafficking than the rest of the prostitutes.
3. That most Eastern European prostitutes are from Poland and the Czech Republic and that these prostitutes are far less often victims of human trafficking than the rest, and that among the Eastern European prostitutes this crime relatively often occurs among Bulgarian and Romanian prostitutes.
4. That Dutch prostitutes relatively far less often work in window prostitution, that Dutch forced prostitutes predominantly work in window prostitution, and that Dutch prostitutes in other forms of prostitution than window prostitution are far less often forced into prostitution.
5. That most African prostitutes are from Ghana, that a minority is from Nigeria, and that among African prostitutes forced prostitution predominantly occurs among Nigerian prostitutes.
6. That there is no evidence that forced prostitution occurs more often or less often in the illegal segment of prostitution than in the legal one.
7. That foreign prostitutes who are forced in prostitutes are more or less evenly distributed across all segments of prostitution, and that Dutch forced prostitutes predominantly work in window prostitution.
8. That many prostitutes are relatively old (30+). On the contrary, many registered forced prostitutes are younger than 30. Registered Dutch forced prostitutes only in rare cases are older than 30 and many times are younger than 25.
Perhaps this gives clues to clients how to avoid forced prostitutes. But obviously, these conclusions are based on an oversimplification.
-Furthermore you could search for studies which describe a fairly large number of prostitutes in general, and then look which of these prostitutes were forced and look what their characteristics are. Unfortunately this is not well possible because researchers then possibly only review the prostitutes who have the time to be interviewed. And that possibly are not the prostitutes who are forced because they simply don’t have the time. Such researches won’t give a reliable image. Examples of such researches are:
-Er gaat iets veranderen in de prostitutie [Something’s going to change in prostitution](2000, Liesbeth Venicz, Ine Vanwesenbeeck)
-Sociale positie van prostituees in de gereguleerde bedrijven, een jaar na de wetswijzing [The social position of prostitutes in the regulated prostitution businesses, one year of the the amendment] (2002, Ine Vanwesenbeeck, Mechtild Höing, Paul Vennix)
-De sociale positie van prostituees 2006 [The social position of prostitutes 2006] (2006, Helga Dekker, Ruud Tap, Ger Homburg)
-Hoe (ex)prostituees zich zelf redden — Een onderzoek naar de (afwezigheid van) hulpvragen [How (former) prostitutes fend for themselves — A study into the (absense of) aid requests] (Ine Vanwesenbeeck, Sietske Altink en Martine Groen, 1989)
The last mentioned report (Ine Vanwesenbeeck, Sietske Altink en Martine Groen, 1989) states that:
(translated from Dutch)
On page 11:
(translated from Dutch)
On page 21:
Also the Scharlaken Koord based on De Wallen have no problems contacting forced prostitutes (in the manifesto Uit het donker opgelicht [Illuminated from Darkness] (2002) it is said that more than half of the prostitutes contacted by the Scharlaken Koord handed over all their earnings to their pimp).
The four reports I mentioned are not representative of prostitutes in the Netherlands in my opinion. It is striking that in the first two mentioned reports many prostitutes indicate that they pay taxes. In the second report that’s two third of the prostitutes, in the first report it is one third. The reality is that probably only a small percentage of the prostitutes pay taxes. Therefore I believe that the researchers have mainly interviewed the more emancipated prostitutes. Look at this report "Handhaving prostitutiebranche door politiekorpsen, belastingdienst, arbeidsinspectie en UWV/GAK" [Enforcements prostitution branch by police forces, tax department and UWV/GAK] (2002, ES&E, Pauline Naber, Léon van Lier)
See page 24: 921 prostitutes were registered at the tax department, only a small fraction of the total number of prostitutes (some 20.000-30.000 on a yearly basis).
In the second mentioned report it is also true that the net response is relatively low; a number of brothels have been approached in that study and only a third (29%) at the end cooperated, and of those brothels only a couple (2) prostitutes cooperated. It is estimated that per brothel some 5,5 prostitutes work there on a daily basis (see the first profeit-studie from 1999 by Visser and others). I therefore believe that the net response is only some 11%.
The third mentioned report (about the social position of prostitutes in 2006) had a higher response. 3,54 prostitutes cooperated per approached brothel (354 prostitutes per 99 brothels). But of the businesses that were approached only 34% cooperated (see page 9). So I estimate that even for this study the net response really is only 22%. Of this group 37 percent (see page 29) made a declaration at the tax department. It must be said though that in this sample the nationalities and ages of the prostitutes have some very strong resemblances with those of the prostitutes I researched on the website hookers.nl (around the period 2002-2005).
-What could be done is to study a random group of prostitutes and ex-prostitutes among a wide range of sectors and then to research a certain subgroup of prostitutes (like the Dutch) and then select the prostitutes who had been forced in the past (assuming that you don’t interview forced prostitutes) and then look in which sector that was. From such a distribution that follows you could draw some conclusions. This way you could find a representative image of the victim of human trafficking. You’ll get a lot more women in view who otherwise would drop out of the picture in case you would study statistics of the Foundation Against Trafficking in Women, or when you study media articles. You can now also decide for yourself which prostitute is forced and which one is not, depending on the definition you use. You can compare that data with the characteristics of all prostitutes in the Netherlands as a whole. For example, when it turns out that all prostitutes in the researched subgroup have worked in the escort then you could draw the conclusion that outside the escort coercion doesn’t occur. Unfortunately you need quite big samples to really get statistically significant results, because by far not all prostitutes you interview have been forced in the past. I think about a 1000 prostitute who you need to interview. And you would have no idea about how large forced prostitution is as a whole, you only know the proportions.
There’s only one study which actually made such an analysis, it’s the fourth report I mentioned (Ine Vanwesenbeeck, Sietske Altink en Martine Groen, 1989). The drawback is that this study mentions such information on the side without many details (PS: among the mainly Dutch prostitutes they interviewed, violence occurred much more often among window prostitutes, and much less often among prostitutes working in clubs).
-If you want to know how large the scale of forced prostitution really is you could exclusively target women who have worked as prostitutes in the past but don’t do that anymore now. You could ask them if they had been forced and then you could ask when that happened and how long that happened, and also how long they have worked independently as prostitutes. Using this data you could calculate roughly for a certain period in the past when these women worked how many actually have been forced on a given moment during that period. I mean a calculation like this:
[The number of ex-prostitutes who have been forced in the past] / [The total number of ex-prostitutes] * [The average number of years the forced ex-prostitutes have been forced] / [The average number of years the forced ex-prostitutes totally worked]
I unfortunately never found a report which has done that.
-And furthermore you could rely on descriptions by prostitutes about their colleagues. What do they know about their colleagues? How many are forced? Where do these forced prostitutes work? Unfortunately it turns out that prostitutes often don’t know that themselves. A large number of them even deny the existence of forced prostitution.
The Norwegian Cecilie Hoigard and Liv Finstad studied street prostitutes in the eighties in Oslo (see the book “Backstreets: Prostitution, Money And Love”, 1992). They also asked prostitutes about pimps among their colleagues. They received mixed results, some said that nearly all prostitutes had pimps. The researchers themselves found out that in reality only a few women had partners you could characterize as pimp (so no violence, manipulation or multiple women who work for them)
-You obviously could also ask the same thing to other persons who are in contact with prostitutes. Like clients, cops or aid workers. Or the butcher on the corner. I especially view information by aid workers as very reliable. Many prostitutes who would not accept researchers do for some reason allow aid workers in. Aid workers see and hear a lot of things. Above all the eye witnesses generally can see things that are overlooked by researchers who take random samples. Unfortunately several sources could be very contradictory. But this could be because prostitutes could differ a lot from each other, per area, per brothel or per time period for example. It is important to look what is the source and to which group of prostitutes the observations are related.
There are many eye witness reports. I could draw some conclusions from these reports. Some of these support the conclusions from the statistical analysis I mentioned earlier, others contradict these conclusions. The conclusions are that:
1. Many prostitutes consented into working in prostitution, but are exploited. Probably the "consented-but-exploited" group is much bigger than the "did-not-consent" group.
2. Ninety percent of the Eastern European prostitutes in window prostitution are reported to be in the power of pimps, and most are exploited.
3. Latin American prostitutes are reported to be very independent, with the notable exception of Brazilian prostitutes who form a large minority among the Latin American prostitutes.
4. There are many more eyewitness reports pertaining to window prostitution compared to other forms of prostitution. Many eyewitness reports in window prostitution are from import players like policemen and aidworkers. Eyewitness reports in other sectors of prostitution are very anecdotal and fragmented.
5. Many window prostitutes in general are reported to be forced. Perhaps even most window prostitutes are forced.
6. There seems to be a drug and alcohol problem in the Dutch sex industry. However, it must be admitted that many prostitutes interviewed in recent evaluation reports seem to refute this.
7. Many prostitutes seem not to have the complete right to refuse clients and cannot completely decide their working hours. This is also less clear because for instance the statements of the Red Thread (which are negative) contradict those of prostitutes interviewed in evaluation reports.
8. Eye-witness reports indeed seem to suggest that forced prostitutes are generally younger women, but according to some sources there are also some older forced prostitutes.
-In the case of prostitutes you have to take into account the fact that they could lie about their situation. For instance, in the report of Geetanjali Gangoli about prostitutes in India (2001, “Prostitution as Livelihood, ‘Work’ or ‘Crime’?”) it is being said that:
Conclusion: when you assume that many window prostitutes are forced, this must be also true for other forms of prostitution. Namely, when you look at the way victims of human trafficking are distributed across different sectors of prostitution, that more or less reflects the distribution of prostitutes in general (except perhaps for Dutch prostitutes).
-The size of human trafficking is difficult to express in numbers. Essy van Dijk used a very clever mathematical trick to calculate the number of victims on a yearly basis (in the year 2000).
See the report mensenhandel in Nederland in section 5.2 (page 59, translated from Dutch)
But I believe she is warm. I will make an attempt myself. Take the number X. I call X the total number of victims that release themselves from the human traffickers from the begin of the year until the end. This number tells nothing about the number of victims present during each moment or on a yearly basis. There’s a darknumber of victims which didn’t set themselves free and I assume that the number of victims at each moment is directly proportional to the average number of years that a victim is forced to work. I state that when on each moment there are a number of Z victims, and the average number of years a victims is forced to work is Y, then each year some Z/Y=X victims release themselves from the human traffickers. That is, the number of victims on each moment is equal to X times Y, that is the number of victims that free themselves during one year multiplied by the average number of years that a victim works.
When I know X and Y then I can therefore calculate the number of victims present on each moment. But then I have to make one extra proposition. Not all victims are always in the Netherlands. Victims often enter the Netherlands while already working in forced prostitution, and vice versa they leave the Netherlands while in forced prostitution. When I assume that these two flows exactly neutralize each other and each victim neatly reports the crime in the country where she freed herself of the human trafficker, than this doesn’t have any influence on X, Y and Z. Now I will look if X and Y are known.
The estimates of how long victims of trafficking in women are exploited on average range widely from 3 months to little more than a year. The report “Mensenhandel vanuit centraal- en Oost-Europa” [Human trafficking from Central and Eastern Europe] (IPIT & IRT Noord en Oost Nederland, 1997) estimates that Eastern European victims of human trafficking are put to work on average for a relatively short period, about three months, and rarely longer than a year. In the research of the EU ("Research based on case studies of victims of trafficking in human beings in 3 EU Member States, i.e. Belgium, Italy and The Netherlands" [2001], among whom Ruth Hopkins and Jan Nijboer have cooperated) 80 foreign victims of human trafficking in the Netherlands have been interviewed (see page 290):
Now I need an number to calculate the number of victims that released themselves from the human trafficker during a year. I use a segment of the calculation used by Essy van Dijk, but without the extrapolation of the illegal prostitutes. In the year 2000 there were 203 reports made by victims of human trafficking. For other years there are only numbers known of the reports who are referred to the Public Prosecution Service. In the Fifth Report of the Dutch Rapporteur on human trafficking (Dutch version), there were 91 reports and witness statements made by victims in 2000 which were referred to the Public Prosecution Service (see table 5.2 on page 143). That is very different from the 203 mentioned by Essy van Dijk, but I believe that's because not all reports made by victims were included. During the period 2001-2004 this number averages 199 per year, so not very different from 203. Unfortunately also the number of witness statements were also included so these numbers are not really comparable. Only the Foundation against human trafficking (www.mensenhandel.nl) gives some extra clues about the number of reports, but only for those victims who were reported at the foundation. For the years 2003-2006 there were 157,5 reports on average per year (see their 2006 report on their website). But this must be a lot more in reality, many times it was unknown if the victim made a report. But lets focus on the 203 reports in 2000 and assume that this number is also more or less true for other years.
I see it like this, there are 203 victims of human trafficking who have released themselves from the human trafficker and then have reported the crime. Essy van Dijk estimates that a quarter (24%) of the total number of victims reports the crime and the funny thing is that in my media-analysis also approximately a quarter (51 of 234 cases) report the crime. But perhaps that estimate is too high, because obviously the victims who come forward are also the ones who tend to report the crime, on the other hand it could be too low because of not all cases it is known if the victim reported the crime. By the way, it seems to be the case that foreign victims are much more eager to report the crime (in 36 of 116 cases = 31%) than Dutch victims (in 15 of 118 cases = 13%). According to the second report (2003) of the National Rapporteur on human trafficking (on page 64) various police officials involved in the fight of THB (among others from PPM/dNP) and the Foundation for Support and Reception of Prostitutes (Stichting Hulpverlening en Opvang Prostituees – SHOP) assume a readiness among these victims to report an offence of 5% to 10%.
But when I assume that 24% (±3,23) is the right number then I arrive at 203 * 100 / 24 = ~846 (±114) victims of human trafficking in 2000 who released themselves from the human trafficker. Now also X is known. Also in this case I have to add that I assume that the percentage of the victims who report the crime is constant.
I therefore estimate that at any moment (in 2000) there were X * Y = 846 * 1,42 = 1201 (±445) victims of human trafficking in the Netherlands.
When you want to calculate the number of victims on a yearly basis then you have to add another X to this number. Then the number will be 2047 (±498) victims on a yearly basis. But when you take the circulation of the victims between the Netherlands and abroad into the equation than this number will get higher. The National Rapporteur on human trafficking in the Netherlands says in her fourth report (on page 23) in table 3.13 that in 44% of the human trafficking cases in the period 2000-2003 the victims were also put to work outside the Netherlands, this percentage is 51% for cross border human trafficking and 23% for domestic human trafficking. It is not known how much of the time they were outside the Netherlands, in other words, you don't know the flow and that could make a big difference. When you take the gamble that 44% of the victims of human trafficking in one year enter the country and a group of the same size has also left the country, then you can add to the estimate on a yearly basis the number X * Y * 44/100. And then you can stretch the total number to app 2600 (±540) on a yearly basis, but this is just a gamble.
Obviously these numbers are merely best guesses. If you would assume that the victims are exploited for three months on average then the number would be 200 at each moment and 1300 on a yearly basis. If you assume that the victims are exploited for 2 years on average the number would be 1600 at each moment and 3100 on a yearly basis. And if you additionaly would also assume that the willingness of the victim to report the crime is only 10% then the number jumps to 4000 at each moment and 8000 on a yearly basis. And if it was 5% it would be 8000 at each moment and 16000 on a yearly basis.
But even if you could calculate the number of victims of human trafficking then you must realise that it is plausible that there’s a gradual transition between a situation of human trafficking and voluntary prostitution. So even when you could say that “10 percent” of the prostitutes are victims of human trafficking, that doesn’t mean that the other 90 percent are voluntarily in prostitution. It could be that many prostitutes turn over a large percentage of their income to their pimps, and little is left over for themselves, but still “choose” to be in such a situation because in their country of origin they could be in an even worse situation. For instance, in the report "Illegaliteit, onvrijwilligheid en minderjarigheid" in de Nederlandse prostitutie een jaar na de opheffing van het bordeelverbod" [Illegality, involuntariness and minority in Dutch prostitution one year after the lifting of the ban on brothels] by Goderie, Spierings en ter Woerds from 2002 it is said on page 59 that (translated from Dutch):
END CONCLUSION:
Sorry, not yet a solution!!!
The problem here is the gradual transition. Things are not black and white, there's a lot of grey. So, where do you draw the line? What is voluntary, and what is forced?
Perhaps it's possible to avoid the extreme cases by only visiting Dutch prostitutes in a club who are older than 30, or by visiting Dominican and Colombian prostitutes, but then you avoid only the extreme cases. The milder cases of forced prostitution are less clear.
Main
I will try to give my research a more scientific basis by stating the goals and working methods. I’m thinking long and hard how to do this and it’s extremely difficult. I’m still not satisfied so there will be a lot of tinkering. Actually, this is part of a complete overhaul, but I have no time to waste.
Goal:
The Goal is to find out from a viewpoint of a critical consumer which prostitute is forced and which one is not. I will use the following ideas of what voluntary/forced prostitution is:
-The right of sexual self-determination of a prostitute. As long as she cannot decide for herself what she does with her body than I consider that person as forced. So when there’s somebody in the background who decides when and where the prostitute works then I see the prostitute as forced. I don’t believe it makes a difference if the woman knew that she would work as a prostitute or if she already was a prostitute before she enters a situation of forced prostitution. I believe also prostitutes have the right to sexual self-determination. I look wider than only physical force, also emotional and financial force by third persons I consider as forced.
-The prostitute must have the ability to exert her own will. Somebody who works to maintain a drug addiction or who is psychologically not in order I also consider as forced, because that person cannot voluntarily decide to work in prostitution.
Methodology:
I will list some methods I used to study prostitution in the Netherlands and some of their results.
-The first and most obvious thing you would do is to find out if you can directly see if a prostitute is forced.
But in my opinion you cannot judge by the behaviour of a prostitute if she is forced. I base myself on eyewitness reports but also on common sense. Of men who have visited prostitutes I know that prostitutes who offered good quality service including the “girlfriend-experience” afterwards turned out to be victims of human trafficking after all. I know for instance from clients who visit FKK-clubs in Germany that many Eastern European prostitutes who work there do that under the pressure of pimps, but these women still offer much better quality than for instance Dutch prostitutes in the Netherlands.
I seems that everybody thinks that clients are clairvoyant. Take for instance Maria de Cock of the Foundation against Human trafficking (Interview from Het AD, 12 September 2005, translated from Dutch):
What we want to do is to make clients more aware and we will actively ask to pass on abuses to justice. Because a whore-hopper can excellently see if a woman prostitutes under coercion.Even Karina Schaapman seems to believe that (see "Het onzichtbare zichtbaar gemaakt, prostitutie in Amsterdam anno 2005" [The invisible made visible, prostitution in Amsterdam in the year 2005”). From a selection of quotes from hookers.nl it is concluded that (translated from Dutch):
(…) clients actually are aware of the fact if one prostitutes under coercion or voluntarily.I’m of the opinion that things are not that simple. A prostitute who enters prostitution on her own accord could hate her job and ooze that out (hmmm, if that's such a good thing, but it's 'consensual' anyway....). Perhaps the fact that a prostitute is looking depressed could have nothing to do with the fact that she is working in prostitution; perhaps a family member died or something else terrible has happened.
A victim of human trafficking can under pressure of virtual debts and threats of violence act as if she enjoys her work to satisfy the clients. Also looking for loitering pimps won’t yield anything. Many victims of human trafficking are not guarded 24 hours a day. Many times the threats of violence towards the victim and her family members are enough to comply. Also many women who work for their boyfriend or husband are often not guarded, and won’t ooze out that they are coerced, these women often don’t believe that they are forced. On hookers.nl I count of the almost 4000 prostitutes reviewed in the Netherlands, at most 30 women where the client notices that she could be forced by a pimp. That’s less than 1 percent. In those cases there’s clearly a guy circling around the woman or she has a showy tattoo on her body with an Arab or Turkish name. That nearly always happens in window prostitution followed on a large distance by prostitution at home (privéontvangst, private reception). Controlling pimps in these sectors of prostitution are much better visible. In a club you won’t find a pimp hanging around (except for FKK-clubs in Germany where this does often happen).
Also you will not see bruises on the prostitutes (on hookers.nl I count three prostitutes where the client says that she has bruises). By the way, that is a mystery to me. Especially because of the fact that human traffickers often use excessive violence against the prostitutes, you would expect that (if human trafficking is indeed such a huge problem) that there must be a lot of prostitutes behind windows with visible bruises. Yet I’ve never seen them.
In some Volkskrant-articles written by Menno van Dongen some possible explanations are given for this contradiction. In the article “een geraffineerd spel” [A clever game] (May 12th 2007) a human trafficking gang is described (translated from Dutch):
Beatings often take place in these circles, but treating the women with baseball bats is another story. Victims who spoke about this with the police nearly all said that immediately after they were beaten up, they were put in cold water. Then you get much fewer bruises.In another article written by Menno van Dongen in de Volkskrant (“Toch weer verliefd op een pooier” [Yet in love with a pimp again”], May 17th 2007) a former prostitute says that (translated from Dutch):
He squeezed out cigarettes on my body and beat me up. I had to polish off the bruises with make-up, then you didn’t see much of it with that dimmed light behind the windows. When I looked bad, I had to take rest. But then I built up a debt, which I had to repay by working longer.The book “Ga je mee schat?” [Will you accompagny me honey?] (1998, Henk Ruigrok, Bert Voskuil) describes the Polish Maria (on page 92, translated from Dutch)
The next day I had to go again. But I didn’t want to. Then I was beaten again. In such a way that we didn’t get black eyes. The disabled Moroccan let one of his helpers hold my hands behind my body and then he hit me with a glass cola bottle on my stomach. It hurt a lot. Then you do give in.On the blog of Rob Zijlstra (court reporter based at Groningen) a case of forced prostitution is described in the article "loverboys" (Rob Zijlstra, February 1st, 2005):
The public prosecutor – he demanded a sentence of 24 and 30 months – bases himself predominantly on wiretapped telephone conversations, from which he amply cited to convince the court. Furthermore, in the home of one of the suspects an article was found about loverboys [pimps]. Epilogue is written at the top of the article, written by one of the suspects. It says among other things that if you beat a woman, you must never hit her in the face. After all, with torn lips or a black eye you can’t play whore. Hitting on the head with the flat of one’s hand, that works.That would mean that human traffickers could use special techniques to make sure that injuries are not visible.
Also this is denied by the suspect. The article is not from his brain, but he transcribed it, out of boredom, from the Libelle or the Margriet [Dutch ladies’ magazines], or something. But the public prosecutor had let it been checked out and let it known that these ladies’ magazines, and also not de Viva, de Tina and de Flair have published such an article.
It is not necessarily so that a loitering man who keeps an eye on the prostitute means any harm. It could be out of genuine concern that her boyfriend keeps an eye on her. The Norwegian researchers Cecilie Hoigard and Liv Finstad studied street prostitutes in the eighties in Oslo (see the book: “Backstreets: Prostitution, Money and Love”, 1992). It occurred to them that actually the men who were loitering around in the neighbourhood of the prostitute actually were the nicer pimps. Men who use violence on their women often just sit down at home!!!!
In my views I feel confirmed by the fieldwork of Liesbeth Venicz. In the period 1997/1998 she has done fieldwork among window prostitutes in Groningen. Her experiences are written down in the report: “Achter de ramen – veldwerk onder raamprostituees in Groningen” [Behind the windows – fieldwork among window prostitutes in Groningen] (1998). She says:
(translated from Dutch)
On page 3:
The foreign women are not so dependent as the popular image wants to, on the contrary. Also the Dutch woman are by far not all those independently working women like we want to see them.About Dutch prostitutes who work for pimps she says (on page 10):
How sensitive the prostitutes are to that image, becomes clear through the smoke screens the women lay around them, especially when they don’t completely work voluntarily. This makes the stories that I hear, sometimes very confusing. (…)
Again and again I was confronted with the fact that I judged too quickly about a situation. Behind every image that I formed of a woman there turned out to be another, more nuanced story. A very independent looking woman, allowed herself to be given a black eye by her boyfriend. A woman who I thought looked like she was succumbing, turned out to have a surprising resilience.
It must be emphasized that this concerns not all Dutch girls. There are also girls who do work independently, sometimes after working for some time for a pimp-boyfriend, or who choose to maintain their boyfriend and decide for themselves what amount of money they hand over to him. Through the smoke screens the women create around themselves, it is not easy to say with precision who does or does not belong to this group.And on page 25:
The girls often don’t always look like being under pressure. Also women with a self-confident posture sometimes turn out to be a victim of human trafficking.My question is: if this aid worker – who is better able to come in contact with prostitutes - cannot even know or see that prostitutes are forced or not, how can clients?
Main conclusion: clients cannot judge from the behaviour of the prostitute if she is forced or not, except perhaps under extreme conditions.
The next question is then, are there other ways to know for a client to know if a prostitute is working voluntarily? Obviously, if you personally know a prostitute, then it’s possible. I can image that via an internet forum you could get in contact with a prostitute and first get to learn that person. Or perhaps another client knows several prostitutes really well and is certain that they are free, and who could refer you to them or vice versa. But this is very time-consuming I guess, you have to build a real network for this to be possible. I think it is possible. But for many potential clients this would cost too much time, so there must be other ways.
Perhaps there are certain brothels where they take care of these things? For instance, making sure no prostitute enters the brothel who is forced?
The sad answer is NO!!!! Not according to a research by criminologist Frank Bovenkerk and others. I quote from their report: 'Loverboys' of modern pooierschap in Amsterdam [‘Loverboys’ or modern pimphood in Amsterdam] (2004)
(translated from Dutch)
Page 60-61:
A representative of the luxurious club-business tells us that in his segment only independent women can work who really know what they’re doing. He will initiate them, supplies them with all kinds of information about work and health and explains the terms. If they come with pimp-type (immigrant) boyfriends, he will try to get rid of the situation and not to incite aggression: ‘I will not employ her because she doesn’t realise where she’s heading’. Girls who work under duress are unprofessional. He doesn’t want controlling men in his place who are receiving money and he doesn’t want to be disturbed by men who repeatedly call their girls with a mobile phone. No, these girls could better go to window-prostitution, because there they can make more money by the conveyer-belt type of work [typical of window-prostitution] and the young man can supervise his girlfriend better.So the clear answer is, sex operators do nothing to stop pimps and human traffickers. Lets look for other ways.
We don’t rule out that entrepreneurs in the prostitution-business really don’t know that she works for a pimp. And indeed: some of them stand firm. But the girls we interview have to chuckle about it. The doorkeeper of the club of which we spoke the aforesaid owner, knows very well who is waiting outside. They assure us that they very easily can get started in all sectors of prostitution, and that the entrepreneurs know damn well that they work for a pimp.
-I have tried to compare the characteristics of victims of human trafficking with the characteristics of prostitutes in general. Unfortunately, information about victims of human trafficking is present but not of prostitutes in general. I had to search the client-reviews on the website hookers.nl to search for characteristics of prostitutes. I mainly look for ages and nationalities. Unfortunately I didn’t do it really thoroughly. For instance, I didn’t note down per prostitute what was the period when she was observed. But the largest segment of prostitutes were observed in 2005 and a smaller group in 2002-2004. But that causes few problems nonetheless. You can now look what are the differences and similarities between the prostitutes described on hookers.nl and victims of human trafficking like they are described by the Foundation against Trafficking in Women. If it’s true that certain groups of victims are underrepresented then it could be that also in reality there are relatively fewer of them. The problem only is then that you have to assume that victims like they are registered are representative of the victim of human trafficking. That is probably not true because you cannot easily separate the voluntary from the forced prostitutes, there probably is a more gradual transition. I have the strong suspicion that the characteristics of the victims like registered at the Foundation Against Trafficking in Women don’t give a representative picture of persons in general who you could describe as victim of human trafficking. What strikes me is that in the media-articles and in many studies which describe victims of human trafficking by far most victims didn’t know that they would work in prostitution, and they were also subjected to lots of violence. The reality in the field is that probably the large majority of the prostitutes who fall under the definition of human trafficking actually knew that they would work in prostitution.
You could also wonder if the prostitutes reveal their real ages and nationalities to the customers on hookers.nl. For instance, it is known that in the nineties many Russian prostitutes worked with forged Polish passports to circumvent the visa requirements (see the report "Mensenhandel vanuit Centraal- en Oost Europa", 1997 by the IPIT and IRT Noord en Oost Nederland).
The end result of this method is that when you take all the statistics literally, then you must conclude that:
1. The percentage of the prostitutes who are victims of this crime probably doesn't reach the 10 percent.
2. That Latin American and Thai prostitutes are far less often victims of human trafficking than the rest of the prostitutes.
3. That most Eastern European prostitutes are from Poland and the Czech Republic and that these prostitutes are far less often victims of human trafficking than the rest, and that among the Eastern European prostitutes this crime relatively often occurs among Bulgarian and Romanian prostitutes.
4. That Dutch prostitutes relatively far less often work in window prostitution, that Dutch forced prostitutes predominantly work in window prostitution, and that Dutch prostitutes in other forms of prostitution than window prostitution are far less often forced into prostitution.
5. That most African prostitutes are from Ghana, that a minority is from Nigeria, and that among African prostitutes forced prostitution predominantly occurs among Nigerian prostitutes.
6. That there is no evidence that forced prostitution occurs more often or less often in the illegal segment of prostitution than in the legal one.
7. That foreign prostitutes who are forced in prostitutes are more or less evenly distributed across all segments of prostitution, and that Dutch forced prostitutes predominantly work in window prostitution.
8. That many prostitutes are relatively old (30+). On the contrary, many registered forced prostitutes are younger than 30. Registered Dutch forced prostitutes only in rare cases are older than 30 and many times are younger than 25.
Perhaps this gives clues to clients how to avoid forced prostitutes. But obviously, these conclusions are based on an oversimplification.
-Furthermore you could search for studies which describe a fairly large number of prostitutes in general, and then look which of these prostitutes were forced and look what their characteristics are. Unfortunately this is not well possible because researchers then possibly only review the prostitutes who have the time to be interviewed. And that possibly are not the prostitutes who are forced because they simply don’t have the time. Such researches won’t give a reliable image. Examples of such researches are:
-Er gaat iets veranderen in de prostitutie [Something’s going to change in prostitution](2000, Liesbeth Venicz, Ine Vanwesenbeeck)
-Sociale positie van prostituees in de gereguleerde bedrijven, een jaar na de wetswijzing [The social position of prostitutes in the regulated prostitution businesses, one year of the the amendment] (2002, Ine Vanwesenbeeck, Mechtild Höing, Paul Vennix)
-De sociale positie van prostituees 2006 [The social position of prostitutes 2006] (2006, Helga Dekker, Ruud Tap, Ger Homburg)
-Hoe (ex)prostituees zich zelf redden — Een onderzoek naar de (afwezigheid van) hulpvragen [How (former) prostitutes fend for themselves — A study into the (absense of) aid requests] (Ine Vanwesenbeeck, Sietske Altink en Martine Groen, 1989)
The last mentioned report (Ine Vanwesenbeeck, Sietske Altink en Martine Groen, 1989) states that:
(translated from Dutch)
On page 11:
For a large group of women the lack of will, wish or possibility to ‘tell their story’ must be hold as decisive for the fact that we didn’t speak with them.The first mentioned report (2000, Liesbeth Venicz, Ine Vanwesenbeeck) states that:
A more or less explicit ‘prohibition’ (by pimp, boss or colleagues) should certainly not be excluded. Illustrative of this is the fact that we have spoken with no women whom at the time of our recruitment have worked under coercion or under very strict restrictions and/or were imposed very heavy restrictions on communication. All women whom we have spoke with about such experiences, had already left this situation behind them.
(translated from Dutch)
On page 21:
Ever since our fieldwork it already became clear that prostitutes who worked under coercion of third persons didn’t want to cooperate with the interview. It is therefore not surprising that the number of prostitutes that indicate not to work totally voluntarily, is low. Three quarters of the respondents find it completely their own choice to work in prostitution during the last year. For approximately a quarter of the respondents it is not completely their own choice, but for 11,4% it is for the largest part. As a factor which limits their own choice they mainly name financial reasons. Only prostitutes who have recently stopped indicate that they worked (for the largest part) not out of their own free will, but forced by third persons.But now, something very strange has happened: the aid organization TAMPEP who helps migrants prostitutes in several European countries has also interviewed prostitutes. Look at their report “TAMPEP – analysis – the first year: 1993/1994” on pages 12-13:
In The Netherlands a positive response to our desire to interview the migrant sex workers was registered in 95% of the cases.This is an absolute miracle to me!!!! This proves that aid workers for some reason are much better able to make contact with prostitutes, even when they are forced. But TAMPEP also hint that they maintain cordial ties with human traffickers!! That is very unorthodox at least!
(...)
Even in those instances where the migrant sex workers were under the direct control of pimps, no major difficulties were noted either for the collection of interviews or for direct contact with the migrant sex workers. If the pimps asked for an explanation regarding the presence of a TAMPEP team worker or the reasons leading to such a prolonged contact with their women, an explanation was provided regarding the role of the TAMPEP worker, their task and the concept of cultural mediation. The fact that those who conducted the interviews were also permanent project workers represented a great advantage in accessing closed circuits and other precarious situations marked by organised crime and exploitation of vulnerable sex workers. In the presence of health workers active within the context of an official European prevention program, it is rather more difficult to close doors and implicitly admit that one is obstacling access to information on, among other things, correct condom use. In addition, as we have already described in previous sections, the influence and authority of brothel owners in The Netherlands is still a force to be reckoned with in the dynamics of relations with pimps and traffickers. Prohibitions, threats and intimidations carried out against TAMPEP workers would isolate pimps from the protection and authority of the Dutch brothel owners. This balancing counter-force to the possible negative attitude of pimps and traffickers was either absent or of very limited import in the other two member states in which TAMPEP was operative. In Italy and Germany it was necessary to establish more direct and personal contacts with third parties who controlled the work places of the migrant prostitutes because their influence on them is much more strong than in the Netherlands. These attempts required time and energy and ingenuity. In many cases, the TAMPEP worker had first to perform some practical interventions among the target group in order to be able to start the interview. In the Netherlands, pimps and traffickers are often guests who reside within the brothels and in this sense their position is completely different: they must be that much more careful in their efforts to conceal themselves and reduce unwanted attention.
Also the Scharlaken Koord based on De Wallen have no problems contacting forced prostitutes (in the manifesto Uit het donker opgelicht [Illuminated from Darkness] (2002) it is said that more than half of the prostitutes contacted by the Scharlaken Koord handed over all their earnings to their pimp).
The four reports I mentioned are not representative of prostitutes in the Netherlands in my opinion. It is striking that in the first two mentioned reports many prostitutes indicate that they pay taxes. In the second report that’s two third of the prostitutes, in the first report it is one third. The reality is that probably only a small percentage of the prostitutes pay taxes. Therefore I believe that the researchers have mainly interviewed the more emancipated prostitutes. Look at this report "Handhaving prostitutiebranche door politiekorpsen, belastingdienst, arbeidsinspectie en UWV/GAK" [Enforcements prostitution branch by police forces, tax department and UWV/GAK] (2002, ES&E, Pauline Naber, Léon van Lier)
See page 24: 921 prostitutes were registered at the tax department, only a small fraction of the total number of prostitutes (some 20.000-30.000 on a yearly basis).
In the second mentioned report it is also true that the net response is relatively low; a number of brothels have been approached in that study and only a third (29%) at the end cooperated, and of those brothels only a couple (2) prostitutes cooperated. It is estimated that per brothel some 5,5 prostitutes work there on a daily basis (see the first profeit-studie from 1999 by Visser and others). I therefore believe that the net response is only some 11%.
The third mentioned report (about the social position of prostitutes in 2006) had a higher response. 3,54 prostitutes cooperated per approached brothel (354 prostitutes per 99 brothels). But of the businesses that were approached only 34% cooperated (see page 9). So I estimate that even for this study the net response really is only 22%. Of this group 37 percent (see page 29) made a declaration at the tax department. It must be said though that in this sample the nationalities and ages of the prostitutes have some very strong resemblances with those of the prostitutes I researched on the website hookers.nl (around the period 2002-2005).
-What could be done is to study a random group of prostitutes and ex-prostitutes among a wide range of sectors and then to research a certain subgroup of prostitutes (like the Dutch) and then select the prostitutes who had been forced in the past (assuming that you don’t interview forced prostitutes) and then look in which sector that was. From such a distribution that follows you could draw some conclusions. This way you could find a representative image of the victim of human trafficking. You’ll get a lot more women in view who otherwise would drop out of the picture in case you would study statistics of the Foundation Against Trafficking in Women, or when you study media articles. You can now also decide for yourself which prostitute is forced and which one is not, depending on the definition you use. You can compare that data with the characteristics of all prostitutes in the Netherlands as a whole. For example, when it turns out that all prostitutes in the researched subgroup have worked in the escort then you could draw the conclusion that outside the escort coercion doesn’t occur. Unfortunately you need quite big samples to really get statistically significant results, because by far not all prostitutes you interview have been forced in the past. I think about a 1000 prostitute who you need to interview. And you would have no idea about how large forced prostitution is as a whole, you only know the proportions.
There’s only one study which actually made such an analysis, it’s the fourth report I mentioned (Ine Vanwesenbeeck, Sietske Altink en Martine Groen, 1989). The drawback is that this study mentions such information on the side without many details (PS: among the mainly Dutch prostitutes they interviewed, violence occurred much more often among window prostitutes, and much less often among prostitutes working in clubs).
-If you want to know how large the scale of forced prostitution really is you could exclusively target women who have worked as prostitutes in the past but don’t do that anymore now. You could ask them if they had been forced and then you could ask when that happened and how long that happened, and also how long they have worked independently as prostitutes. Using this data you could calculate roughly for a certain period in the past when these women worked how many actually have been forced on a given moment during that period. I mean a calculation like this:
[The number of ex-prostitutes who have been forced in the past] / [The total number of ex-prostitutes] * [The average number of years the forced ex-prostitutes have been forced] / [The average number of years the forced ex-prostitutes totally worked]
I unfortunately never found a report which has done that.
-And furthermore you could rely on descriptions by prostitutes about their colleagues. What do they know about their colleagues? How many are forced? Where do these forced prostitutes work? Unfortunately it turns out that prostitutes often don’t know that themselves. A large number of them even deny the existence of forced prostitution.
The Norwegian Cecilie Hoigard and Liv Finstad studied street prostitutes in the eighties in Oslo (see the book “Backstreets: Prostitution, Money And Love”, 1992). They also asked prostitutes about pimps among their colleagues. They received mixed results, some said that nearly all prostitutes had pimps. The researchers themselves found out that in reality only a few women had partners you could characterize as pimp (so no violence, manipulation or multiple women who work for them)
-You obviously could also ask the same thing to other persons who are in contact with prostitutes. Like clients, cops or aid workers. Or the butcher on the corner. I especially view information by aid workers as very reliable. Many prostitutes who would not accept researchers do for some reason allow aid workers in. Aid workers see and hear a lot of things. Above all the eye witnesses generally can see things that are overlooked by researchers who take random samples. Unfortunately several sources could be very contradictory. But this could be because prostitutes could differ a lot from each other, per area, per brothel or per time period for example. It is important to look what is the source and to which group of prostitutes the observations are related.
There are many eye witness reports. I could draw some conclusions from these reports. Some of these support the conclusions from the statistical analysis I mentioned earlier, others contradict these conclusions. The conclusions are that:
1. Many prostitutes consented into working in prostitution, but are exploited. Probably the "consented-but-exploited" group is much bigger than the "did-not-consent" group.
2. Ninety percent of the Eastern European prostitutes in window prostitution are reported to be in the power of pimps, and most are exploited.
3. Latin American prostitutes are reported to be very independent, with the notable exception of Brazilian prostitutes who form a large minority among the Latin American prostitutes.
4. There are many more eyewitness reports pertaining to window prostitution compared to other forms of prostitution. Many eyewitness reports in window prostitution are from import players like policemen and aidworkers. Eyewitness reports in other sectors of prostitution are very anecdotal and fragmented.
5. Many window prostitutes in general are reported to be forced. Perhaps even most window prostitutes are forced.
6. There seems to be a drug and alcohol problem in the Dutch sex industry. However, it must be admitted that many prostitutes interviewed in recent evaluation reports seem to refute this.
7. Many prostitutes seem not to have the complete right to refuse clients and cannot completely decide their working hours. This is also less clear because for instance the statements of the Red Thread (which are negative) contradict those of prostitutes interviewed in evaluation reports.
8. Eye-witness reports indeed seem to suggest that forced prostitutes are generally younger women, but according to some sources there are also some older forced prostitutes.
-In the case of prostitutes you have to take into account the fact that they could lie about their situation. For instance, in the report of Geetanjali Gangoli about prostitutes in India (2001, “Prostitution as Livelihood, ‘Work’ or ‘Crime’?”) it is being said that:
During the course of my fieldwork, I found however, that while many women start off by telling stories of coercion and violence, once a relationship is established, the stories often change. As a paper on sex-workers in a South African mine points out, people’s stories of being tricked into sex-work were remarkably similar, almost a part of a script. However:On the other hand, the Christian aid workers in the manifesto Uit het donker opgelicht [Illuminated from Darkness] (2002) on the contrary say that (translated from Dutch):“… the objective veracity of people’s accounts is not the most important or interesting feature of the life histories. What is more important is how people reconstruct and account for their life choices, given that these accounts reflect the social identities that play a key role in shaping people’s sexual behavior. In this context, the main interest of these stories of origin lies in the role that they play as a strategy for coping with a spoiled identity …” [uit: Catherine Campbell, Selling Sex in the Time of AIDS: Identity, Sexuality and Commercial Sex-work on a South African mine. Social Science and Medicine. Volume 50 (2). 2000.]
We as aid workers know that the women as a first response always say that everything goes fine and that her profession poses no problem, until we gain deeper contact. Then the poignant causes often come to the surface.Prostitutes could give a more positive image of reality. A former victim says in an interview: Vrouwenhandel/retourtje Kiev-Amsterdam [Trafficking in Women/Round-trip Kiev-Amsterdam] (Trouw, 2002, Ruth Hopkins, translated from Dutch)
She came knocking at the police bureau Warmoesstraat and, on the recommendation of the police, reported against the people who exploited her. “I have given them the living address, the license number and the working address of Olga, everything. Because I was afraid of reprisals of the Yugoslav I said that I knew that I would come to work in prostitution.”-And obviously you also could combine the different sources. If a certain sector within prostitution is well described by eyewitnesses and you know that a lot (or not a lot) of victims of human trafficking work there, but you know a lot less about other sectors, but a distribution is known about victims of human trafficking over several sectors, than you could draw some conclusions. But then you must start from the assumption that the distribution is really representative.
Conclusion: when you assume that many window prostitutes are forced, this must be also true for other forms of prostitution. Namely, when you look at the way victims of human trafficking are distributed across different sectors of prostitution, that more or less reflects the distribution of prostitutes in general (except perhaps for Dutch prostitutes).
-The size of human trafficking is difficult to express in numbers. Essy van Dijk used a very clever mathematical trick to calculate the number of victims on a yearly basis (in the year 2000).
See the report mensenhandel in Nederland in section 5.2 (page 59, translated from Dutch)
(…) How large the willingness is among the victims to report the crime could approximately be established by relating the number of victims of human trafficking during a period to the number of reports during the same period. Now it turns out that in the period 1997-1999 671 victims have been reported at the Stichting Tegen Vrouwenhandel (STV [Foundation Against Trafficking in Women]) and that both in the present study as well as in an earlier assessment of the NRI (see section 3.3) during the same period 161 reports of human trafficking have been registered. This would mean that approximately a quarter of the victims of human trafficking (24%) reports the crime. Now the registrations of both institutes are an underestimate because not all victims are reported at the Stichting Tegen Vrouwenhandel (Van Dijk and De Savornin Lohman, 2000) and not all reports at the NRI, but in each case this forms an indication of the willingness to report. (…)See page 124:
(…) Because only a small segment of the offender(s) are being apprehended, the real number of victims is obviously higher. How high can be — very carefully — approximated by combining a number of facts. This way it is estimated that 75% of the illegal prostitutes apprehended by the police are immediately sent home to their country of birth before an investigation into human trafficking can be started (Van Dijk and De Savornin Lohman, 2000). In section 5.2 it is calculated that the willingness to report could be 24%, that means that of all discovered victims 24% are found willing to report the crime. This should mean that behind the 203 reports in the year 2000 3.383 victims could lie hidden. [in a footnote: {(203 x 100) : 24} x 100 : 25 (25% versus 75% deportations)] This number is disputable, but does give in any way an indication — probably an underestimate — of the whole size of the problem. (…)She makes a logical error. First of all she didn’t take into account the non-illegal victims of human trafficking. They are not expelled. Secondly she seems to assume that three quarter of all illegal prostitutes are expelled by the police before they could report the crime to the police. In reality a lot of illegal prostitutes are never discovered, and therefore not expelled. Thirdly, she doesn’t take into account the women who were already victim of human trafficking at the start of the year. And Fourthly, she didn’t take into account the fact that many foreign victims also have worked abroad and thus many victims circulate into and out of the country.
But I believe she is warm. I will make an attempt myself. Take the number X. I call X the total number of victims that release themselves from the human traffickers from the begin of the year until the end. This number tells nothing about the number of victims present during each moment or on a yearly basis. There’s a darknumber of victims which didn’t set themselves free and I assume that the number of victims at each moment is directly proportional to the average number of years that a victim is forced to work. I state that when on each moment there are a number of Z victims, and the average number of years a victims is forced to work is Y, then each year some Z/Y=X victims release themselves from the human traffickers. That is, the number of victims on each moment is equal to X times Y, that is the number of victims that free themselves during one year multiplied by the average number of years that a victim works.
When I know X and Y then I can therefore calculate the number of victims present on each moment. But then I have to make one extra proposition. Not all victims are always in the Netherlands. Victims often enter the Netherlands while already working in forced prostitution, and vice versa they leave the Netherlands while in forced prostitution. When I assume that these two flows exactly neutralize each other and each victim neatly reports the crime in the country where she freed herself of the human trafficker, than this doesn’t have any influence on X, Y and Z. Now I will look if X and Y are known.
The estimates of how long victims of trafficking in women are exploited on average range widely from 3 months to little more than a year. The report “Mensenhandel vanuit centraal- en Oost-Europa” [Human trafficking from Central and Eastern Europe] (IPIT & IRT Noord en Oost Nederland, 1997) estimates that Eastern European victims of human trafficking are put to work on average for a relatively short period, about three months, and rarely longer than a year. In the research of the EU ("Research based on case studies of victims of trafficking in human beings in 3 EU Member States, i.e. Belgium, Italy and The Netherlands" [2001], among whom Ruth Hopkins and Jan Nijboer have cooperated) 80 foreign victims of human trafficking in the Netherlands have been interviewed (see page 290):
The average time between departure in country of origin and entrance at reception centre is a little more than 1 year and 3 months. However this average is strongly influenced by one victim who entered the reception centre some 18 years after she left her home country. Without this victim, the average time between departure and entrance is about one year.Using the stories of victims of human trafficking in the media, from books and on forums I managed to make an estimate of the period the victims have been under the control of their pimp(s). From a sample of 114 cases where such a period is mentioned, I can derive that on average this number must lie between 1,3 and 2,2 years (1,72±0,44, the error margin is obviously very big). At then end I’ll use my estimates, because the estimate of three months is based on only the Eastern European victims, and the estimate of 1 year and three months only on the foreign victims. I will use one correction for my estimates; Dutch victims are probably overrepresented in this number. It is based on 57 Dutch victims and 54 foreign victims (and some cases of which the nationality was unknown). The average time the Dutch victims were exploited was 2,25 (±0,65) years. For foreign victims this is 1,17 (±0,60) years. That is a significant difference. This poses a problem because it is actually not known how many of the victims are Dutch. In latest figures from 2005 and 2006 of registered victims (released by the Foundation Against Trafficking in Women - see their website www.mensenhandel.nl) this percentage fluctuates around 25%, this was much lower in earlier years. Victim support organisations in 2000 came into contact with 608 victims of whom 138 were Dutch (see the first report of the Dutch national rapporteur on human trafficking on page 50, table 4.2). I take the guess that this reflects the reality. If I use this correction then I arrive at an average of 1,42 (±0,49) years that victims of human trafficking are exploited. So Y is now known. I must add that in this case I make the assumption that Y is constant at all times.
Now I need an number to calculate the number of victims that released themselves from the human trafficker during a year. I use a segment of the calculation used by Essy van Dijk, but without the extrapolation of the illegal prostitutes. In the year 2000 there were 203 reports made by victims of human trafficking. For other years there are only numbers known of the reports who are referred to the Public Prosecution Service. In the Fifth Report of the Dutch Rapporteur on human trafficking (Dutch version), there were 91 reports and witness statements made by victims in 2000 which were referred to the Public Prosecution Service (see table 5.2 on page 143). That is very different from the 203 mentioned by Essy van Dijk, but I believe that's because not all reports made by victims were included. During the period 2001-2004 this number averages 199 per year, so not very different from 203. Unfortunately also the number of witness statements were also included so these numbers are not really comparable. Only the Foundation against human trafficking (www.mensenhandel.nl) gives some extra clues about the number of reports, but only for those victims who were reported at the foundation. For the years 2003-2006 there were 157,5 reports on average per year (see their 2006 report on their website). But this must be a lot more in reality, many times it was unknown if the victim made a report. But lets focus on the 203 reports in 2000 and assume that this number is also more or less true for other years.
I see it like this, there are 203 victims of human trafficking who have released themselves from the human trafficker and then have reported the crime. Essy van Dijk estimates that a quarter (24%) of the total number of victims reports the crime and the funny thing is that in my media-analysis also approximately a quarter (51 of 234 cases) report the crime. But perhaps that estimate is too high, because obviously the victims who come forward are also the ones who tend to report the crime, on the other hand it could be too low because of not all cases it is known if the victim reported the crime. By the way, it seems to be the case that foreign victims are much more eager to report the crime (in 36 of 116 cases = 31%) than Dutch victims (in 15 of 118 cases = 13%). According to the second report (2003) of the National Rapporteur on human trafficking (on page 64) various police officials involved in the fight of THB (among others from PPM/dNP) and the Foundation for Support and Reception of Prostitutes (Stichting Hulpverlening en Opvang Prostituees – SHOP) assume a readiness among these victims to report an offence of 5% to 10%.
But when I assume that 24% (±3,23) is the right number then I arrive at 203 * 100 / 24 = ~846 (±114) victims of human trafficking in 2000 who released themselves from the human trafficker. Now also X is known. Also in this case I have to add that I assume that the percentage of the victims who report the crime is constant.
I therefore estimate that at any moment (in 2000) there were X * Y = 846 * 1,42 = 1201 (±445) victims of human trafficking in the Netherlands.
When you want to calculate the number of victims on a yearly basis then you have to add another X to this number. Then the number will be 2047 (±498) victims on a yearly basis. But when you take the circulation of the victims between the Netherlands and abroad into the equation than this number will get higher. The National Rapporteur on human trafficking in the Netherlands says in her fourth report (on page 23) in table 3.13 that in 44% of the human trafficking cases in the period 2000-2003 the victims were also put to work outside the Netherlands, this percentage is 51% for cross border human trafficking and 23% for domestic human trafficking. It is not known how much of the time they were outside the Netherlands, in other words, you don't know the flow and that could make a big difference. When you take the gamble that 44% of the victims of human trafficking in one year enter the country and a group of the same size has also left the country, then you can add to the estimate on a yearly basis the number X * Y * 44/100. And then you can stretch the total number to app 2600 (±540) on a yearly basis, but this is just a gamble.
Obviously these numbers are merely best guesses. If you would assume that the victims are exploited for three months on average then the number would be 200 at each moment and 1300 on a yearly basis. If you assume that the victims are exploited for 2 years on average the number would be 1600 at each moment and 3100 on a yearly basis. And if you additionaly would also assume that the willingness of the victim to report the crime is only 10% then the number jumps to 4000 at each moment and 8000 on a yearly basis. And if it was 5% it would be 8000 at each moment and 16000 on a yearly basis.
But even if you could calculate the number of victims of human trafficking then you must realise that it is plausible that there’s a gradual transition between a situation of human trafficking and voluntary prostitution. So even when you could say that “10 percent” of the prostitutes are victims of human trafficking, that doesn’t mean that the other 90 percent are voluntarily in prostitution. It could be that many prostitutes turn over a large percentage of their income to their pimps, and little is left over for themselves, but still “choose” to be in such a situation because in their country of origin they could be in an even worse situation. For instance, in the report "Illegaliteit, onvrijwilligheid en minderjarigheid" in de Nederlandse prostitutie een jaar na de opheffing van het bordeelverbod" [Illegality, involuntariness and minority in Dutch prostitution one year after the lifting of the ban on brothels] by Goderie, Spierings en ter Woerds from 2002 it is said on page 59 that (translated from Dutch):
It seems to be the case that there is a sort of scale running from severe forms of human trafficking (gross deception and severe forms of violence) to lighter forms which almost fall under people smuggling, be it that it concerns work in prostitution. Prostitutes from outside the EU in the last mentioned case by definition don’t feel themselves victims of human trafficking. Working in prostitution in the Netherlands could also be a rational decision. It could even be an emancipatory decision (economic independence, gender change of transsexuals, ). There are big individual differences of the situation where prostitutes are in and the extent of deception, violence and coercion they are confronted with.Alright. You can compare the numbers I mentioned (1200 victims at each moment and 2600 on a yearly basis) to what is known about the total number of prostitutes in general. On a yearly basis there are supposed to be some 25.000 prostitutes, [source: "Mobiliteit in de Nederlandse prostitutie" (1999, Lucie van Mens)]. And according to the mr A de Graafstichting the number should be 12.500 prostitutes who work on a daily or weekly basis (see the article 'Betaalde liefde' by Marieke van Doorninck in "C.V. Koers", February 2000, page 6 and further). Well, if these numbers are true then on a yearly basis and on a daily or weekly basis some 10% of the prostitutes are forced into prostitution (but these are only the worst cases).
END CONCLUSION:
Sorry, not yet a solution!!!
The problem here is the gradual transition. Things are not black and white, there's a lot of grey. So, where do you draw the line? What is voluntary, and what is forced?
Perhaps it's possible to avoid the extreme cases by only visiting Dutch prostitutes in a club who are older than 30, or by visiting Dominican and Colombian prostitutes, but then you avoid only the extreme cases. The milder cases of forced prostitution are less clear.
Main
Monday, July 23, 2007
Quality Labels
Hey, it actually seems if a dream is coming true. There's actually a serious report now about quality labels for the prostitution industry in the Netherlands.
http://www.dikkelul.nl/thumbs/pics/FinalReportQualityLabels.pdf
(watch out, it's on a porn site)
A pilot study on the development and the feasibility of introducing European quality labels in the prostitution sector in the Netherlands (By Dr. Conny Rijken and Linda van Krimpen)
I'm reading through it....
http://www.dikkelul.nl/thumbs/pics/FinalReportQualityLabels.pdf
(watch out, it's on a porn site)
A pilot study on the development and the feasibility of introducing European quality labels in the prostitution sector in the Netherlands (By Dr. Conny Rijken and Linda van Krimpen)
I'm reading through it....
Friday, June 15, 2007
Fifth report of the national rapporteur
Main
There's a new report by the Dutch National Rapporteur on human trafficking (C.E. Dettmeijer-Vermeulen).
It's the fifth one, there's a version in Dutch:
Mensenhandel - Vijfde rapportage van de nationaal rapporteur
I wonder if there's also one in English.... (hmmmm)
Main
There's a new report by the Dutch National Rapporteur on human trafficking (C.E. Dettmeijer-Vermeulen).
It's the fifth one, there's a version in Dutch:
Mensenhandel - Vijfde rapportage van de nationaal rapporteur
I wonder if there's also one in English.... (hmmmm)
Main
Definitions
Main
I want to go deeper into the discussion about what is exactly “voluntary” prostitution, and what is “forced” prostitution. Until now I have thought a lot about this issue but never could clearly write down how I should define these issues. It is very important because obviously if you as a client want to separate the “forced” from the “voluntary” prostitutes it is important to know what exactly is “forced” and “voluntary”! And it is also important for a researcher who want to map the forced prostitution problem that he/she uses the proper definition.
The great problem is that after a lot of philosophizing it turns out that a strict separation is not possible, and that is my final conclusion.
Okay, let’s first attempt to define “voluntary” prostitution. A very obvious definition of voluntary prostitution what you will often find on the internet is something like this: it is voluntary when all participants consent into doing the paid sexual activity, and when no violence or the threat of violence is used. And then we can speak of forced prostitution when one or all of these conditions are violated. The British prostitutes’ rights activist Hilary Kinnell uses such a definition in "Why feminists should rethink on sex workers’ right" (1999)
For instance, at first when I heard about forced prostitution the only image I had was of an innocent victim who didn’t know what was awaiting her, who didn’t know she would be doing prostitution and who was violently forced to do this work. Slowly you begin to realize that actually most who are “forced” into prostitution actually knew what kind of work they would be doing, up to the point of where some even might argue if they are forced into prostitution in the first place, they consented didn’t they? And the second thing of all is that evidence also suggests that not all human traffickers use violence (see the fourth report of the Dutch National rapporteur" [2005] on page 17).
Clearly the definition is not so straightforward as it may seem. Also the definition of violence is not so straightforward; what is exactly violence? Is limiting someone’s movements violence?
And what if the human trafficker uses the duty the victim feels to pay off large debts by working in prostitution? And what if the third person threatens to spread nude pictures of the victim? Or what if the third person threatens to reveal the victim works in prostitution?
And, you could quite easily create a gradual scale from “voluntary” to “forced”. In that case it is also impossible to count victims of forced prostitution in case you want to. In that case it is also very difficult to decide as a client who is the voluntary prostitute.
It’s also interesting that Hilary Kinnell comes up with additional “tests”:
You might also wonder if force by circumstances could be included. But in that case basically every person that performs labour is force, because if you don’t work you don’t make money so you can’t make a living. That’s also what Hilary Kinnell puts forward:
And what if a person absolutely hates the work and gets emotionally traumatized by it? Isn’t that a form a sexual abuse if you would use the sexual services of this person?
And what about drug addicted prostitutes? Is it okay as a client to use the services of these women? If you would use the extra tests of Hilary Kinnell then the answer would mean NO, in case the person uses the drugs at the moment of performing the sexual service. That’s interesting because there are some reports that some clients together with the prostitute use drugs (see the Dutch “escort in Amsterdam” report [1999] or the book “Callgirl” [2005] by Jeannette Angell).
Some very difficult questions altogether. The matter is obviously trivial when direct violence is used, but beyond that things are not that simple. There’s no solution.
For the record, some additional definitions of human trafficking:
See “third report of the national rapporteur on human trafficking”, page 153. She translates (in 30 January 2001) article 250a of the Dutch penal code:
But..... you could discuss about the definition of forced prostitutes; from the viewpoint of clients things are simpler. In my opinion every single violation of a person's physical integrity, however small, is rape. So even a "light" case of a brothel owner who subtly forces a prostitute to have sex with a client - like giving her fines for not entering the brothel on time or for refusing clients - I view as "coercion". So in that case it would be better as a client to avoid using the sexual services of such a prostitute, even if she is not a "victim of human trafficking" according to a certain definition.
Main
I want to go deeper into the discussion about what is exactly “voluntary” prostitution, and what is “forced” prostitution. Until now I have thought a lot about this issue but never could clearly write down how I should define these issues. It is very important because obviously if you as a client want to separate the “forced” from the “voluntary” prostitutes it is important to know what exactly is “forced” and “voluntary”! And it is also important for a researcher who want to map the forced prostitution problem that he/she uses the proper definition.
The great problem is that after a lot of philosophizing it turns out that a strict separation is not possible, and that is my final conclusion.
Okay, let’s first attempt to define “voluntary” prostitution. A very obvious definition of voluntary prostitution what you will often find on the internet is something like this: it is voluntary when all participants consent into doing the paid sexual activity, and when no violence or the threat of violence is used. And then we can speak of forced prostitution when one or all of these conditions are violated. The British prostitutes’ rights activist Hilary Kinnell uses such a definition in "Why feminists should rethink on sex workers’ right" (1999)
I suggest that the proposals for defining absence of consent contained in the recent Command Paper, Protecting the Public (2002) are appropriate in the context of sex work, i.e. where the victimIt is a simple straightforward definition which sounds very obvious and for a very long time I basically had nothing against it… until you know more and when you find out that often things are not that simple.
•was subject to force or the fear of force
•was subject to threats or fear of serious harm or serious detriment to themselves or another person
•was abducted or unlawfully detained
•was unconscious
•was unable to communicate by reason of physical disability
•had agreement given for them by a third party.
For instance, at first when I heard about forced prostitution the only image I had was of an innocent victim who didn’t know what was awaiting her, who didn’t know she would be doing prostitution and who was violently forced to do this work. Slowly you begin to realize that actually most who are “forced” into prostitution actually knew what kind of work they would be doing, up to the point of where some even might argue if they are forced into prostitution in the first place, they consented didn’t they? And the second thing of all is that evidence also suggests that not all human traffickers use violence (see the fourth report of the Dutch National rapporteur" [2005] on page 17).
Clearly the definition is not so straightforward as it may seem. Also the definition of violence is not so straightforward; what is exactly violence? Is limiting someone’s movements violence?
And what if the human trafficker uses the duty the victim feels to pay off large debts by working in prostitution? And what if the third person threatens to spread nude pictures of the victim? Or what if the third person threatens to reveal the victim works in prostitution?
And, you could quite easily create a gradual scale from “voluntary” to “forced”. In that case it is also impossible to count victims of forced prostitution in case you want to. In that case it is also very difficult to decide as a client who is the voluntary prostitute.
It’s also interesting that Hilary Kinnell comes up with additional “tests”:
I argue that absence of “choice”, like absence of consent, could be defined by certain tests, such as whether sheThe last two tests are funny because those are not covered by the original definition. What if the prostitute “consents” in not refusing certain customers and sexual activities? What if she “consents” in having her personal documentation removed?
•was deceived about the nature of the work
•was subject to violence or threats of violence against herself or her family
•was drugged
•was abducted or imprisoned
•had personal documentation removed (e.g. passport)
•was unable to refuse certain customers or sexual activities
You might also wonder if force by circumstances could be included. But in that case basically every person that performs labour is force, because if you don’t work you don’t make money so you can’t make a living. That’s also what Hilary Kinnell puts forward:
Everyone can only choose their occupations and way of life within highly constraining circumstances: the economic and social conditions of ones family, community and country, as well as individual abilities and psychology. Few people in any occupation can claim completely free choice in how they earn their living, and sex workers may be more constrained than others in the level of choice they exercise. Because “choice” is not a fixed concept, it is easy to argue that any sex worker did not make a “free choice” to be involved in the business, that she was “forced” by poverty, by psychological factors, by societal expectations, etc.That’s true, but what if the third person indirectly uses poverty or circumstances to force somebody into prostitution?
And what if a person absolutely hates the work and gets emotionally traumatized by it? Isn’t that a form a sexual abuse if you would use the sexual services of this person?
And what about drug addicted prostitutes? Is it okay as a client to use the services of these women? If you would use the extra tests of Hilary Kinnell then the answer would mean NO, in case the person uses the drugs at the moment of performing the sexual service. That’s interesting because there are some reports that some clients together with the prostitute use drugs (see the Dutch “escort in Amsterdam” report [1999] or the book “Callgirl” [2005] by Jeannette Angell).
Some very difficult questions altogether. The matter is obviously trivial when direct violence is used, but beyond that things are not that simple. There’s no solution.
For the record, some additional definitions of human trafficking:
See “third report of the national rapporteur on human trafficking”, page 153. She translates (in 30 January 2001) article 250a of the Dutch penal code:
Section 1From the PROTOCOL TO PREVENT, SUPPRESS AND PUNISH TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS, ESPECIALLY WOMEN AND CHILDREN, SUPPLEMENTING THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION AGAINST TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME (2000)
Any person who:
1. by force or some other physical act, by threats of violence or of any other physical act, by misuse of authority arising from the actual state of affairs or by deception, induces another person to make him/herself available for the performance of sexual acts with a third party for remuneration or, under the said circumstances, takes any action which he or she knows or may reasonably be expected to know will result in that other person's making him/herself available for performing those acts;
2. recruits, takes with him or her or abducts a person with a view to inducing that person to make him/herself available for performing sexual acts with a third party for remuneration in another country;
3. induces another person to make him/herself available for performing sexual acts with a third party for remuneration or takes any action which he or she knows or may reasonably be expected to know will result in that other person making him/herself available for performing those acts when the other person is a minor;
4. wilfully profits from sexual acts of another person with a third party for remuneration, while he or she knows or must reasonably assume that that other person is making him/herself available for performing those acts under the circumstances referred to in paragraph 1;
5. wilfully profits from sexual acts of another person with a third party for a remuneration, if the other person is a minor;
6. forces another person by violence or some other physical act or threat of violence or other physical act or by misuse of authority arising from the actual state of affairs or by deception to benefit him or her from the proceeds of his or her sexual acts with a third party. shall be guilty of trafficking in persons and as such liable to a term of imprisonment not exceeding six years and a fifth category fine, or either of these penalties.
Section 2
The following offences shall be punishable with a term of imprisonment not exceeding eight years and a fifth category fine or either of these penalties:
1. trafficking in persons by two or more persons acting in concert;
2. trafficking in persons in respect of a person who is under the age of sixteen;
3. trafficking in persons if force or some other physical act as referred to in paragraph 1 results in serious physical injury.
Section 3
Trafficking in persons by two or more persons acting in concert under the circumstances referred to in section 2, paragraph 2 or 3, shall be punishable by a term of imprisonment not exceeding ten years and a fifth category fine or either of these penalties.
Article 3These definitions are quite extensive aren’t they? That also emphasizes that this issue is not that simple.
Use of terms
For the purposes of this Protocol:
(a) “Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;
(b) The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) have been used;
(c) The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in persons” even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article;
(d) “Child” shall mean any person under eighteen years of age.
But..... you could discuss about the definition of forced prostitutes; from the viewpoint of clients things are simpler. In my opinion every single violation of a person's physical integrity, however small, is rape. So even a "light" case of a brothel owner who subtly forces a prostitute to have sex with a client - like giving her fines for not entering the brothel on time or for refusing clients - I view as "coercion". So in that case it would be better as a client to avoid using the sexual services of such a prostitute, even if she is not a "victim of human trafficking" according to a certain definition.
Main
Monday, May 28, 2007
New numbers
Main
The Dutch Foundation against Trafficking in Women has released new numbers over the whole year of 2006 (see www.mensenhandel.nl in 'cijfers t/m 2006').
It is interesting that contrary to earlier years they also registered the sector where victims worked. The numbers (in case of prostitution) are like this (the total number of victims in 2006 was 579 of whom 30 were men):
124 (21,5%) : Brothel/club
66 (11,5%) : window prostitution
47 (8,1%) : Privéhuis **
44 (7,6%) : Street prostitution
30 (5,2%) : Escort
**: A privéhuis is a brothel without a bar, clients are directly introduced to the prostitutes
Also some 4,9% of the cases involved sectors other than prostitution. In the remaining cases (41%) the sector was probably unknown (the foundation is unclear about that).
Funny thing is that in these new numbers the clubs and privéhuizen are 2,6 times more often involved than window prostitution, that was totally unexpected for me. An old theory can be thrown into the dustbin. Probably human trafficking is not relatively more often involved in window prostitution than in other sectors of prostitution as I thought it would be (my estimate is that as a whole prostitution in clubs and privéhuizen is 2,5 times larger than in window prostitution, so compare that to the 2,6).
Main
The Dutch Foundation against Trafficking in Women has released new numbers over the whole year of 2006 (see www.mensenhandel.nl in 'cijfers t/m 2006').
It is interesting that contrary to earlier years they also registered the sector where victims worked. The numbers (in case of prostitution) are like this (the total number of victims in 2006 was 579 of whom 30 were men):
124 (21,5%) : Brothel/club
66 (11,5%) : window prostitution
47 (8,1%) : Privéhuis **
44 (7,6%) : Street prostitution
30 (5,2%) : Escort
**: A privéhuis is a brothel without a bar, clients are directly introduced to the prostitutes
Also some 4,9% of the cases involved sectors other than prostitution. In the remaining cases (41%) the sector was probably unknown (the foundation is unclear about that).
Funny thing is that in these new numbers the clubs and privéhuizen are 2,6 times more often involved than window prostitution, that was totally unexpected for me. An old theory can be thrown into the dustbin. Probably human trafficking is not relatively more often involved in window prostitution than in other sectors of prostitution as I thought it would be (my estimate is that as a whole prostitution in clubs and privéhuizen is 2,5 times larger than in window prostitution, so compare that to the 2,6).
Main
Monday, May 21, 2007
Surprise - part 3.....
Main
(translated from Dutch, AD, Saturday, May 19th, 2007)
http://www.ad.nl/denhaag/stad/article1382614.ece
‘A man Works for me’
By Leo van der Velde and Coen van Kranenburg
THE HAGUE – the window prostitution in de Geleenstraat and de Doubletstraat is not amused. To express it properly.
According to all those involved these streets are wrongly involved in the ‘rock-hard’ fact that nationwide three quarters of the prostitutes are exploited and many are victims of human trafficking. That high percentage is named in publications by Hague vice inspectors as well as their colleagues at the Nationale Recherche [criminal investigation department].
“We always first go with the ladies, who want to hire a window at us, to the police. They are then interrogated if they are forced,” say owners of the three window rental companies Termsma, Joyce and Peet, who have the largest segment of the prostitution premises in their possession. “The ladies have ample opportunity to separately make a statement. It is better to ask the ladies themselves. Or don’t they have a voice?”
Ruby (35), a Dominican who works in one of the passages on number 2, smiles gaily. “I work for nobody. Yes, for my children.” The Spanish prostitute Antonia (35) on number 8 and her colleague Estella (number 4) say practically the same. Clarissa (number 15) – little nurse dress on a hanger – as well. The same is true for the 25 year old Ingrid and – a window further – the six Spanish-speaking ladies, big and small, fat and thin, on number 40. Roars with laughter come up if we let the interpreter ask if they work for a chulo (Spanish for pimp). Edith, Rosa, Norma, Rina and Carmen put up their middle finger. Edith clenches her fist. “You police talk with all of us. We work for our families. To work forced by a man? Tsss, a man works for me.”
Same reactions on de Geleenstraat. Asha on number 2 and – a door further – Unai shake their heads. Marja, who manages several windows for window proprietors, says that one carefully watches if the female renters appear on the workplace with slammed-shut eyes or bruises. Also Ka, a pretty Chinese, says to know nothing.
Finally on number 130 Anastasia and Domenique sit behind a window. No, say the ladies, we don’t work for a bloke.
Not only the reports that maltreatment and exploitation are everyday practices also in The Hague have created bad blood. Also the statements of the national vice inspectors that prostitutes suffer big blows when they don’t earn thousands of euros per week, are referred to the land of fables.
An anonymous source from the prostitution industry does acknowledge that there is forced labour. Mainly girls of Dutch and Bulgarian descent are thought to be involved, who have become the victims of loverboys. This source estimates that between five and fifteen percent are involved. “But even if it was only a percentage, that’s still too many.”
Spokesperson Wim Hoonhout of the police also speaks of worrying circumstances. “We signal a grave situation, where a large segment of the prostitutes in the region are victims of human trafficking.”
Main
(translated from Dutch, AD, Saturday, May 19th, 2007)
http://www.ad.nl/denhaag/stad/article1382614.ece
‘A man Works for me’
By Leo van der Velde and Coen van Kranenburg
THE HAGUE – the window prostitution in de Geleenstraat and de Doubletstraat is not amused. To express it properly.
According to all those involved these streets are wrongly involved in the ‘rock-hard’ fact that nationwide three quarters of the prostitutes are exploited and many are victims of human trafficking. That high percentage is named in publications by Hague vice inspectors as well as their colleagues at the Nationale Recherche [criminal investigation department].
“We always first go with the ladies, who want to hire a window at us, to the police. They are then interrogated if they are forced,” say owners of the three window rental companies Termsma, Joyce and Peet, who have the largest segment of the prostitution premises in their possession. “The ladies have ample opportunity to separately make a statement. It is better to ask the ladies themselves. Or don’t they have a voice?”
Ruby (35), a Dominican who works in one of the passages on number 2, smiles gaily. “I work for nobody. Yes, for my children.” The Spanish prostitute Antonia (35) on number 8 and her colleague Estella (number 4) say practically the same. Clarissa (number 15) – little nurse dress on a hanger – as well. The same is true for the 25 year old Ingrid and – a window further – the six Spanish-speaking ladies, big and small, fat and thin, on number 40. Roars with laughter come up if we let the interpreter ask if they work for a chulo (Spanish for pimp). Edith, Rosa, Norma, Rina and Carmen put up their middle finger. Edith clenches her fist. “You police talk with all of us. We work for our families. To work forced by a man? Tsss, a man works for me.”
Same reactions on de Geleenstraat. Asha on number 2 and – a door further – Unai shake their heads. Marja, who manages several windows for window proprietors, says that one carefully watches if the female renters appear on the workplace with slammed-shut eyes or bruises. Also Ka, a pretty Chinese, says to know nothing.
Finally on number 130 Anastasia and Domenique sit behind a window. No, say the ladies, we don’t work for a bloke.
Not only the reports that maltreatment and exploitation are everyday practices also in The Hague have created bad blood. Also the statements of the national vice inspectors that prostitutes suffer big blows when they don’t earn thousands of euros per week, are referred to the land of fables.
An anonymous source from the prostitution industry does acknowledge that there is forced labour. Mainly girls of Dutch and Bulgarian descent are thought to be involved, who have become the victims of loverboys. This source estimates that between five and fifteen percent are involved. “But even if it was only a percentage, that’s still too many.”
Spokesperson Wim Hoonhout of the police also speaks of worrying circumstances. “We signal a grave situation, where a large segment of the prostitutes in the region are victims of human trafficking.”
Main
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Surprise - part 2!!!!!
Main
I don’t know what to believe. Pick and choose what you like. There’s a new Volkskrant article written by Menno van Dongen ("reportage Mistanden in de prostitutie - Gevangen achter het raam" ["report - abuses in prostitution - Imprisoned behind the window"](Volkskrant, Menno van Dongen, May 5th 2007), May 5fth, 2007). Some quotes:
(…) For six weeks the Volkskrant followed specialists of the Dutch police who are doing research into a violent gang of human traffickers. During the last years this gang forced at least 90 women to work against their will behind the windows of Amsterdam, Alkmaar, Utrecht and The Hague. The women were guarded by bodyguards and were being maltreated in a horrendous way.
‘This organization is only the tip of the iceberg’, according to Jan van Til, teamleader of the Unit Noord- en Oost Nederland of the Nationale Recherche [criminal investigation department].
‘There are more of these sort of organizations’, according to Henk Werson, national co-coordinator human trafficking at the police. ‘Many prostitutes are forced to earn thousands of euros per week by their pimp and are maltreated if they don’t achieve that.’ (…)
‘In the Hague roughly 70 percent of the window prostitutes are victims of human trafficking’, says 33 year old vice investigator Anita. She has worked [and still works] for years for the Ploeg Commerciële Zeden [team commercial vice] and started her career as a local policeman on the tippelzone.
‘Many women are victims, but don’t know that themselves, or they don’t want to know.’, states the inspector [Anita]. ‘For them it’s a big step to acknowledge they have been tricked, for instance, through a loverboy method. They feel ashamed, are scared or believe they are in love with their pimp.’ (…)
Most vice investigators have been trained by Henk Werson, specialist in the area of victims of human trafficking. He works at he Expertisecentrum Mensenhandel en Mensensmokkel [expert centre human trafficking and people smuggling] in Zwolle, a division of the National Recherche. In addition Werson is national co-coordinator human trafficking at the police; he describes himself as the ‘driver and advisor’ of the team that researchers the activities of the brothers B. [the gang which exploited at least 90 women] and their accomplices.
According to Werson only a few window prostitutes satisfy the ideal picture of the woman who enters the profession voluntarily, doesn’t have to hand over money and can choose for herself when she works and which clients she takes. ‘That’s true for only 1 or 2 percent of the prostitutes. And then there are the women who have worked against their will for so long, that they got used to the profession. They are not forced but think that they can’t do anything else.’
But still a large majority of the prostitutes say they entered their profession voluntarily, according to a recent report by the Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek- en Documentatiecentrum (WODC, scientific research and documentation centre) of the ministry of justice (they mean this report: Evaluatie opheffing bordeelverbod; de sociale positie van prostituees 2006). Werson says that the testimonies of the prostitutes are unreliable on this issue. ‘They will nearly all deny that they are forced, even if that is the case. In all kinds of researches it turns out that at least between 70 and 80 percent of the women don’t do this work voluntarily [I've actually never seen such a report]. That’s also what we hear from ex-prostitutes.’
The police-expert states that many women have good reasons to keep silent about compulsion. ‘Many prostitutes are maltreated, threatened or charmed by a pimp. Some maybe started voluntarily, but what you often see, is that quickly a pimp shows up who says: if you don’t give me your earnings, I will tell your family that you are in the profession. Then you have a problem, because prostitution is still taboo.’ (…)
Dutch women are often charmed by pimps who try to make girls dependent on them, says Henk Werson, the human trafficking specialist of the police. Many people call such pimps loverboys, but that word we never use at the police, because it’s being romanticized. They are ruthless human traffickers, who use a sort of loverboy-method: they approach vulnerable girls, promise them everything and try to make them fall in love. When that is achieved, they are being put to work in prostitution and are isolated from family and friends. To stop is then almost impossible.
‘What you often see with foreign women, is that their family is threatened, or that they are brought to the Netherlands by human traffickers and thereafter have to pay off a huge, large fictive debt for the journey’, according to the police expert. ‘The interest percentage is mostly so huge, that they never can relieve their debt. Many women hardly complain, because they can make a lot more money here than in their own country. Still you can speak of exploitation.’ (…)
I repeat, I don’t know what to believe anymore. For instance, the articles talks about 70 percent of the window prostitutes in The Hague who are forced. That’s also what a client told me on a forum. Funny is that Paul van Gelder (one of the contributors on one of the recent WODC-reports, the one about 'Verboden bordelen; evaluatie opheffing bordeelverbod: niet-legale prostitutie' in which he researched the situation in Amsterdam) has also done fieldwork in The Hague in the recent past and he said to me that many prostitutes who work there are independent!!!! But, he also gave me the advice to go into the prostitution neighbourhoods and observe the prostitutes when they have their lunch-brake. If you see them sit with each other having a lunch, then according to van Gelder, they are independent. He probably assumes that all forced prostitutes are monitered 24 hours a day, which could explain why he believes many window prostitutes in The Hague are independent.
Main
I don’t know what to believe. Pick and choose what you like. There’s a new Volkskrant article written by Menno van Dongen ("reportage Mistanden in de prostitutie - Gevangen achter het raam" ["report - abuses in prostitution - Imprisoned behind the window"](Volkskrant, Menno van Dongen, May 5th 2007), May 5fth, 2007). Some quotes:
(…) For six weeks the Volkskrant followed specialists of the Dutch police who are doing research into a violent gang of human traffickers. During the last years this gang forced at least 90 women to work against their will behind the windows of Amsterdam, Alkmaar, Utrecht and The Hague. The women were guarded by bodyguards and were being maltreated in a horrendous way.
‘This organization is only the tip of the iceberg’, according to Jan van Til, teamleader of the Unit Noord- en Oost Nederland of the Nationale Recherche [criminal investigation department].
‘There are more of these sort of organizations’, according to Henk Werson, national co-coordinator human trafficking at the police. ‘Many prostitutes are forced to earn thousands of euros per week by their pimp and are maltreated if they don’t achieve that.’ (…)
‘In the Hague roughly 70 percent of the window prostitutes are victims of human trafficking’, says 33 year old vice investigator Anita. She has worked [and still works] for years for the Ploeg Commerciële Zeden [team commercial vice] and started her career as a local policeman on the tippelzone.
‘Many women are victims, but don’t know that themselves, or they don’t want to know.’, states the inspector [Anita]. ‘For them it’s a big step to acknowledge they have been tricked, for instance, through a loverboy method. They feel ashamed, are scared or believe they are in love with their pimp.’ (…)
Most vice investigators have been trained by Henk Werson, specialist in the area of victims of human trafficking. He works at he Expertisecentrum Mensenhandel en Mensensmokkel [expert centre human trafficking and people smuggling] in Zwolle, a division of the National Recherche. In addition Werson is national co-coordinator human trafficking at the police; he describes himself as the ‘driver and advisor’ of the team that researchers the activities of the brothers B. [the gang which exploited at least 90 women] and their accomplices.
According to Werson only a few window prostitutes satisfy the ideal picture of the woman who enters the profession voluntarily, doesn’t have to hand over money and can choose for herself when she works and which clients she takes. ‘That’s true for only 1 or 2 percent of the prostitutes. And then there are the women who have worked against their will for so long, that they got used to the profession. They are not forced but think that they can’t do anything else.’
But still a large majority of the prostitutes say they entered their profession voluntarily, according to a recent report by the Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek- en Documentatiecentrum (WODC, scientific research and documentation centre) of the ministry of justice (they mean this report: Evaluatie opheffing bordeelverbod; de sociale positie van prostituees 2006). Werson says that the testimonies of the prostitutes are unreliable on this issue. ‘They will nearly all deny that they are forced, even if that is the case. In all kinds of researches it turns out that at least between 70 and 80 percent of the women don’t do this work voluntarily [I've actually never seen such a report]. That’s also what we hear from ex-prostitutes.’
The police-expert states that many women have good reasons to keep silent about compulsion. ‘Many prostitutes are maltreated, threatened or charmed by a pimp. Some maybe started voluntarily, but what you often see, is that quickly a pimp shows up who says: if you don’t give me your earnings, I will tell your family that you are in the profession. Then you have a problem, because prostitution is still taboo.’ (…)
Dutch women are often charmed by pimps who try to make girls dependent on them, says Henk Werson, the human trafficking specialist of the police. Many people call such pimps loverboys, but that word we never use at the police, because it’s being romanticized. They are ruthless human traffickers, who use a sort of loverboy-method: they approach vulnerable girls, promise them everything and try to make them fall in love. When that is achieved, they are being put to work in prostitution and are isolated from family and friends. To stop is then almost impossible.
‘What you often see with foreign women, is that their family is threatened, or that they are brought to the Netherlands by human traffickers and thereafter have to pay off a huge, large fictive debt for the journey’, according to the police expert. ‘The interest percentage is mostly so huge, that they never can relieve their debt. Many women hardly complain, because they can make a lot more money here than in their own country. Still you can speak of exploitation.’ (…)
I repeat, I don’t know what to believe anymore. For instance, the articles talks about 70 percent of the window prostitutes in The Hague who are forced. That’s also what a client told me on a forum. Funny is that Paul van Gelder (one of the contributors on one of the recent WODC-reports, the one about 'Verboden bordelen; evaluatie opheffing bordeelverbod: niet-legale prostitutie' in which he researched the situation in Amsterdam) has also done fieldwork in The Hague in the recent past and he said to me that many prostitutes who work there are independent!!!! But, he also gave me the advice to go into the prostitution neighbourhoods and observe the prostitutes when they have their lunch-brake. If you see them sit with each other having a lunch, then according to van Gelder, they are independent. He probably assumes that all forced prostitutes are monitered 24 hours a day, which could explain why he believes many window prostitutes in The Hague are independent.
Main
Monday, April 30, 2007
Surprise!!
Main
Sometimes I believe we live in the twilight zone.
The government has released new reports which study the effect of the lifting on the ban of pimping (all released in 2007, research done in 2006):
Evaluatie opheffing bordeelverbod; gemeentelijk beleid
Evaluatie opheffing bordeelverbod; de sociale positie van prostituees 2006
Verboden bordelen; evaluatie opheffing bordeelverbod: niet-legale prostitutie
Prostitutie in Nederland na opheffing van het bordeelverbod
(NOTE: all the reports are in Dutch but also contain very lengthy summaries in English)
The reports are actually surprising. Lets focus on one of those reports: Evaluatie opheffing bordeelverbod; de sociale positie van prostituees 2006 (‘Evaluation lifting brothel ban; The social position of prostitutes 2006’). It is basically the follow up of another report ("De sociale positie van prostituees in de gereguleerde bedrijven een jaar na de wetswijziging”) (2002) ['The social position of prostitutes in the regulated businesses one year after the amendment'] .
Both reports show several surprising results. Many prostitutes (several hundreds in both reports) are interviewed and asked about things like their emotional well-being or how much freedom they have to choose clients. At first I didn’t take the first report (2002) too serious because I doubted if it represented the general population of prostitutes in the licensed sex businesses. The researchers approached the prostitutes directly and asked for a long interview and my guess was that victims of human trafficking would not have been particularly eager to participate. But also because most brothels simply didn’t cooperate. The researchers were also vague about response of the prostitutes. They just say that per brothel approached 2,1 prostitutes wanted to cooperate (of an estimated 5 or 6 prostitutes per brothel).
But the latter report is clearer (page 9). 34% of the approached businesses cooperated. Of the non response 28% was “objective”, that means the businesses were not contacted, or the telephone wasn’t answered, the telephone number didn’t exist, the business was discontinued or they didn’t open the door. There was a “subjective” non response of 38%. In these businesses prostitutes or proprietors were contacted but it didn’t result in an interview. In half of these cases it concerned a prostitute who didn’t want to cooperate because she didn’t feel the need to. In a quarter of these case proprietors didn’t feel the need to (and therefore also decided over the participation of the prostitutes). In the last quarter of the cases the prostitutes or the proprietors said they had no time. But what’s important is that the researchers stressed that [when] the researchers were allowed to enter a brothel, the prostitutes easily cooperated and they noticed no interference of the brothel owners, except for window prostitutes who often didn’t speak the proper language.
This time a lot of foreign born prostitutes were interviewed (page 8): 60%, among them also many Latin Americans (18%), Eastern Europeans (9%) and Thai women (5%). The prostitutes were also old (page 7), almost half were thirty years or older. Many escorts were very young (which corroborates with my own findings), almost 30% of the escort-prostitutes were 18 or 19. Also funny is that in this study the average period that the prostitutes have worked in prostitution is 2,3 years(page 17), this is much shorter than in the previous study which was 5,1 years (page 11).
The results are peculiar at best when you compare them with other observations (such as lots of accounts of forced prostitution, excessive us of drugs, bad labour conditions, low sexual self determination etc…, see the rest of my blog) Of the interviewed prostitutes 8% (27 of 343, see page 13/14) indicated they were forced. Here the researchers are vague, they say that a section of this group were initially forced and then started to work independently, but they are unfortunately not clear about how many prostitutes they actually interviewed who were still forced at the moment they were interviewed.
A very important result is that ‘only’ 17% said they entered prostitution because of debts (page 13). Other reasons were ‘better earnings, career switch, only way’ (27%), ‘extras, quick money’ (11%), ‘excitement’! (12%), and ‘other (cosiness and attention)’ (3%).
Also, in this report the distress levels are lower than of Dutch people in general!! This result is similar to the earlier report (page 48-49).
As I said before, I didn’t take the earlier report very serious, but because of the new report I doubt. These reports knock over three very important assumptions about prostitution in general. The first is that prostitutes enter prostitution because of poverty. The second is that there’s a relation between prostitution and post traumatic stress (like put forward by Melissa Farley in ‘Prostitution, Violence and Post-Traumatic Stress disorder’[1998]). The third is that there's a strong relation been prostitution and drug use (only 5% indicates to regularly use harddrugs in both reports). And the fourth is that there's a strong relation between prostitution and human trafficking. And regarding the last point, why did the researchers encounter so very few victims of this crime?
There’s also another report: Verboden bordelen; evaluatie opheffing bordeelverbod: niet-legale prostitutie [‘Forbidden brothels; evaluation liften brothel ban: non-legal prostitution’]. Main conclusions: the supply and demand has dropped (page 96-97), the variety in nationalities has decreased (page 97), the laws are not very clear for prostitutes and proprietors (page 97-98), the non licensed segment of the prostitution industry seems to be small (page 98-100), prostitution by minors seems to be rare - also in the non-licensed segment of prostitution (page 100-101), the number of illegal prostitutes seems to have dropped (page 101), signals of forced prostitution and exploitation have rarely been encountered (page 102) and the awareness of proprietors and clients about involuntariness, exploitation and exploitation has increased (page 102-103).
These researchers stress that many involved in prostitution state that for instance many Russian have disappeared into the ‘illegal circuit’ but cannot indicate what constitutes the illegal circuit (page 103). The conclusion of the researchers is that the ‘illegal circuit’ doesn’t exist to a large extent.
Heyyyy, maybe the ‘quest’ for the ‘voluntary’ prostitute is solved. This is beginning to look like the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Maybe the truth is that THERE ARE NO FORCED PROSTITUTES in the Netherlands!!!! (okay don’t exaggerate) But still, this is in total contradiction with other sources. I need a lot of conspiracy theories to solve this problem.
Really, I’m scratching my head. That's because a couple of months ago actually a large gang of human traffickers has been rounded up which has exploited at least a 100 prostitutes in the window brothels of Amsterdam, Utrecht and Alkmaar. No signals? And why have the researchers not interviewed these women?
Main
Sometimes I believe we live in the twilight zone.
The government has released new reports which study the effect of the lifting on the ban of pimping (all released in 2007, research done in 2006):
Evaluatie opheffing bordeelverbod; gemeentelijk beleid
Evaluatie opheffing bordeelverbod; de sociale positie van prostituees 2006
Verboden bordelen; evaluatie opheffing bordeelverbod: niet-legale prostitutie
Prostitutie in Nederland na opheffing van het bordeelverbod
(NOTE: all the reports are in Dutch but also contain very lengthy summaries in English)
The reports are actually surprising. Lets focus on one of those reports: Evaluatie opheffing bordeelverbod; de sociale positie van prostituees 2006 (‘Evaluation lifting brothel ban; The social position of prostitutes 2006’). It is basically the follow up of another report ("De sociale positie van prostituees in de gereguleerde bedrijven een jaar na de wetswijziging”) (2002) ['The social position of prostitutes in the regulated businesses one year after the amendment'] .
Both reports show several surprising results. Many prostitutes (several hundreds in both reports) are interviewed and asked about things like their emotional well-being or how much freedom they have to choose clients. At first I didn’t take the first report (2002) too serious because I doubted if it represented the general population of prostitutes in the licensed sex businesses. The researchers approached the prostitutes directly and asked for a long interview and my guess was that victims of human trafficking would not have been particularly eager to participate. But also because most brothels simply didn’t cooperate. The researchers were also vague about response of the prostitutes. They just say that per brothel approached 2,1 prostitutes wanted to cooperate (of an estimated 5 or 6 prostitutes per brothel).
But the latter report is clearer (page 9). 34% of the approached businesses cooperated. Of the non response 28% was “objective”, that means the businesses were not contacted, or the telephone wasn’t answered, the telephone number didn’t exist, the business was discontinued or they didn’t open the door. There was a “subjective” non response of 38%. In these businesses prostitutes or proprietors were contacted but it didn’t result in an interview. In half of these cases it concerned a prostitute who didn’t want to cooperate because she didn’t feel the need to. In a quarter of these case proprietors didn’t feel the need to (and therefore also decided over the participation of the prostitutes). In the last quarter of the cases the prostitutes or the proprietors said they had no time. But what’s important is that the researchers stressed that [when] the researchers were allowed to enter a brothel, the prostitutes easily cooperated and they noticed no interference of the brothel owners, except for window prostitutes who often didn’t speak the proper language.
This time a lot of foreign born prostitutes were interviewed (page 8): 60%, among them also many Latin Americans (18%), Eastern Europeans (9%) and Thai women (5%). The prostitutes were also old (page 7), almost half were thirty years or older. Many escorts were very young (which corroborates with my own findings), almost 30% of the escort-prostitutes were 18 or 19. Also funny is that in this study the average period that the prostitutes have worked in prostitution is 2,3 years(page 17), this is much shorter than in the previous study which was 5,1 years (page 11).
The results are peculiar at best when you compare them with other observations (such as lots of accounts of forced prostitution, excessive us of drugs, bad labour conditions, low sexual self determination etc…, see the rest of my blog) Of the interviewed prostitutes 8% (27 of 343, see page 13/14) indicated they were forced. Here the researchers are vague, they say that a section of this group were initially forced and then started to work independently, but they are unfortunately not clear about how many prostitutes they actually interviewed who were still forced at the moment they were interviewed.
A very important result is that ‘only’ 17% said they entered prostitution because of debts (page 13). Other reasons were ‘better earnings, career switch, only way’ (27%), ‘extras, quick money’ (11%), ‘excitement’! (12%), and ‘other (cosiness and attention)’ (3%).
Also, in this report the distress levels are lower than of Dutch people in general!! This result is similar to the earlier report (page 48-49).
As I said before, I didn’t take the earlier report very serious, but because of the new report I doubt. These reports knock over three very important assumptions about prostitution in general. The first is that prostitutes enter prostitution because of poverty. The second is that there’s a relation between prostitution and post traumatic stress (like put forward by Melissa Farley in ‘Prostitution, Violence and Post-Traumatic Stress disorder’[1998]). The third is that there's a strong relation been prostitution and drug use (only 5% indicates to regularly use harddrugs in both reports). And the fourth is that there's a strong relation between prostitution and human trafficking. And regarding the last point, why did the researchers encounter so very few victims of this crime?
There’s also another report: Verboden bordelen; evaluatie opheffing bordeelverbod: niet-legale prostitutie [‘Forbidden brothels; evaluation liften brothel ban: non-legal prostitution’]. Main conclusions: the supply and demand has dropped (page 96-97), the variety in nationalities has decreased (page 97), the laws are not very clear for prostitutes and proprietors (page 97-98), the non licensed segment of the prostitution industry seems to be small (page 98-100), prostitution by minors seems to be rare - also in the non-licensed segment of prostitution (page 100-101), the number of illegal prostitutes seems to have dropped (page 101), signals of forced prostitution and exploitation have rarely been encountered (page 102) and the awareness of proprietors and clients about involuntariness, exploitation and exploitation has increased (page 102-103).
These researchers stress that many involved in prostitution state that for instance many Russian have disappeared into the ‘illegal circuit’ but cannot indicate what constitutes the illegal circuit (page 103). The conclusion of the researchers is that the ‘illegal circuit’ doesn’t exist to a large extent.
Heyyyy, maybe the ‘quest’ for the ‘voluntary’ prostitute is solved. This is beginning to look like the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Maybe the truth is that THERE ARE NO FORCED PROSTITUTES in the Netherlands!!!! (okay don’t exaggerate) But still, this is in total contradiction with other sources. I need a lot of conspiracy theories to solve this problem.
Really, I’m scratching my head. That's because a couple of months ago actually a large gang of human traffickers has been rounded up which has exploited at least a 100 prostitutes in the window brothels of Amsterdam, Utrecht and Alkmaar. No signals? And why have the researchers not interviewed these women?
Main
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Updates
April 8th, 2007
Lately I've made some important updates. Especially in the posts about Eastern European prostitutes, the Latins Americans and the Africans. At last I found some specific details about the prostitutes from Poland and the Czech Republic.
See:
Eastern European prostitutes
Thai prostitutes
Latin American prostitutes
African prostitutes
I'm wondering if I should announce every update, especially when you notice that the traffic on my website is very low.
Lately I've made some important updates. Especially in the posts about Eastern European prostitutes, the Latins Americans and the Africans. At last I found some specific details about the prostitutes from Poland and the Czech Republic.
See:
Eastern European prostitutes
Thai prostitutes
Latin American prostitutes
African prostitutes
I'm wondering if I should announce every update, especially when you notice that the traffic on my website is very low.
Monday, March 05, 2007
Dutch prostitutes, drugs and labour conditions
Main
I actually wanted to make a post specifically about Dutch prostitutes, but actually, there's not much information specifically about Dutch prostitutes. Often Dutch prostitutes are described alongside the foreign women as if they were one group. That's why I took some other subjects and melted it into this one post. I will actually go deeper into other questions which I ignored at first because they now come forward when you dig deeper. For instance, how many prostitutes actually do use drugs? And how are the labour conditions really?? It seems that the answers to these questions are as contradictory as to the question how many prostitutes are forced.
I start with some quotes from the report:
Achter de ramen, veldwerk onder raamprostituees in Groningen, een verslag van het project Vertrouwensvrouw migrantenprostitutie 1997-1998, by Liesbeth Venicz (1998) [“Behind the windows, fieldwork among window prostitutes in Groningen, a report of the project Confidence-woman migrant prostitutes 1997-1998] She spoke with 21 Dutch prostitutes. Also 2 Belgian women, 5 German, 1 Spanish and 1 Italian woman (among many others).
(translated from Dutch)
page 3:
(translated from Dutch)
(translated from Dutch)
(translated from Dutch)
page 22:
Interesting is that one window prostitute said that on de Wallen forced prostitutes are concentrated in certain alleys. She named the Dollebegijnensteeg, Trompettersteeg, Sint Annendwarsstraat and de Stoofsteeg. The last alley was according to her also known as the 'pooiersteeg'(pimp alley). A certain café in that alley is known to be a gathering place for pimps. It is very interesting what she said because I asked another prostitute who was forced where she was forced, and indeed, she was forced in these alleys (except the Stoofsteeg). What she saw was that indeed 75-80% are forced. It's also funny that the last prostitute I visited and who said many girls who work there have a pimp worked in the Dollebegijnensteeg (at least that's what I figured out where she worked). Also the notorious Turkish human trafficking operated in these alleys. In an article in Het Parool some of the alleys are mentioned. Search on www.parool.nl for the article: "Turks-Duits netwerk bediende zich van grof geweld" [Turkish-German network used excessive violence], September 7th 2007, a quote (translated from Dutch):
Frank Bovenkerk is of the opinion - see his report about Loverboys and modern pimps - that pimps and human traffickers in general work predominantly in window prostitution.
According to Essy van Dijk probably most of the prostitutes, foreign as well as Dutch, legal as well as illegal prostitutes are exploited and are therefore victims of human trafficking:
Mensenhandel in Nederland 1997-2000 [Human trafficking in the Netherlands 1997-2000] (2002, Essy van Dijk)
(translated from Dutch)
on page 21:
64% window prostitution
20% clubs/brothels/privé-huizen
18% street-prostitution
12% prostitution in an apartment (usually that of the pimp)
10% escort
What immediately becomes clear is the heavy overrepresentation of window prostitution. It most be borne in mind that only a small percentage of the Dutch prostitutes work in this type of prostitution. That could mean that Frank Bovenkerk is right when he refers to window prostitution as the place where most of the pimping occurs, at least in the case of Dutch prostitutes. This seems not to be true however for foreign prostitutes. For those prostitutes I find a distribution like this, for 84 cases I found:
36% window-prostitution
45% clubs/brothels/privé-huizen
16% street-prostitution
5% prostitution in an apartment
14% escort
The foreign victims are much more evenly distributed (okay now some calculations to clarify this. Official estimates for 1998/1999 are that 20% of the prostitutes works behind windows, 45% in clubs and brothels, 15% as escort, 5% at home, 5% on the street and 10% in other forms like massage parlours. My estimate from hookers.nl is that in the different sectors 70% of the window prostitutes are foreign, and in other forms this lies around 50% except for home-prostitution which is like 15%. That means the distribution of foreign prostitutes among the sectors must be roughly like this: 28% window prostitution, 42% clubs and brothels, 14% escort, 1.4% home, 4.7% street and 9% other).
BTW: the overrepresentation of Dutch victims in window prostitution seems to be a historical pattern. Already in the fifties and early sixties many known cases of pimping involved window prostitution. You can find that data in the book "De souteneur in het Nederlands strafrecht"["The pimp in Dutch law"](1964) by J.F. Hartsuiker (see table 20 on page 123). The data about pimps is from files from 1951-1961. He counted 184 files. 80 files (43%) were related to window prostitution, 55 (30%) to street prostitution, 30 (16%) to cafés, 13 (7%) to hotels or private houses, 3 (1,6%) to cars and 3 to unknown forms of prostitution. It has to be acknowledged however that actually the distribution over the different types of prostitution among prostitutes in general at that time is very unclear. It could be possible that the mentioned distribution of pimps reflects the general situation. For instance, he also separately analyzed the distribution over the different types of prostitution of 3 types of pimps: the exploiters (90 cases), the 'genommene' (passive pimps who were recruited by the prostitutes themselves) (37 cases), and others (57 cases). In present days the so-called 'genommene' pimps would likely never have been prosecuted. But for this group and 'the others' the relative involvement in window prostitution is even stronger than for the exploitive pimps, very typical. But lets go back to the present.
Also, Dutch victims of human trafficking nowadays are also exported to foreign countries, particularly Belgium, where they are put to work behind the windows of Antwerpen (Schipperskwartier). There seem to be a lot of them over there, like mentioned in an article in De Volkskrant (March 10th 2007, "Nederlandse meisjes voor prostitutie Antwerpen geronseld"["Dutch girls recruited for prostitution in Antwerpen"]). Of the 561 registered prostitutes in Antwerpen, 202 are Dutch. According to the local police most Dutch prostitutes have been recruited as minors by a loverboy, and were put to work there at the moment they were eighteen. I know two guys from a forum who live near that area (Schipperskwartier) and take a lot of evening walks out there. According to these persons many women who work there have a pimp. One of them estimates the percentage to be over 80 percent (which is peculiar because I can derive from hookers.nl that during ~2004-2006 a lot of somewhat older women work there, say 63% are older that 24 and 32% are older than 30, also true for the Dutch prostitutes). That's because he could see who brought and collected the women and how they treated the women.
Dutch forced prostitutes generally seem to be much younger than prostitutes in general.
I’ll show some numbers:
An age distribution of victims of loverboys in the 2004 report of the Dutch foundation against trafficking in women:
Jaarverslag 2004 - Stichting Tegen Vrouwenhandel
___________Age at recruitment____Age at report
____________(14 unknown)
10-14 _________2 (5%)
15-17 ________11 (30%) __________9 (18%)
18-23 ________24 (65%) _________36 (71%)
24-30 ________________________5 (10%)
31-40 ________________________1 (2%)
(the drawback in these statistics is that Dutch cases registered are generally reported by youth institutions and they typically work with people younger than 24)
I'll also show an age distribution of victims of loverboys in "Loverboys: Feiten en cijfers, een quick scan"(2005) [Loverboys, Facts and figures, a quick scan] by Anke van Dijke and Linda Terpstra, information is from trials:
0 - 17: 5(11%)
18-23: 30 (64%)
24-29: 8 (17%)
30-36: 4 (9%)
36-99: -
(the drawback in these numbers is that no information is given of the moment they had the ages mentioned)
Compare those number to a rough age distribution of Dutch prostitutes in general that I acquired from hookers.nl:
0-17: ???
18-23: 35%
24-29: 31%
30-39: 20%
40-99: 14%
Rarely the Dutch victims are older than 30 or even 25 (that’s also the opinion of Liesbeth Venicz), while the average age of Dutch prostitutes in general must be close to 30. Surely there must be some very old victims, one client of prostitutes mentioned to me that he knew two Dutch window prostitutes who worked for a Moroccan loverboy who were both older than 40.
This is confirmed by the cultural anthropologist Paul van Gelder who has studied Moroccan pimps. See: "De Wallen - Vriendjes en pooiers, wakaman en loverboys: nieuwe vormen van pooierschap" [De Wallen - boyfriends, wakaman and loverboys: new forms of pimphood] by Paul van Gelder in the book "Veranderingen van het alledaagse 1950-2000" [changes of the everyday 1950-2000] (2005, editors: Isabel Hoving, Hester Dibbits en Marlou Schrover):
page 299-300 (translated from Dutch):
This information is very important because that could mean that if a client would avoid the Dutch window prostitutes and would go to Dutch prostitutes who don't work in this type of prostitution and he would visit a somewhat older prostitute then the chance of encountering a forced prostitutes becomes very small.
But I’m wondering if these distributions I mentioned earlier actually reflect the reality. This should not be necessarily so. The samples might not have been random. For instance, those Dutch victims in window-prostitution might have a much bigger chance of coming forward in the media. Maybe the type of pimp per type of prostitution might be different. For instance, maybe those pimps in window-prostitution are more violent what could heavily increase the chance of these victims to come forward. That could also be true for younger victims. That’s why I need more information. What about eye-witness reports?
Lets look more carefully at numbers. Numbers don’t lie (I hope). I hold the Scharlaken Koord in high regard. If they say that 87% of the Dutch prostitutes on de Wallen have been forced or manipulated into prostitution, then I believe them. There are other numbers available from different researches, they give a more broader picture of prostitutes in general, other types of prostitutes are researched. The results of these researches yield much lower percentages of the (Dutch) prostitutes who have previously been forced or manipulated into prostitution. I’ll show an example, around the same period the Scharlaken Koord made their sample on de Wallen (in 2002) Liesbeth Venicz and Ine Vanwesenbeeck researched prostitutes in the Netherlands as a whole in the report: Er gaat iets veranderen in de prostitutie (2000, Liesbeth Venicz, Ine Vanwesenbeeck) ['Something is going to change in prostitution']. Almost a quarter of the prostitutes in this research (24 of 105) indicated that they initially had been forced into prostitution (page 19). It has to be admitted though that forced prostitutes (who still worked in prostitution) didn’t want to cooperate with this interview so this estimate is probably an underestimate. They had interviewed 105 female prostitutes of whom 22 worked in window-prostitution. 62 were born in the Netherlands from Dutch parents, 17 were born in the Netherlands from foreign parents, and 26 were born abroad.
Also foreign prostitutes had been interviewed in this research, but they found no strong correlation between forced prostitution and ethnicity or being foreign (but beware that they interviewed only a small number of foreign prostitutes, the Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient was r=0,09, see table 3.4 on page 22).
Okay, when you compare the quarter of the (Dutch) prostitutes in general with the 87% of the Dutch prostitutes on de Wallen who initially had been forced in prostitution then it becomes clear that it indeed seems to be true that human trafficking is much more common among Dutch prostitutes in window-prostitution than for Dutch prostitution who don’t work in window-prostitution. But then it has to be said that I compare statistics which were acquired by different methodologies. I assume that the Scharlaken Koord also contacted Dutch women who were still under the control of their pimp, whilst in the study of Vanwesenbeeck and Venicz those prostitutes didn’t cooperate. So the quarter of these prostitutes who were initially forced into prostitution could be in reality much higher, especially if you know that according to some sources probably most Dutch prostitutes are controlled by pimps (Essy van Dijk in “mensenhandel in Nederland”). So the comparisons between these statistics aren’t very useful.
Also in other studies prostitutes had been asked if they had been (or previously had been) forced into prostitution. Two of such studies are described in "Prostitutes' well-being and risk" by Ine Vanwesenbeeck (1994). In one of these two studies, the 'protective behavior'-study, 28,9% of 127 women were previously forced (see Appendix 5.11, page 207). In this study also many foreign women were interviewed, 16% came from other Western countries and 28% from non-Western countries (table 4.1, page 68). In the other study, the "coping and well-being"-study this percentage is 43,4% (see appendix 5.9, page 206). In the latter study only a few foreign women were interviewed, 10% were foreign, 3% came from non-western countries (table 4.1, page 68). In another study the interviewed prostitutes were also asked if they were forced: see Evaluatie opheffing bordeelverbod; de sociale positie van prostituees 2006 ["evaluation lifting the ban on brothels - the social positon of prostitutes 2006"]. Of the 354 prostitutes 8% indicated they had been forced into prostitution. Could this signal a drop in forced prostitution over the years?
Another method (to find out if Dutch window prostitutes are indeed much more often forced into prostitution) would be to interview a large number of (former) Dutch prostitutes more or less evenly distributed across different sectors and then to look which prostitutes have been or are forced and then to look in which types of prostitution they worked. This way a much larger group of (former) forced prostitutes come into view. If this way it turns out that again window prostitution is overrepresented then I would come to the conclusion that this would indeed reflect the reality. Unfortunately such research never took place. In the past there have been researches (like those by Ine Vanwesenbeeck) where quite a substantial number of prostitutes have been interviewed but unfortunately the researchers declined to ask the women who were forced to ask where they were forced. I really see that as a missed opportunity..... but at the end I found an old study which does give some attention to this issue. Actually it is done by Ine Vanwesenbeeck:
“Hoe (ex)prostituees zich zelf redden — Een onderzoek naar (de afwezigheid van) hulpvragen” [How (ex)prostitutes fend for themselves — a research into (absence of request for) assistence] (Ine Vanwesenbeeck, Sietske Altink, Martine Groen, 1989)
It is the same group as described in “Sekswerk ? Ervaringen van vrouwen in de prostitutie” [Sexwork ? Experiences by women in prostitution] written by Sietske Altink, Ine Vanwesenbeeck and Martine Groen (1991). It is also the same group as in the "coping and well-being"-study in the book "Prostitutes' well-being and risk" by Ine Vanwesenbeeck (1994).
They interviewed 60 women. 54 women were Dutch (88%). These women were distributed among the different types of prostitution as follows:
14 (23%) predominantly in clubs
12 (20%) predominantly in privéhuizen
16 (27%) predominantly in window prostitution
4 (7%) predominantly in street prostitution
3 (5%) predominantly in the escort
3 (5%) predominantly at home
2 (3%) predominantly in a SM-house
6 (10%) a combination of different types of prostitution
According to this study the women in window prostitution are much more subjected to violence than the rest. That could mean that indeed Dutch window prostitutes are many times more often forced into prostitutes. Only the researchers are very vague. They give numbers like F=7.04 and p=.01. I don’t really understand what the numbers mean. The p is the p-value, it determines how large is the chance that the differences are by chance (like 0.01 means a 1% chance). The F is probably the F-distribution. My knowledge about statistics is limited (I’m working on it).
Page 75-76:
For instance I heard an (former) escort operator say that she regularly witnessed that “housewives” were forced by their husbands.
Or think what Jeanette told on her weblog, she worked in 2 brothels (so called “privé-huizen”):
De weblog van Jeanette
(translated from Dutch)
In the reactions of that same post she tells:
... or think about CarmenElectra on hookers.nl (on July 19th, 2005):
Hoe kan iemand voor sex betalen? [How can someone pay for sex?]
(translated from Dutch)
Or think about the prostitute in the report:
(onderzoeksrapport:)Er_gaat_iets_veranderen_prostitutie.pdf
(translated from Dutch)
(page 46):
Or an operator of (probably) a club in the report of the Rode Draad (on page 140):
Rechten van prostituees (October, 2006) [Rights of prostitutes]
(translated from Dutch)
Another source which could give an answer is the report by Ine Vanwesenbeeck, Mechtild Höing and Paul Vennix, "De sociale positie van prostituees in de gereguleerde bedrijven een jaar na de wetswijziging” (2002) [the social position of prostitutes in the regulated businesses a year after te amendment]. They asked 230 prostitutes how much they witnessed forced prostitution in the sex businesses they knew. Look at table 16 on page 27. As can be expected there were a lot of different answers.
About forced prostitution: 9% thought it happened a lot, 25% thought sometimes, 30% never, and 36% didn’t know.
About prostitutes who handed over a part of their earnings: 16% thought a lot, 32% thought sometimes, 22% never, and 31% didn’t know.
About boyfriends/husbands who meddled in their colleagues' work: 18% thought a lot, 38% sometimes, 18% never, 26% didn’t know.
And now what’s most interesting. The researchers compared the answers across the different types of prostitution: they found no (significant) differences. That’s important. Probably those “bad boyfriends” are also very present outside window prostitution.
By the way, of those 230 prostitutes, 31% worked in clubs, 33% in privé-huizen, 13% in window prostitution, 10% escort, 10% massage parlour, 2% at home. Therefore, the sample of window prostitutes of 13% of 230 prostitutes (~30 prostitutes) is obviously a small sample, so not very significant, but nevertheless this is very interesting.
In the study Er gaat iets veranderen in de prostitutie ['Something is going to change in prostitution'] (2000, Liesbeth Venicz, Ine Vanwesenbeeck) the researchers also asked the question to the prostitutes of how many of their colleagues are forced on their workplace, but this time they asked percentages (see page 33, table 4.4). 77 prostitutes (of the 105) answered the question. 51,6% of the prostitutes thought it was 0%. 24,2% thought it was below 25%. 16,1% thought it was between 25% and 50%. 3,2% thought it was between 50% and 75%. 4,8% thought is was between 75% and a 100%. On average it was higher than 10%, the median lied around 10%. 2 respondents named a percentage of 90%.
Perhaps a corner of the veil is raised by Dieuwke Talma. She led some haptonomy groups in the past and she wrote of her experiences with them in the book “vrouwenmantel” (2003). I have the impression these must be predominantly Dutch prostitutes. 57 prostitutes tell a bit of their life stories in the book, but what becomes clear is that 7 of them were forced by their boyfriends or husbands at the moment they took part in the haptonomy groups!!!! I would call this an absolute sensation because normally forced prostitutes are very difficult to approach. That could indicate that forced prostitution is indeed not a marginal phenomenon among Dutch prostitutes.
Ceciel Brand interviewed 12 Dutch window prostitutes in The Hague. See her report "Hulpverlening aan prostituées in Den Haag" [Aid to prostitutes in The Hague] (1983, Ceciel de Mol-Brand).
(translated from Dutch)
page 7:
page 12:
Lets delve into the past, maybe that could clarify things. A quote from “Sex Slavery” (1968) by Stephen Barlay, First Ballantine Books Edition: July 1977, in chapter “V. Game girls who lose”
page 118-119:
“De arbeidsstructuur van de prostitutie” [The labour structure of prostitution] (1970, J.W. Groothuyse)
(translated from Dutch)
Page 12:
On page 16 he divides the pimps into three groups. The dupe (passive) pimp, the working pimp (who has a job) and the criminal pimp. He estimates the percentage of dupe pimps at 75%, working pimps at 15% and the criminal group at 10% at most. Among the criminal group he counts (see page 20): the active pimp, the rough pimp, the hard pimp, the evil master of the woman, the more hardened pimp-women trafficker, bloodpimp, antisocial pimp (directed towards the society), the criminal pimp, the ‘protector’, ‘the dangerous type of pimp’.
(translated from Dutch)
Page 156-157:
Page 134:
Page 142:
“Prostitutie” [Prostitution] (Dr. F. J. H. Wong Lun Hing, 1962)
(translated from Dutch)
Page 121-122:
On page 202:
page 163:
(translated from Dutch)
page 9:
(translated from Dutch)
page 37:
Koos and Coby run sexshops. Also prostitutes work in these sexshops. The testimonies of these people make you wonder about the situation in the eighties.
(translated from Dutch)
Page 30-31:
(translated from Dutch)
page 16:
That’s peculiar because at first it seems that in the sixties the (window)prostitutes were very independent. During the 70ties/80ties they often seem to be forced, after which according to Margot Alvarez they were relatively free, and now (~1995-2007) there’s the situation that many (Dutch) window prostitutes are forced. But it's also possible that the situation is different for every window area. For instance, major Bosshardt is speaking about Amsterdam while Margot Alvarez and the proprietor "Timmer" speak about The Hague.
The second report of the “Profeitstudie” (2000, Elizabeth Venicz, Lorraine Nencel, Jan Visser) a possible explanation is given for the rise of the loverboys:
(translated from Dutch)
page 36:
Lets shift my attention.
Another report: “Escort in Amsterdam”, by Eysink, Smeets and Etman (2000) [BTW, they also interviewed 10 female escorts often put forward by the escort operators themselves.]
(translated from Dutch)
page 6:
Quote from Prostitutie naar een illegaal en onzichtbaar circuit? (Margit Averdijk, 2002, pagina 63) ["Prostitution to an illegal and invisible circuit"]
(translated from Dutch)
(translated from Dutch)
(translated from Dutch)
(translated from Dutch)
In "Prostituee word je niet voor het geld" (Dirk Musschoot, 7-March-2005, Nieuwsblad)
(translated from Dutch)
(translated from Dutch)
page 116:
on page 119:
on page 201-202:
In this sample the prostitutes where very autonomous, 81% of the 230 interviewed prostitutes said they could always refuse clients (page 22). Also the number of prostitutes who regularly use drugs is surprisingly low (see page 34, table 23): 15% uses softdrugs, 8% uses tranquilizers and 5% harddrugs (especially when you compare this number to the 'rampant coke use' in clubs and in the escort). On the other hand, 22% said that drugs trafficking happened often in the sex businesses they knew (30% said sometimes, 20% said never and 28% didn’t know, see page 27). That’s surprising, I’m wondering if this is because of the sample method. The researchers directly approached licensed sex businesses and then you might expect that obviously only the better and humane brothels would allow access. But actually, the response was very high; 29%, the non-response was 21%. Per brothel around two workers responded (207 prostitutes per 98 brothels). In the first profeit-studie from 2000 it is estimated that on a daily basis app 5,5 women work in a brothel (see page 19). That would mean that at least in a big minority of the sex businesses the situation is not that bad at all, but the overall response for prostitutes is low, app 207/98/5,5*29=11,1%. It is also surprising that most prostitutes in this study pay taxes, 64% (see page 18), what only a few prostitutes in reality seem to do, only 921 were registered at the tax departement according to the study "Handhaving prostitutiebranche door politiekorpsen, belastingdienst, arbeidsinspectie en UWV/GAK" (2002, ES&E, Pauline Naber, Léon van Lier). Compare this number to the rougly 12.500 prostitutes work at each moment in the Netherlands according to Jan Visser of the mr A de Graaf foundation (see the article 'Betaalde liefde' by Marieke van Doorninck in "C.V. Koers", February 2000, page 6 and further).
On the other hand (concerning hard drugs), in an e
I actually wanted to make a post specifically about Dutch prostitutes, but actually, there's not much information specifically about Dutch prostitutes. Often Dutch prostitutes are described alongside the foreign women as if they were one group. That's why I took some other subjects and melted it into this one post. I will actually go deeper into other questions which I ignored at first because they now come forward when you dig deeper. For instance, how many prostitutes actually do use drugs? And how are the labour conditions really?? It seems that the answers to these questions are as contradictory as to the question how many prostitutes are forced.
I start with some quotes from the report:
Achter de ramen, veldwerk onder raamprostituees in Groningen, een verslag van het project Vertrouwensvrouw migrantenprostitutie 1997-1998, by Liesbeth Venicz (1998) [“Behind the windows, fieldwork among window prostitutes in Groningen, a report of the project Confidence-woman migrant prostitutes 1997-1998] She spoke with 21 Dutch prostitutes. Also 2 Belgian women, 5 German, 1 Spanish and 1 Italian woman (among many others).
(translated from Dutch)
page 3:
Behind the windows you learn to adjust your view about prostitutes again and again. Of stereotypes like the ‘poor trafficked foreign woman’ or the ‘independently working Dutch woman’, there’s little truth in practice. In the most rough forms they do exist, but at the same time every woman shapes her own exception to the stereotype. The foreign women are not so dependent as the popular image wants to, on the contrary. Also the Dutch woman are by far not all those independently working women like we want to see them.page 10-11:
How sensitive the prostitutes are to that image, becomes clear through the smoke screens the women lay around them, especially when they don’t completely work voluntarily. This makes the stories that I hear, sometimes very confusing. The others from the ‘milieu’, like the errand boys, added a little extra with their casual chats and their clear-cut utterances about some prostitutes.
Again and again I was confronted with the fact that I judged too quickly about a situation. Behind every image that I formed of a woman there turned out to be another, more nuanced story. A very independent looking woman, allowed herself to be given a black eye by her boyfriend. A woman who I thought looked like she was succumbing, turned out to have a surprising resilience. From all those different and sometimes conflicting images something comes to the surface that is missing the most in the popular image of prostitutes: nuance. I hope something of that nuance resounds in this report.
5. Dutch girls who work for pimp-boyfriendspage 12:
It concerns fairly young girls, of just 18 until around 25, who often come from the working-class areas of the large cities. Most of them went into prostitution at the urging of their boyfriends, sometimes after they ran away from home together with him. Another group met their boyfriends at their working place. This does not concern girls with a normal love affair, but girls who have a love affair with boys especially because they are interested in the earnings of the girls. To acquire these earnings, the pimps resorts to emotional manipulation and certainly in the beginning of the relationship also physical violence. The relationship is many times only started to get the girl into prostitution. Some boys have multiple girls at their disposal. The combination of being in love, threats and isolation makes it difficult for the girls to break free from this.
It must be emphasized that this concerns not all Dutch girls. There are also girls who do work independently, sometimes after working for some time for a pimp-boyfriend, or who choose to maintain their boyfriend and decide for themselves what amount of money they hand over to him. Through the smoke screens the women create around themselves, it is not easy to say with precision who does or does not belong to this group.
6. Independently working Dutch women.
These women are mostly older than 25. A part of that group worked for a pimp in the past and now want to work for themselves for a while. Another part works parttime (for instance during the weekend) or to reach a certain goal (to pay off debts or to finance a study for example) or simply because they see this as the best way to maintain themselves.
7. Women from the EU
They come mainly from neighbouring Germany and Belgium. They work in Groningen because of the anonymity and sometimes because of the labour conditions. In relation to that a German woman told to prefer to work behind a window above working in clubs in Germany, because she can work here more independently and also because the inspection of venereal diseases is based on voluntariness. This contrary to some German states where the inspections are more or less compulsory.
Just like the German girls they sometimes work with pimp, sometimes without.
The ethnic background of the pimps seems to have changed a bit during the last couple of months. A couple of years ago they were mainly boys of Moroccan descent from the Randstad, now there come more young Groningers of Turkish descent. It seems that they have copied their ‘profession’ from the pimps from the Randstand.page 20:
Housing is a serious problem for the young Dutch women with pimps. They usually live for a long period in their working room. Not only one never comes outside the prostitution milieu this way, there is also no possibility to take a distance from the work. Because the rent has to be paid daily there’s little room to work a little less or to stop working for a while when somebody is sick or tired. Finding other accommodation turns out to be difficult when one cannot submit an income declaration, because one doesn’t pay taxes. When taxes do get paid, it turns out to be complicated, because one needs a declaration of the income taxes. The woman who hasn’t worked for that long or who pays taxes, doesn’t have that yet. Then an accountant declaration has to be submitted. Those sort of arrangements are often already enough to give up.page 23:
Young Dutch girls who work for pimp-boyfriends often turn out to have caught a venereal disease through their boysbriends. They cannot offer resistance towards their boyfriends.page 25:
Forced prostitution is often associated with foreign women. Also Dutch women are sometimes in a situation were they cannot decide freely if and how they work. The problem is that especially when force comes from somebody with whom they also have an affair, a girl will try to hide this from herself and her environment. The girls often don’t always look like being under pressure. Also women with a self-confident posture sometimes turn out to be a victim of human trafficking.A quote from “Uit het donker opgelicht” (Illuminated from darkness) (Date:October 2003) (orginal document) ) see also Illuminated from darkness
(translated from Dutch)
Involuntary prostitution has boomed the last two years in the Netherlands. There seems to be a shift within the criminal domain from the high risk trafficking in drugs to the almost risk-free exploitation of women. Because of the lacking supervision by the government of the huge flow of money within the prostitution industry, it is very tempting for criminals to change over to this lucrative ‘branch of industry’. Therefore it came to no surprise that among a random sample survey of 439 Dutch window-prostitutes in de Wallen in 2001 and 2002, more than 380 women indicated that they were introduced to prostitution by a loverboy[pimp].This is also confirmed by the policewoman in the book “Verlicht Kwartier, 40 jaar Arnhemse Spijkerbuurt”(2003) by Kees Crone about the Spijkerkwartier in Arnhem, a window-prostitution area (also see 'I love my job'):
(translated from Dutch)
Many girls say they work for themselves, but it turns out that nevertheless certain men are circling around them. ‘If I ask such a person how she got here, I usually hear the same story. At the age of eighteen, they fell in love with a dark boy, just at the moment there were problems at home. One thing followed after another, and at the end, they stood behind a window. I can’t prove it, but I think most girls enter prostitution this way.’According to the research Er gaat iets veranderen in de prostitutie ['Something is going to change in prostitution'] (2000, Liesbeth Venicz, Ine Vanwesenbeeck):
(translated from Dutch)
page 22:
These ‘loverboys’ leave a heavy mark on these younger generation of Dutch prostitutes. Also the other prostitutes on the work places where they are present, have to deal with them. (…)page 28:
For the youngest generation of prostitutes force by pimp boyfriends (in recent publications also called ‘loverboys’) plays an important role in their ‘choice’ for prostitution. Also under the pressure of these loverboys the younger generation of respondents seem to be starting earlier in prostitution than the older generation.I’ve asked several window-prostitutes if it’s true that most Dutch window prostitutes have entered prostitutes through loverboys. Two acknowledged it but stressed that most prostitutes eventually break free from their pimps and start working for themselves (one of those two said that other prostitutes warn the pimped girls). Another also acknowledged it. An older woman said that most young prostitutes are indeed the victim of pimps but also the older ones could be. Another window prostitute denied the whole human trafficking as a myth. On forums I also stumbled upon a couple of window prostitutes who also denied the problem. I asked prostitutes to name percentages, they gambled: 0%, 15%, 20%, 30%, 50%, 75-80%. Another window prostitute on the internet estimated on a forum that 90% of the women she worked with have pimps (she works in alleys between young women). All in all, the information that prostitutes give is very contradictory.
Interesting is that one window prostitute said that on de Wallen forced prostitutes are concentrated in certain alleys. She named the Dollebegijnensteeg, Trompettersteeg, Sint Annendwarsstraat and de Stoofsteeg. The last alley was according to her also known as the 'pooiersteeg'(pimp alley). A certain café in that alley is known to be a gathering place for pimps. It is very interesting what she said because I asked another prostitute who was forced where she was forced, and indeed, she was forced in these alleys (except the Stoofsteeg). What she saw was that indeed 75-80% are forced. It's also funny that the last prostitute I visited and who said many girls who work there have a pimp worked in the Dollebegijnensteeg (at least that's what I figured out where she worked). Also the notorious Turkish human trafficking operated in these alleys. In an article in Het Parool some of the alleys are mentioned. Search on www.parool.nl for the article: "Turks-Duits netwerk bediende zich van grof geweld" [Turkish-German network used excessive violence], September 7th 2007, a quote (translated from Dutch):
On De Wallen the brothers put the women preferably on popular spots like the Trompettersteeg, the Sint Annenstraat and de Sint Annendwarsstraat, the environment of the Monnikenstraat and the Oude Kennissteeg - plus obviously on de burgwallen.The report by Liesbeth Venicz gives a grim picture about Dutch window-prostitutes. It shows us that the situation for these prostitutes is not better and many times worse compared to the situation of foreign prostitutes, despite the fact that Dutch window-prostitutes are not illegal or even poor. But the question remains for me, is this also true for Dutch prostitutes outside window prostitution?
Frank Bovenkerk is of the opinion - see his report about Loverboys and modern pimps - that pimps and human traffickers in general work predominantly in window prostitution.
According to Essy van Dijk probably most of the prostitutes, foreign as well as Dutch, legal as well as illegal prostitutes are exploited and are therefore victims of human trafficking:
Mensenhandel in Nederland 1997-2000 [Human trafficking in the Netherlands 1997-2000] (2002, Essy van Dijk)
(translated from Dutch)
on page 21:
(…) aside from that, in a study of the Werkgroep Prostitutie en Mensenhandel [Working Group on Prostitution and Human trafficking], the number of prostitutes from outside the EU is also estimated at 50% (Luyck en Van Soest, 1999). And although not all of these prostitutes work illegally in the Netherlands, experience shows that in most cases this is the case (Visser, 2000). Furthermore there’s a reasonable agreement among key figures that “the majority” of the foreign prostitutes in the Netherlands are economically exploited and therefore victim of human trafficking (Visser, 2000). [footnote at the bottom of that page: “This is according to insiders probably also true for legal, Dutch prostitutes.”] (…)on page 152:
Concerning domestic human trafficking it is observed that also only a part of the legal prostitutes in the Netherlands are self-employed and independent. The majority is, judged by the experience of the interviewees, dependent on pimps. This phenomenon will continue to exist according to them, although the labour conditions will improve in some circumstances. (…)I wonder what is true. I want to find more data to confirm this. I have analyzed all cases of human trafficking in the Netherlands I could find, in the media, in reports etc… It’s indeed surprising that many known cases where Dutch women are forced into prostitution involve window-prostitution. At the moment I’m writing this I have analyzed 91 cases involving Dutch victims. Actually those cases range over a long period of time, dating back to the sixties, the large majority are from the nineties till present. Those cases are distributed over the different types of prostitution like this (multiple types could be involved per case):
64% window prostitution
20% clubs/brothels/privé-huizen
18% street-prostitution
12% prostitution in an apartment (usually that of the pimp)
10% escort
What immediately becomes clear is the heavy overrepresentation of window prostitution. It most be borne in mind that only a small percentage of the Dutch prostitutes work in this type of prostitution. That could mean that Frank Bovenkerk is right when he refers to window prostitution as the place where most of the pimping occurs, at least in the case of Dutch prostitutes. This seems not to be true however for foreign prostitutes. For those prostitutes I find a distribution like this, for 84 cases I found:
36% window-prostitution
45% clubs/brothels/privé-huizen
16% street-prostitution
5% prostitution in an apartment
14% escort
The foreign victims are much more evenly distributed (okay now some calculations to clarify this. Official estimates for 1998/1999 are that 20% of the prostitutes works behind windows, 45% in clubs and brothels, 15% as escort, 5% at home, 5% on the street and 10% in other forms like massage parlours. My estimate from hookers.nl is that in the different sectors 70% of the window prostitutes are foreign, and in other forms this lies around 50% except for home-prostitution which is like 15%. That means the distribution of foreign prostitutes among the sectors must be roughly like this: 28% window prostitution, 42% clubs and brothels, 14% escort, 1.4% home, 4.7% street and 9% other).
BTW: the overrepresentation of Dutch victims in window prostitution seems to be a historical pattern. Already in the fifties and early sixties many known cases of pimping involved window prostitution. You can find that data in the book "De souteneur in het Nederlands strafrecht"["The pimp in Dutch law"](1964) by J.F. Hartsuiker (see table 20 on page 123). The data about pimps is from files from 1951-1961. He counted 184 files. 80 files (43%) were related to window prostitution, 55 (30%) to street prostitution, 30 (16%) to cafés, 13 (7%) to hotels or private houses, 3 (1,6%) to cars and 3 to unknown forms of prostitution. It has to be acknowledged however that actually the distribution over the different types of prostitution among prostitutes in general at that time is very unclear. It could be possible that the mentioned distribution of pimps reflects the general situation. For instance, he also separately analyzed the distribution over the different types of prostitution of 3 types of pimps: the exploiters (90 cases), the 'genommene' (passive pimps who were recruited by the prostitutes themselves) (37 cases), and others (57 cases). In present days the so-called 'genommene' pimps would likely never have been prosecuted. But for this group and 'the others' the relative involvement in window prostitution is even stronger than for the exploitive pimps, very typical. But lets go back to the present.
Also, Dutch victims of human trafficking nowadays are also exported to foreign countries, particularly Belgium, where they are put to work behind the windows of Antwerpen (Schipperskwartier). There seem to be a lot of them over there, like mentioned in an article in De Volkskrant (March 10th 2007, "Nederlandse meisjes voor prostitutie Antwerpen geronseld"["Dutch girls recruited for prostitution in Antwerpen"]). Of the 561 registered prostitutes in Antwerpen, 202 are Dutch. According to the local police most Dutch prostitutes have been recruited as minors by a loverboy, and were put to work there at the moment they were eighteen. I know two guys from a forum who live near that area (Schipperskwartier) and take a lot of evening walks out there. According to these persons many women who work there have a pimp. One of them estimates the percentage to be over 80 percent (which is peculiar because I can derive from hookers.nl that during ~2004-2006 a lot of somewhat older women work there, say 63% are older that 24 and 32% are older than 30, also true for the Dutch prostitutes). That's because he could see who brought and collected the women and how they treated the women.
Dutch forced prostitutes generally seem to be much younger than prostitutes in general.
I’ll show some numbers:
An age distribution of victims of loverboys in the 2004 report of the Dutch foundation against trafficking in women:
Jaarverslag 2004 - Stichting Tegen Vrouwenhandel
___________Age at recruitment____Age at report
____________(14 unknown)
10-14 _________2 (5%)
15-17 ________11 (30%) __________9 (18%)
18-23 ________24 (65%) _________36 (71%)
24-30 ________________________5 (10%)
31-40 ________________________1 (2%)
(the drawback in these statistics is that Dutch cases registered are generally reported by youth institutions and they typically work with people younger than 24)
I'll also show an age distribution of victims of loverboys in "Loverboys: Feiten en cijfers, een quick scan"(2005) [Loverboys, Facts and figures, a quick scan] by Anke van Dijke and Linda Terpstra, information is from trials:
0 - 17: 5(11%)
18-23: 30 (64%)
24-29: 8 (17%)
30-36: 4 (9%)
36-99: -
(the drawback in these numbers is that no information is given of the moment they had the ages mentioned)
Compare those number to a rough age distribution of Dutch prostitutes in general that I acquired from hookers.nl:
0-17: ???
18-23: 35%
24-29: 31%
30-39: 20%
40-99: 14%
Rarely the Dutch victims are older than 30 or even 25 (that’s also the opinion of Liesbeth Venicz), while the average age of Dutch prostitutes in general must be close to 30. Surely there must be some very old victims, one client of prostitutes mentioned to me that he knew two Dutch window prostitutes who worked for a Moroccan loverboy who were both older than 40.
This is confirmed by the cultural anthropologist Paul van Gelder who has studied Moroccan pimps. See: "De Wallen - Vriendjes en pooiers, wakaman en loverboys: nieuwe vormen van pooierschap" [De Wallen - boyfriends, wakaman and loverboys: new forms of pimphood] by Paul van Gelder in the book "Veranderingen van het alledaagse 1950-2000" [changes of the everyday 1950-2000] (2005, editors: Isabel Hoving, Hester Dibbits en Marlou Schrover):
page 299-300 (translated from Dutch):
When pimps have girls working in their place of residence, they usually come from another town. Behind the window Moroccan girls sometimes look very different, like with bleached hair and with piercings. This way they are not easily recognizable as Moroccan.The notion that Dutch victims of human trafficking are generally very young, combined with the notion that most Dutch victims work behind windows, would suggest that actually the group of Dutch victims of human trafficking is relatively small. Frank Bovenkerk (Loverboys and modern pimps, 2004) estimates in 2004 that there are some 50 Dutch victims on de Wallen during a weekend. When you extrapolate that to other window-areas in the Netherlands (on de Wallen there were some 350 windows compared to 2040 windows in total in the Netherlands in 2004) and you assume that aside from the forced Dutch prostitutes in window prostitution there are also some in other sectors, then the number of Dutch victims must lie in the hundreds. Perhaps some 200-600 at any moment. The number of Dutch prostitutes must lie in the thousands, think about some 3000-5000 at any moment.
As far as can be ascertained the ethnic background of the young women who work for Moroccan pimps, is mostly Moroccan. Aside from that Dutch young women are involved. At the end of the nineties also Polish and Russian women came into view. Furthermore isolated minor asylum seekers, the AMA’s [Alleenstaande Minderjarige Asielzoekers] among who Chinese, Vietnamese and Bosnian girls are involved. The ages of these girls and young women range between 12 and 36 years. A Moroccan pimp once even had a Dutch woman in her early forties working for him, so I heard.
This information is very important because that could mean that if a client would avoid the Dutch window prostitutes and would go to Dutch prostitutes who don't work in this type of prostitution and he would visit a somewhat older prostitute then the chance of encountering a forced prostitutes becomes very small.
But I’m wondering if these distributions I mentioned earlier actually reflect the reality. This should not be necessarily so. The samples might not have been random. For instance, those Dutch victims in window-prostitution might have a much bigger chance of coming forward in the media. Maybe the type of pimp per type of prostitution might be different. For instance, maybe those pimps in window-prostitution are more violent what could heavily increase the chance of these victims to come forward. That could also be true for younger victims. That’s why I need more information. What about eye-witness reports?
Lets look more carefully at numbers. Numbers don’t lie (I hope). I hold the Scharlaken Koord in high regard. If they say that 87% of the Dutch prostitutes on de Wallen have been forced or manipulated into prostitution, then I believe them. There are other numbers available from different researches, they give a more broader picture of prostitutes in general, other types of prostitutes are researched. The results of these researches yield much lower percentages of the (Dutch) prostitutes who have previously been forced or manipulated into prostitution. I’ll show an example, around the same period the Scharlaken Koord made their sample on de Wallen (in 2002) Liesbeth Venicz and Ine Vanwesenbeeck researched prostitutes in the Netherlands as a whole in the report: Er gaat iets veranderen in de prostitutie (2000, Liesbeth Venicz, Ine Vanwesenbeeck) ['Something is going to change in prostitution']. Almost a quarter of the prostitutes in this research (24 of 105) indicated that they initially had been forced into prostitution (page 19). It has to be admitted though that forced prostitutes (who still worked in prostitution) didn’t want to cooperate with this interview so this estimate is probably an underestimate. They had interviewed 105 female prostitutes of whom 22 worked in window-prostitution. 62 were born in the Netherlands from Dutch parents, 17 were born in the Netherlands from foreign parents, and 26 were born abroad.
Also foreign prostitutes had been interviewed in this research, but they found no strong correlation between forced prostitution and ethnicity or being foreign (but beware that they interviewed only a small number of foreign prostitutes, the Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient was r=0,09, see table 3.4 on page 22).
Okay, when you compare the quarter of the (Dutch) prostitutes in general with the 87% of the Dutch prostitutes on de Wallen who initially had been forced in prostitution then it becomes clear that it indeed seems to be true that human trafficking is much more common among Dutch prostitutes in window-prostitution than for Dutch prostitution who don’t work in window-prostitution. But then it has to be said that I compare statistics which were acquired by different methodologies. I assume that the Scharlaken Koord also contacted Dutch women who were still under the control of their pimp, whilst in the study of Vanwesenbeeck and Venicz those prostitutes didn’t cooperate. So the quarter of these prostitutes who were initially forced into prostitution could be in reality much higher, especially if you know that according to some sources probably most Dutch prostitutes are controlled by pimps (Essy van Dijk in “mensenhandel in Nederland”). So the comparisons between these statistics aren’t very useful.
Also in other studies prostitutes had been asked if they had been (or previously had been) forced into prostitution. Two of such studies are described in "Prostitutes' well-being and risk" by Ine Vanwesenbeeck (1994). In one of these two studies, the 'protective behavior'-study, 28,9% of 127 women were previously forced (see Appendix 5.11, page 207). In this study also many foreign women were interviewed, 16% came from other Western countries and 28% from non-Western countries (table 4.1, page 68). In the other study, the "coping and well-being"-study this percentage is 43,4% (see appendix 5.9, page 206). In the latter study only a few foreign women were interviewed, 10% were foreign, 3% came from non-western countries (table 4.1, page 68). In another study the interviewed prostitutes were also asked if they were forced: see Evaluatie opheffing bordeelverbod; de sociale positie van prostituees 2006 ["evaluation lifting the ban on brothels - the social positon of prostitutes 2006"]. Of the 354 prostitutes 8% indicated they had been forced into prostitution. Could this signal a drop in forced prostitution over the years?
Another method (to find out if Dutch window prostitutes are indeed much more often forced into prostitution) would be to interview a large number of (former) Dutch prostitutes more or less evenly distributed across different sectors and then to look which prostitutes have been or are forced and then to look in which types of prostitution they worked. This way a much larger group of (former) forced prostitutes come into view. If this way it turns out that again window prostitution is overrepresented then I would come to the conclusion that this would indeed reflect the reality. Unfortunately such research never took place. In the past there have been researches (like those by Ine Vanwesenbeeck) where quite a substantial number of prostitutes have been interviewed but unfortunately the researchers declined to ask the women who were forced to ask where they were forced. I really see that as a missed opportunity..... but at the end I found an old study which does give some attention to this issue. Actually it is done by Ine Vanwesenbeeck:
“Hoe (ex)prostituees zich zelf redden — Een onderzoek naar (de afwezigheid van) hulpvragen” [How (ex)prostitutes fend for themselves — a research into (absence of request for) assistence] (Ine Vanwesenbeeck, Sietske Altink, Martine Groen, 1989)
It is the same group as described in “Sekswerk ? Ervaringen van vrouwen in de prostitutie” [Sexwork ? Experiences by women in prostitution] written by Sietske Altink, Ine Vanwesenbeeck and Martine Groen (1991). It is also the same group as in the "coping and well-being"-study in the book "Prostitutes' well-being and risk" by Ine Vanwesenbeeck (1994).
They interviewed 60 women. 54 women were Dutch (88%). These women were distributed among the different types of prostitution as follows:
14 (23%) predominantly in clubs
12 (20%) predominantly in privéhuizen
16 (27%) predominantly in window prostitution
4 (7%) predominantly in street prostitution
3 (5%) predominantly in the escort
3 (5%) predominantly at home
2 (3%) predominantly in a SM-house
6 (10%) a combination of different types of prostitution
According to this study the women in window prostitution are much more subjected to violence than the rest. That could mean that indeed Dutch window prostitutes are many times more often forced into prostitutes. Only the researchers are very vague. They give numbers like F=7.04 and p=.01. I don’t really understand what the numbers mean. The p is the p-value, it determines how large is the chance that the differences are by chance (like 0.01 means a 1% chance). The F is probably the F-distribution. My knowledge about statistics is limited (I’m working on it).
Page 75-76:
Different workplacesAnother way is to look at eye witness reports. There are some which seem to contradict the notion that Dutch forced prostitutes predominantly work in window prostitution.
When we compare the total scores on the different scales with predominantly working in clubs or privéhuizen, or behind the window, or on the street, in the escort, at home, in SM or a combination of different types, then we find significant differences on two scales. To begin with there are differences in drug use (F=2.2, p=.05): the drug use is lower than average in the escort and with home workers and higher than average on street and with women who have worked on a combination of workplaces.
Secondly women who have worked behind the window, on street and at home or do SM-work score significantly higher than average on criminal and sexual victimisation on a later age by acquaintances (F=2.6, p=.02) [they mean as adults]
When we compare club- and privéhuis workers with the other groups then we find a difference on these scores as well (F=10.9, p=0.00): women who predominantly work or have worked in clubs and privéhuizen report significantly less victimization on a later age by acquaintances than average on that scale. Furthermore these women turn out to have a lower total score than average on victimization (F=5.6, p=.02) and on psychosomatic symptoms (F=4.2, p=.05)
When we compare the window workers with the other groups, then on the contrary we generally find higher scores for the window women: these women report significantly more victimization by acquaintances on a later age (F=7.04, p=.01) than average, report more physical symptoms (F=7.6, p=.01). With the emotional and psychosocial problems and victimization in generals the same tendency occurs, but these relations are insignificant.
In general in can be stated that women in clubs are better of than women behind the window. Obviously this causality doesn’t necessarily lie in the workplace itself.
For instance I heard an (former) escort operator say that she regularly witnessed that “housewives” were forced by their husbands.
Or think what Jeanette told on her weblog, she worked in 2 brothels (so called “privé-huizen”):
De weblog van Jeanette
(translated from Dutch)
I have met many girls who were forced to work in this world [of prostitution]. The majority were forced. Either by their partner, boyfriend, or their addiction. The strange thing was that the ones who worked for a pimp always pretended he was their boyfriend. Well, I believe some really believed that and that they didn’t realise in what kind of unhealthy relation they were in, but I am amazed about how these girls delude themselves. I realise that many women who enter this world are forced to stay there because they trust nobody and therefore nobody can help them to step out of this.She also tells a story of a clearly addicted girl who was forced by her boyfriend:het verslaafde meisje (just 18).
In the reactions of that same post she tells:
(…) Yes, unfortunately I also had to conclude that most girls are forced to work. It is absurd that one [the girls] often believes that they are there voluntarily. “We are saving money to buy a house, my boyfriend had debts and I help him to get rid of it so we can start a family, my boyfriend believes it’s horny that other men lust after me but I am his” Really I was sometimes flabbergasted what such a fellow makes such a girl believe this time. By making the girl believe that she does it voluntarily, she is not difficult and she will do her best for clients. Sad. The girl who I was talking about above [the drug addicted girl] was the most sad case I witnessed. She is unfortunately not the only one, not unique but mostly these girls walk the streets or sit behind windows. (…)Or look at her story about the “slanke meisje” (slender girl):
Nevertheless this girl wasn’t satisfied with her body. She compares her figure with a very slightly built girl, and came to the conclusion that she must be too fat. Despite the fact that she made good money, she thought her earnings could be better, and she was actually right about that but she could have better looked at her way of working than to her figure. Her boyfriend (read: pimp) agreed that her earnings could go a bit upward because now she earned too little to save for a wedding and a house. (…)It has to be said that after asking more that Jeanette opts out about the number of women working for pimps. She doesn’t know, but she knows these women are in the brothels too. She also mentioned that the women who worked in these brothels were mainly Dutch women of foreign descent.
... or think about CarmenElectra on hookers.nl (on July 19th, 2005):
Hoe kan iemand voor sex betalen? [How can someone pay for sex?]
(translated from Dutch)
Hello gentlemen. I am a former “lady of pleasure”, this work is imposed upon me and I found no pleasure in it. Like there are many who do this work. Because I, and many girls in this sector, was slipped drugs, I could keep going. Helpful persons helped me out. (…) During the time that I worked in clubs I have got to learn many girls, girls who were forced there, girls who couldn’t do anything after that (mostly the older ones). (…) I got to learn many girls and certainly more than half were forced there, all in their own way but still always against their will. Go ask the police how many pimps they know of who force girls, I went there once. I was almost laughed at by that official, he even knew who I was talking about, “an acquaintance” he said while he almost laughed!!But it’s possible she’s talking about foreign women.
Or think about the prostitute in the report:
(onderzoeksrapport:)Er_gaat_iets_veranderen_prostitutie.pdf
(translated from Dutch)
(page 46):
Although the pimps [they talk about loverboys] in clubs and privé-huizen are less visible, also there there are prostitutes who work for them. “In every club where you come there are a couple of girls who are forced to work for their boyfriends.” [a prostitute is quoted here]Also here it’s possible that they are speaking of foreign women.
Or an operator of (probably) a club in the report of the Rode Draad (on page 140):
Rechten van prostituees (October, 2006) [Rights of prostitutes]
(translated from Dutch)
He holds a plea about, how weak women in prostitution are. He regularly has to safe them from bad boyfriends. When his actions don’t help, then they ask for themselves and they have to fend for themselves.But also here he could be speaking about foreign women.
Another source which could give an answer is the report by Ine Vanwesenbeeck, Mechtild Höing and Paul Vennix, "De sociale positie van prostituees in de gereguleerde bedrijven een jaar na de wetswijziging” (2002) [the social position of prostitutes in the regulated businesses a year after te amendment]. They asked 230 prostitutes how much they witnessed forced prostitution in the sex businesses they knew. Look at table 16 on page 27. As can be expected there were a lot of different answers.
About forced prostitution: 9% thought it happened a lot, 25% thought sometimes, 30% never, and 36% didn’t know.
About prostitutes who handed over a part of their earnings: 16% thought a lot, 32% thought sometimes, 22% never, and 31% didn’t know.
About boyfriends/husbands who meddled in their colleagues' work: 18% thought a lot, 38% sometimes, 18% never, 26% didn’t know.
And now what’s most interesting. The researchers compared the answers across the different types of prostitution: they found no (significant) differences. That’s important. Probably those “bad boyfriends” are also very present outside window prostitution.
By the way, of those 230 prostitutes, 31% worked in clubs, 33% in privé-huizen, 13% in window prostitution, 10% escort, 10% massage parlour, 2% at home. Therefore, the sample of window prostitutes of 13% of 230 prostitutes (~30 prostitutes) is obviously a small sample, so not very significant, but nevertheless this is very interesting.
In the study Er gaat iets veranderen in de prostitutie ['Something is going to change in prostitution'] (2000, Liesbeth Venicz, Ine Vanwesenbeeck) the researchers also asked the question to the prostitutes of how many of their colleagues are forced on their workplace, but this time they asked percentages (see page 33, table 4.4). 77 prostitutes (of the 105) answered the question. 51,6% of the prostitutes thought it was 0%. 24,2% thought it was below 25%. 16,1% thought it was between 25% and 50%. 3,2% thought it was between 50% and 75%. 4,8% thought is was between 75% and a 100%. On average it was higher than 10%, the median lied around 10%. 2 respondents named a percentage of 90%.
Perhaps a corner of the veil is raised by Dieuwke Talma. She led some haptonomy groups in the past and she wrote of her experiences with them in the book “vrouwenmantel” (2003). I have the impression these must be predominantly Dutch prostitutes. 57 prostitutes tell a bit of their life stories in the book, but what becomes clear is that 7 of them were forced by their boyfriends or husbands at the moment they took part in the haptonomy groups!!!! I would call this an absolute sensation because normally forced prostitutes are very difficult to approach. That could indicate that forced prostitution is indeed not a marginal phenomenon among Dutch prostitutes.
Ceciel Brand interviewed 12 Dutch window prostitutes in The Hague. See her report "Hulpverlening aan prostituées in Den Haag" [Aid to prostitutes in The Hague] (1983, Ceciel de Mol-Brand).
(translated from Dutch)
page 7:
...The way in which they entered the profession:She also interview 6 heroin prostitutes.
Of the interviewees 7 have entered the profession more or less forced, under pressure of their husband/boyfriend. Four of them have at first worked in a club and then switched over to window prostitution.
page 12:
...The way in which they entered the profession:All in all, the problem up till now, is that it’s almost impossible to answer the important question, do Dutch forced prostitutes predominantly work in window prostitution?, there’s not enough data. I could tear my hair out.
Five have entered the profession as a result of heroin addiction; 1 by regular visits to a café in a prostitution neighbourhood; 3 at first worked forced as a window prostitute.
Lets delve into the past, maybe that could clarify things. A quote from “Sex Slavery” (1968) by Stephen Barlay, First Ballantine Books Edition: July 1977, in chapter “V. Game girls who lose”
page 118-119:
I got my second opinion from Major Alida Bosshardt, the Dutch Salvation Army Goodwill Organiser who has spent some thirty years in the Old City Centre of Amsterdam, the harbour and railway station area, where the Zeedijk is the main street, surrounded by picturesque canals and wharfs, countless little passages and alleyways. Within this comparatively small area, there are some fifty pubs and several hundred windows in which the majority of some 3,000 prostitutes are put on view.The family doctor J.W. Groothuyse owned his own doctor’s practice on de Wallen at the time of Major Bosshardt. He wrote two books about prostitution.
According to Major Bosshardt, the real Dutch inhabitants of this notorious quarter steer clear of drugs and keep out of the clutches of sexslavers 'because they're not adventurous'.
'Dutch girls, prostitutes or non-prostitutes, like to stay at home,' she said. 'A prostitute here knows where she stands. She likes to visit her family and to run her life according to her own tastes. Her boy friend is much more likely to be a housekeeper than a business manager. He does her shopping, cleans her flat and is sacked or exchanged if she is dissatisfied. Usually, financial affairs remain firmly in her hands.
'She has a certain amount of security here. Prostitution is legal, she has nothing to hide, she is not breaking the law if she sits in her window without actually soliciting.
'Normally, three girls share a window (together with the room, of course) and they know exactly how much each "sitting" will cost them. (They pay the owner of the house an average of 20 guilders, £3, for the morning sitting from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; 30 guilders for the evening - 4 to 10 p.m.; and 40 guilders for the night session - 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. The prices include lunch or dinner or supper and generous supplies of tea and coffee.) They even know roughly how much they can earn. So why take risks?
'With foreign - English, German, Asian, African - girls, of course, there's much more trouble. They usually cannot come into Holland and practise prostitution unless they take Dutch nationality by marrying a Dutchman. They're much more exposed to the traffickers.
'Another reason why the slavers cannot get a firm grip on Dutch girls is to be found in the attitude of the Dutch authorities. They say that a small country like ours cannot afford to risk her reputation through being represented abroad by the wrong kind of elements. Once a girl is a known prostitute, it's impossible for her to obtain a passport. Even if an American soldier on leave from Germany, marries a prostitute - and quite a few of them do - she must get out of prostitution and prove at least two years' good behaviour before, sometimes with our recommendation, she'd get a passport.'
In Holland, police-controlled prostitution helps to fight the slavers as well as venereal disease.
“De arbeidsstructuur van de prostitutie” [The labour structure of prostitution] (1970, J.W. Groothuyse)
(translated from Dutch)
Page 12:
Since prostitution on the limited area we can involve in our study has converted from a slaverylike structure into an increasingly sensible labour structure based on voluntariness, we could also inform after morality. Where, like in our known environment, the external compulsion into prostitution is more and more decreasing, room is created for freedom and morality.Page 124-125:
Prostitution in the past was more hierarchically and coercively structured. Even the child from the rigid approved school of that time accepted the new authorities casu quo rulers in this pimp milieu. ‘When in those days one of the well-known pimps went by (names like: Buck Jonas, de Tijger [The Tiger], Jopie Boefie [Jopie Little Rascal] and others) then it appeared like the women in the alley jumped to attention, but now we laugh at them so to speak.’ That is true, because the young whore has no respect anymore for resounding names, who are for that matter hardly there anymore. We also state therefore, that the modern whore has had a more open form of upbringing, even when she is from a children’s shelter. That’s why she knows too much of the world, which for her is not limited anymore to a piece of old inner city or a village square in the past.Page 159:
Personally we prefer this condition of free women in an especially free country above the organized coercion, which the prostituties in other Western European countries experience, but we want to explicitly state the following: the conventional woman would baulk at prostitution because of moral reasons and because she is to asthenic for it (asthenia is lack of daring, guts one could better say here) and because she uses her erotic power for her family.Another book he wrote is “Het menselijk tekort van de pooier” [The human deficit of the pimp] (1973, J.W. Groothuyse)
On page 16 he divides the pimps into three groups. The dupe (passive) pimp, the working pimp (who has a job) and the criminal pimp. He estimates the percentage of dupe pimps at 75%, working pimps at 15% and the criminal group at 10% at most. Among the criminal group he counts (see page 20): the active pimp, the rough pimp, the hard pimp, the evil master of the woman, the more hardened pimp-women trafficker, bloodpimp, antisocial pimp (directed towards the society), the criminal pimp, the ‘protector’, ‘the dangerous type of pimp’.
(translated from Dutch)
Page 156-157:
But first a limitation: pure coercion into prostitution with a woman who doesn’t want to, we hardly know that in the Netherlands, neither trafficking in women. What is known to us about that, is derived from quotes in the literature and the daily press.Page 161:
Until approximately 1970 it seemed that the blood pimp was disappearing; now, two years later, we see however an increase in maltreatments, injuries and black eyes. The obvious conclusion, namely that through import the number of psychopaths relatively increases, is wrong; what relatively increases is the number of displaced persons and frustrated people. Coercion and aggression under the influence of the present circumstances come to lie on a different level, everything takes place a lot rougher, fiercer and more uncontrolled. Still we hold onto the proposition that in a free community man and woman in prostitution are well matched. As long as our society can protect itself against corruption and intimidation, also a prostitute can maintain herself as a ‘free’ sex-worker. [Hey, he uses the English word “sex worker” before Carol Leigh coined it on a conference in 1978!!!!].J.W. Groothuyse also quotes statements made by prostitutes and others involved which sometimes show a different picture than described above:
Page 134:
[H 37 – 19] [He means a prostitute aged 37 who is in prostitution for 19 years] Receiving money by a pimp. He doesn’t see it anymore that it is actually her money; she doesn’t see it herself, or better, she does see it (and obviously blames him), but she doesn’t want to see it anymore. Look you should do it (as a doctor) for the fun of it: than you simply ask to such a lill woman: ‘Hey what a beautiful cloak you have’ and then she says: ‘Well I received it from my husband’. Only when they are angry they say: ‘Well, you all the same live from my money.’ Like this afternoon for example: ‘I received from my husband a beautiful sweater with a rollneck. I already saw it standing in the display window,’ says that woman. Those women, they really have to ask if they want to have something, because on his own initiative such a man only sporadically gives something. Well says the man: I have treated my wife with a fur coat or a bracelet.Page 85:
[Nurse]: I despise pimps, I find the girls themselves very friendly and spirited. When those blokes lie in the hospital, they still command their wives when they come with flowers and pastry. Like: ‘Yes, go home girl; you have to sit again [behind the window]; it is your time again.’Page 58:
[H x-x] In this neighbourhood there are lots of beatings by the blokes; you often see the women with a black eye; but it is not jealousy, because you know it anyway as a man what you do. But from his side it is being like the though guy; what you do as a woman with the clients they don’t know anyway.Page 140:
[H 22 - 1,5] Those pimps are sometimes just like a moron. There are those periods, that you don’t earn back your rent and then you have trouble with your husband and then he starts to shout: ‘You are likely the only one again who doesn’t earn much, I worry about that.’Here a peculiar statement by a prostitute who talks about buying black pimps from other prostitutes.
Page 142:
[H x-x] (...) Those girls from this neighbourhood buy those blackies from each other; who bids the most for it; and the girls are infatuated with it because blacks are much more masculine; somewhere it is always a man; the primordiality of the man is in them.Also F.J.H. Wong Lun Hing had a family doctor’s practice at the time of Major Bosshardt and Doctor Groothuyse, but in this case in the Red Light District of Rotterdam (Katendrecht). He also wrote books about prostitution.
“Prostitutie” [Prostitution] (Dr. F. J. H. Wong Lun Hing, 1962)
(translated from Dutch)
Page 121-122:
The man, who extracts profit from the status prostitutionis and with whom the PP [puella publica=prostitute] maintains a relation, is the pimp (S[=souteneur=pimp]). The public opinion is inclined to see in this person of the S the ultimate exploiter. In superficial conversations with PP this opinion is often confirmed. After a more serious and profound research the statements of the PP turn out not to rise above the cliché-opinions of the majority of the public. In her rationalisation of her own situation unfathomed by herself she views the S on her side often as her partner, who lured her in this pernicious situation and who at present exploits her for the benefit of his own wallet. She therefore is not the culprit, so she explains, but he, her partner, who has brought her into this. Through blackmail and physical violence he forces her to play this inferior role. Finally, when there is no way out anymore, she resigns herself wearily in her harsh faith of life and she continues to prostitute in order to come home exhausted late at night to turn over her wage to her half drunk master in exchange for a beating. This public opinion starts from the naïve assumption, that if one wants to know about phenomena like prostitution and pimping, one could best ask this the persons involved themselves. Through a superficial journalistic interview, preferably take in a café or bar, the general opinion is confirmed and in the paper appears an article which horrifies many a person. The same popular motive can be found in the massively produced films about this subject, where the pitiful ‘girl of the sidewalk’ is beaten up by the brute pimp. It becomes more serious when the police in her measures operates following the same simple procedure. After the accession to office of a new officer, pimps were arrested on a large scale on the apparent assumption that prostitution could be nipped in the bud. When one eliminates the instigator of this evil, the one, who is his victim, will stop to prostitute on her own accord. After one single raid or two at most, the problem of prostitution is now suddenly solved…That's interesting!! According to the famous Major Bosshardt and J.W. Groothuyse (and also Wong Lun Hing) forced prostitution was rare on de Wallen in the sixties! But the situation in the seventies seems to have changed completely as is indicated by Margot Alvarez in the book “Live Sex Acts” (1997) by Wendy Chapkis. Margot Alvarez is one of the founders of the Red Thread and worked at the end of the seventies and during the beginning of the eighties for four and a half years behind the windows (of The Hague) for her boyfriend.
It goes without saying that this way prostitution was influenced in no way. The letters of the PP to the detained S and his answer to her, which I often was allowed to read, gave evidence of nothing else than a distorted love relationship between to people on the fringe of society, who missed each other desperately and because of the arrest were even unhappier than before. It is of little principle importance, if the PP did or did not understand the statement which they signed which the police confronted to her [I don’t understand this sentence]. Among many it was pure innocence, among others on the other hand it was part of the S-PP-relationship, that they signed his sentence, but the result is in most cases the same. After the release of S whether after months, whether after years, the relationships in some cases become re-established again and life goes on old terms enriched with just another sad experience, an experience, which has brought these people even further away from a chance of rehabilitation than ever before.
On page 202:
I had seen a lot of bruises, saw women using a lot of speed or coke to be able to work the whole night through because if they came home with less than fl. 500 they'd be beaten. Nowadays, a lot more women work independently. But back then, it was kind of unusual for a woman to work without a pimp. I think it was part of the whole idea that a woman needed a man, whores included. The women's liberation movement has really changed that perception, so now you see a lot more women living and working independently—again, whores included.Ceciel Brand seems to confirm what Margot Alvarez has said about prostitutes in the Hague (during the second World Whores' Congress in Brussels, 1-3 October 1986, see the book 'A Vindication of the Rights of Whores' edited by Gail Pheterson, 1989):
page 163:
Ceciel Brand (Netherlands): I am a social worker and I work with prostitutes in The Hague in the Netherlands. I have to say something. I am not just sitting here for the hell of it. Last year I met many women who are in prostitution. Very often they are under pressure and they experience violence. A number of these women are aware of the fact that this congress in being held and they asked me to report back because they are unable to attend themselves. I just wanted to tell that because I think it is very important to go back to them. I hope that all of us sitting here, this large group of women, can support each other and other prostitutes. I think that is of essential importance.Ceciel Brand also wrote a report "Hulpverlening aan prostituées in Den Haag" [Aid to prostitutes in The Hague] (1983, Ceciel de Mol-Brand) and interviewed 12 Dutch window prostitutes.
Margot Alvarez (Netherlands): Can I add something briefly? I once worked in The Hague and I know Ceciel as a social worker; in fact, I ended up in the center where she works. The Hague is rather an aggressive city for prostitutes. I know most of the women working there pretty well. I have also noted that many of the women who were abused came out of The Life for some years and then years later went back into the same situation and sometimes it was even worse. I think it's very difficult to save yourself from this kind of situation. I myself had to make a certain decision and say, "Look, it's just too much and I'm not going to do it anymore." Too often women are depicted as victims. I have tried to talk many women out of violent situations and they said, "Okay, fine," and then a week later they are back again. I do think there are lots of abused women in The Hague, very many.
(translated from Dutch)
page 9:
...Do they work for themselves or for somebody else?:Also the window proprietor "O.J. Timmer"(fictitious name) seems to support the statements made by Margot Alvarez in the chapter "Beroep:exploitant" (profession:operator) by Liesbeth Koenen in the book "Beroep:prostituee" (profession:prostitute) by Frank Belderbos and Jan Visser (editors) (1987). O.J. Timmer has/had a brothel with 4 windows on the Geleenstraat in The Hague.
in 7 cases the partner is the "souteneur"[pimp], the one who incites them to prostitution; 5 work completely independent.
(translated from Dutch)
page 37:
Timmer finds it utterly childish of the tax department to bother the girls: "Amounts are named.... idiotic. It is nonsense. There are days that they don't make anything. Furthermore it all goes to the pimp. Because why should a girl that has no man play whore? It's a form of brain washing. That friend tells them what you can do with all that money. They all have a goal, an ambition, but after five years they have nothing. Yes, an expensive car, or had a beautiful holiday. And that's it. I know not one who has achieved something."I quote from “Van de liefde kun je niet leven — Interviews met hoeren en hoerenjongens” [From love you cannot live — Interviews with whores and whoreboys] (Marcel Bullinga and others, 1982)
"No, you simply have to register them all at the vice police and let them pay an amount per week. A normal amount that everyone can pay. Lets say a hundred guilders per week. So a fixed amount. They don't need sick pay and holiday pay, but they can miss that. Because at the end of the year nothing is left anyway. That has all gone to those men."
Most girls at Timmer work full-time. He also rents out per day and per evening, including "the daily cleaning lady, clean washing and such". In the Geleenstraat in The Hague and in the surrounding streets, 'the life' goes on 24 hours per day. This is the area that the municipality has made into a walking promenade. Here stands Timmer's double house (four windows). The place is always lively, and nobody has a contract up there. If it's up to Timmer it has to stay that way.
Koos and Coby run sexshops. Also prostitutes work in these sexshops. The testimonies of these people make you wonder about the situation in the eighties.
(translated from Dutch)
Page 30-31:
Koos says he really pays attention to what kind of reasons the girls want to work. When there is coercion, like what has happened to Coby in the past, he prefers not to accept them. Nevertheless he also collaborates with pimps. The prostitution rooms in ‘his’ alley are only rented out to men, who on their turn put women in them. ‘You can’t lump all pimps together. There aren’t that many anymore who recruit women, like it did happen in the past. Women know better nowadays! Anyway, I do no business with pimps who brutally force women to work or who persuade young girls to use heroin.’This situation during the eighties also seems to be confirmed by Ine Vanwesenbeeck in her study "Wiens lijf eigenlijk?" — Een onderzoek naar dwang en geweld in de prostitutie ["whose body actually?" — A study into force and violence in prostitution] in 1986:
Pimps are not darlings. Although they don’t maltreat the women, they employ all kinds of dirty little tricks. Coby: ‘they play the women off against each other. They speculate on the wish of every whore to stop with their work. Then they say against one of their girls that they have to work extra hard, because then they can go to Spain together for example, and start something there. The girl does do that and also has the idea that those others more or less work for her. In the mean time that bloke says the same thing to all girls.’ Coby doesn’t think highly about the girls either: ‘They fall in every trap, they are way too romantic and sentimental. And they all search for a steady guy. When they have found one, they start to pamper them, give them presents, slip them money and so forth. They persuade him to stop working, because she earns enough anyway. This way they make a pimp of him.’
Then there are women who enter the business on their own. What kind of girls are that and how does this all come about? Koos: ‘They simply drop by in the shops. Since there are so many shops with relax-possibilities [he means prostitution] prostitution has been thrown open a little bit more. The shops often have signs on the window with: female assistant demanded. A girl who wants to, can step inside and announce herself.’ According to Koos these are all kinds of women, young and old, some with a steady job. There are rumoured to be many nurses among them and girls from the art academy. But Coby says: ‘Behind every whore there is a problem. You have to view it as a profession, that’s what I believe at least, but it’s not a profession which you end up in just like that. When you talk with them you hear all kinds of things, one has a high mortgage, the other simply has debts, the third wants to start a business very quickly. And they all do it only temporarily, they say that for years in a row. But when at one point they are addicted to the money, they never ever step out.’
(translated from Dutch)
page 16:
The number of prostitutes who go through life without a male partner is minimal. Although there are a small number of women who say they “have nothing to do with men”, the largest part is one way or the other involved in an ‘intimate’ relationship with a man. Obviously these relationships take very divergent forms, also related to the place of force and violence therein. There are pimps and men. Pimps (in more extreme cases called ‘bloodpimps’) seduce or force a woman intentionally into prostitution, where they reap the fruits of her earnings, while the ‘men’ are the friends and husbands of the woman working as a prostitute, who during the relationship can take more or less pimp-like positions. My findings of the last months point out that the number of women that work for a pimp still is considerable and that mental and/or physical violence is often a part of these relationships. Speaking with one of my respondents: “The old fashioned pimphood is still present and I do not understand where those rumours come from that this is not so”.on page 19:
Often the violence will be acted out more ‘controllable’ than in this case [I skipped a part where she names examples of what forms of violence take place], there will be paid attention to which part [of the prostitute's body] there will be beatings, when a girl has two black eyes she will not earn money in the first place. How many prostitutes are subjected to this violence is as yet unknown. Female fieldworkers all indicate that percentages are very difficult to name. The estimates which are being made of the prostitutes who very regularly have to deal with battering vary from ten to thirty percent and another thirty percent ‘every now and then’. The estimates of the number of women who have a pimp range from forty to ninety percent!, varying per group or per city. It is continuously stressed that this is no more than an estimate, because the prostitutes themselves so often hush up the violence inflicted upon them, especially if it concerns their pimp.And who are her respondents? She spoke with 8 (ex)-prostitutes (all white Dutch women), 6 (male and female) fieldworkers, 2 aid workers from the medical area, one female aid worker from the female circuit and 2 officials from the vice police. She sent letters to 20 police corpses; there were 13 responses. In addition she had 10-15 short conversations with prostitutes, brothel keepers and others involved during the orienting visits in the prostitution world. She spoke mainly with prostitutes in Amsterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. Women with experience in the east of the country assured that the situation across the Netherlands was similar to that of Amsterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. The research took 10 months. At least one of the nurses also had experiences in clubs (that's important!!). Also the interviewed prostitutes often refer to clubs.
That’s peculiar because at first it seems that in the sixties the (window)prostitutes were very independent. During the 70ties/80ties they often seem to be forced, after which according to Margot Alvarez they were relatively free, and now (~1995-2007) there’s the situation that many (Dutch) window prostitutes are forced. But it's also possible that the situation is different for every window area. For instance, major Bosshardt is speaking about Amsterdam while Margot Alvarez and the proprietor "Timmer" speak about The Hague.
The second report of the “Profeitstudie” (2000, Elizabeth Venicz, Lorraine Nencel, Jan Visser) a possible explanation is given for the rise of the loverboys:
(translated from Dutch)
page 36:
There seem to be indications that pimps of young Dutch prostitutes, who in the media are often specified as loverboys, profit from the disappearance of a large part of the foreign prostitutes [because of expulsions] and the vacancy caused by that.Good, up until now I have only focused on forced prostitution. But things could be much more subtler. We have already heard Jeanette1 and CarmenElectra mention that many prostitutes in the brothels use drugs. I want to get deeper into that.
Lets shift my attention.
Another report: “Escort in Amsterdam”, by Eysink, Smeets and Etman (2000) [BTW, they also interviewed 10 female escorts often put forward by the escort operators themselves.]
(translated from Dutch)
page 6:
The escort world is a coke world, where many clients ànd escorts are users. It is known that cocaine can be acquired through clubs and escort for inflated prices, together with the escort: ‘the package-deal’.page 28:
The girls who wind up or enter prostitution – whenever they are highly or lowly educated – are ‘not able to follow anymore’, according to one operator of one top escort company. They step in with a past and step out damaged again.page 29:
The revenues in clubs are partly derived from sexual services, partly from the sale of liquor. One informant reports: “I don’t know what makes the most money”.page 34:
In addition, multiple informants point to the excessive cocaine use in clubs and escort by both clients and (male/female) prostitutes themselves. “You can’t deny that in this business many people are with their nose in the powder, also our girls”, is a pronouncement of an operator which is confirmed by escorts. “In this work you get addicted to money and coke”, according to a girl.
Cocaine use makes it easier to have sex for hours and hours, what means revenue for the operator and escort. According to insiders it is possible to order both escort as well as coke – a ‘package deal’ - where the price of cocaine is obviously above the street value.
Most escort girls can be characterized as ‘normal’ young women with jobs or allowance who want to earn extra money. Not ‘real whores’ – according to an experienced prostitute – not a woman who discloses to earn her money as a prostitute and wants to be visible behind the window. High in the market it involves Dutch and legally staying foreign young women with a completed education or students who know how to hold a conversation. In the upper middle segment it involves young Dutch women – both single mothers as well as young women with or without a partner – and boys, for whom the earnings are often a supplement for allowance. Aside from that there are many legal and illegal staying foreign girls and boys with varying levels of educational backgrounds. The more we go to the lower middleclass and bottom of the market, the more illegal staying girls and boys are active.Funny thing is that this report “Escort in Amsterdam” doesn’t mention human trafficking or pimping related to Dutch escorts. This was used as “proof” by Frank Bovenkerk (see Loverboys and modern pimps) that there hardly is any pimping and human trafficking in the escort business. That is not true. This report also mentions trafficking in the escort, but then related to foreign women who voluntarily want to work in prostitution.
The move into escort
The girls who work as escort, mostly have a ‘past’, according to multiple types of informants, including the girls themselves. That all girls have an incest past, as is often assumed, is big nonsense, according to several informants. Some do it for the thrill, the adventure, but especially for the money. But is true that many women have youth experiences which cause them to be able to transgress boundaries and norms, according to one operator. There are personal problems, there are practically always financial problems, of debts which have to be put in order and where escort is a quick method.
There are multiple ways which bring the women into the work. A method which is quite natural way is going with a girlfriend, reported by multiple women.
Others relied on articles in ‘glossy’ magazines where escorts or owners are allowed to speak. And others take the decision to make fast money and call several advertisements on the yellow pages, read advertisements in magazines [footnote at the bottom of that page: a new way to recruit is to spread leaflets in student hostels and place advertisements in student papers]. Several renowned bureaus hold ‘selection-evenings’ where girls with interest in the escort can present themselves. Essential for the escort is that the threshold to get in is less high than in other – more open – forms of prostitution. Escort feels less like prostitution, escorts are less involved in ‘the milieu’ that surrounds other forms of prostitution. Escort sex is more discrete for clients ànd workers, where for the latter it is possible to ‘turn an escort’ unnoticed.
Quote from Prostitutie naar een illegaal en onzichtbaar circuit? (Margit Averdijk, 2002, pagina 63) ["Prostitution to an illegal and invisible circuit"]
(translated from Dutch)
(…) The aforementioned reasons initially caused in 2000 a drop in the number of Dutch prostitutes who worked in the prostitution businesses of Twente. According to operators and prostitutes this did not concern not a big part of the Dutch prostitutes. Many Dutch prostitutes are drug users according to these respondents.Quote from "Handel in hartstocht" ["traffic in passion"] (Sietske Altink, 1995, pagina 134-135)
(translated from Dutch)
Brothel keeper Huub: ‘Nine out of eleven women that work here come from Eastern Europe. I don’t want the Dutch and German women anymore. Those are all addicts. (…)"Who the fuck is Daatje Smit?" (Metje Blaak, 1997, pagina 353) [Metje Blaak is an ex-prostitute and spokesperson for the Red Thread]
(translated from Dutch)
We celebrated Sinterklaas-evening in Didi’s sex club. It was December 5 1991. For four years already I performed a [strip]show on Tuesday and Thursday evening for the waiting clients. There were ten ladies of pleasure, but there were only five rooms. So the entertainment as one goes along was not always pleasurable but necessary and functional. This way I saw many women and girls coming and going. The circulating part were mainly junkies and mostly didn’t stay longer than a week or three. Then there also were the even more sadder cases. They came with their humble possessions in a rubbish bag, and ask for work, board and lodging. This category actually belonged in a psychiatric institute…page 60:
The fixed core consisted of real girls of pleasure, who just like myself, wanted to make money and in the mean time had a lot of fun together. (…)
[she tells that a client wanted to make her addicted, but…]Rechten van prostituees ..... (Rode Draad, 2006, pagina 62-63) ["Rights of prostitutes"]
In the club I saw them dying like rats.
(translated from Dutch)
It is 2004. The door of the business is opened by a lady who cheerfully lets the Red Tread in. (…) The female owner in the meantime is massaged by an other girl. (…) She [the owner] complains that all women are on coke, also in her business.Quote from "Power and control in the commercial sex trade" by Wendy Chapkis in "Sex for sale - prostitution, pornography and the sex industry" edited by Ronald Weitzer (2000). Former prostitute Jo Doezema is interviewed in 1993, Amsterdam. Jo Doezema also worked for the Red Thread:
There is an incredible amount of drug use in the clubs. It's the big hidden drug problem in prostitution. Everyone thinks of drug-addicted prostitutes as heroin-addicted street workers. But there are many more coke-addicted women working in clubs than heroin-addicted women working on the streets of Amsterdam. I am actually convinced that a lot of clubs are covers for coke dealing from behind the bar.Elène Vis operated two high class escort agencies in the past for more than 20 years (“She International” and “escort à la Carte”):
In "Prostituee word je niet voor het geld" (Dirk Musschoot, 7-March-2005, Nieuwsblad)
(translated from Dutch)
“Most people in this business do it out of emotional poverty, rather than financial poverty. When a girl solicited because she needed money – five thousand euros for example, higher amounts were rarely mentioned – then I always asked if they found that amount of money worth the effort to venture into prostitution. I have always asked the solicitants to think hard about their step.”According to Lucie van Mens (“prostitutie in Bedrijf” – Organisatie, management en arbeidsverhoudingen in seksclubs en privéhuizen, [Prostitution in Enterprise – Organization, management and labour relations in sexclubs and private houses], 1992) Dutch prostitutes have a better negotiating position. She interviewed 130 clients and 30 prostitutes (and had some shorter conversations with several other prostitutes). Those 30 prostitutes she followed during a longer period. They worked in clubs. She doesn’t specify the nationality of the prostitutes but elsewhere she hints that the women must be predominantly Dutch (page 117, they followed Dutch educations, and 118, 120, she ‘also’ “spoke” with some foreign prostitutes). Funny is that of this group of women “only” 1 was initially forced into prostitution. But 9 were once in the past.
(...)
You name people who step into prostitution damaged persons.
“At the time I started with this myself, I obviously didn’t know this. Now I now better. When you have your life really in balance, when you have enough self-respect, then you don’t step into this profession? Only for the money you don’t do this in my opinion. There are other ways to make a lot of money.”
“Honestly: if I knew then what I know now, then I would have never started an escort agency.”
(translated from Dutch)
page 116:
The data on which I base the analysis relies mainly on information I received from thirty prostitutes. With them I held – like I have written in the third chapter – an interview and I got additional information during the course of the research. Aside from that I got additional information during informal conversations with sixty two other women.page 109
The financial conditions under which the foreign prostitutes are put to work, are therefore even worse than that of the Dutch. Because of the dependent position where the foreigners are in, a large number of people can reap the rewards from their labour. The foreigners – and certainly the women with a short residence visa and the illegal aliens – don’t have the possibility to set demands to those conditions. They are dependent on the ones who take them to the Netherlands. The negotiation possibility is also lacking because they have no knowledge of the culture and customs within Dutch prostitution and they also don’t speak the language. To the foreigners demands can be set that their Dutch colleagues don’t want to accept. First of all there are the long working hours. In clubs these can be twelve hours per day and that six days per week. Although the women only make money when they have to serve a client, they have to be fully present during the opening hours. This is also true for their Dutch colleagues, but because their negotiating position is better, they are able to insist that they can also work part-time. Thanks to the foreigners the clubs are also filled with women during the off-peak hours. Second of all, the foreigners, through their independency and also their alienation, seem more docile and adapt more easily to the rules of the house.page 117-118:
The thirty women indicated, save for one exception, that they started with prostitution with the expectation that this would be lucrative from a financial point of view. Other work which they would qualify for, paid less. An exception to the pattern of options out of need was the woman who at age fourteen was forced by her ‘boyfriend’ into prostitution. After the relation was ended, she stayed in the occupation.page 120:
Save for one woman – she had an HBO diploma [School of Higher Vocational Education] – the women had followed primary school or the LBO [lower vocational education] (or comparable educations like the MULO [lower general secondary education] or the domestic science school). The woman with HBO was previously in youth work but became overstrained, and therefore lost her job. Prostitution turned out to be a possibility to drive up her income from welfare. (…)
Nine women indicated that in the past they had a relationship with a man who let them work under force. Six of those nine women met their pimp on or near their workplace [window prostitution?] and the handing over of money started within weeks. Initially also a counter service was offered, like transportation from home to work or taking care of a place to sleep. Two turned out to have been under the ‘protection’ of two brothers. Four women have been seriously maltreated physically. Three of those four women could flee him by calling in the help of family and friends. The fourth fled to a ‘blijf van mijn lijf huis’ [a shelter for battered women].
One of the women was at the moment of the interview on the brink of marrying a man who previously as she called it ‘pimped another woman’. The other woman worked behind a window and daily the man went to her to collect the money in the presence of his future wife. Instigated by his future wife the man ended the pimp-relationship. Before that time she also lived from the earnings of the woman who worked behind the window.
Traditionally always men are named as responsible for pimping. From the aforementioned example it turns out that this is less unambiguous. During the interviewing and also from conversations with non-Dutch prostitutes it turned out, that also very different groups of people exert force on prostitutes and thereby are able to reap the rewards of their labour. Family members – mother -, spouse, friends or acquaintances blackmail the prostitute sometimes morally. When she gives presents, a round of drinks in the house or money, then there is no mention about the fact that she’s in prostitution. When the prostitute doesn’t do this temporarily or when she stops with this, then her environment suddenly reminds her that she is in the profession. Prostitutes seem to be forced to buy off the low appreciation in relation to their existence.
The thirty prostitutes all turned out to have set a deadline wherein they wanted to step out of prostitution again. The period wherein this should happen, lied between a couple of weeks and months. {footnote at the bottom of that page: None of these women stopped with prostitution within the term set during the interview. The Norwegian researchers Cecilie Hoigard and Liv Finstad who during a couple of years followed the footsteps of 42 prostitutes, established the same. The women often made future plans, wanted to work as a self-employed person – as owner of a boutique or beauty salon – and first save together the required capital, but the step to really quit prostitution was often postponed (Cecilie Hoigard and Live Finstad, Seiten Strassen, 1987). } Future plans lied outside prostitution: in a marriage, having children or another job, preferably as a self-employed person, for example as an owner of a boutique. Before they could move over to this, first a firm financial basis had to be created. {footnote at the bottom of that page: also the foreigners whom I spoke with saw prostitution as a temporary occupation. In the long run, when they would have found a marriage partner or have saved enough money, they would stop again.}page 127:
The Dutch prostitutes who can choose for a certain workplace, avoid places where the house rules put too much pressure. Privéhuizen where generally there are less strict rules than in sexclubs, generally enjoy the preference.page 140:
Also for men who have less to spend, the fact that they pay for sex and attention, can give an extra dimension to the visit. The excitement consists of the fact that the prostitute offers to fulfil extra wishes and acts ordered by him against payment. Not only sex is bought but also – be it temporarily – a person. {footnote at the bottom of that page: at least, that’s how a part of the clients see it. Prostitutes on the contrary indicate not to sell themselves, but to offer sex (and attention) on a temporary basis.}page 174:
As a criterion of what will and what will not do, the ‘emancipated Dutch prostitute’ is put forward. Like it turned out in the previous chapters, there are gradual differences between the position of Dutch prostitutes and that of the many migrant prostitutes. Prostitutes with sufficient freedom of movement have as a ‘tactic’ not to work in those businesses, where too many coercive rules are applied. They don’t revolt against certain practices, but avoid them. It is therefore the question who in companies with coercive rules for prostitutes is the ‘emancipated Dutch prostitute’ and who will set the standards for what will and what will not do.All in all, the situation described in the brothels and escort agencies are not very good. Bad working conditions and lots of coke. Also Jo Doezema (she was with the Red Thread in the past and also was a prostitute) is not very positive about the Dutch brothels. In an interview in 1993 in the book “Live Sex Acts” (Wendy Chapkis, 1997) she says:
on page 119:
In fact, in many ways I think club work is a lot more unsafe. In a club the clients drink and most times so do you because you make money getting drinks. It's also very difficult to refuse a client. Most clubs won't come right out and say "you have to go with everybody that wants you," but they put a lot of pressure on you. Some of those guys running the clubs are real bastards. Mostly they're men, though there are some women. But having a woman boss is no guarantee that anything will be any better. The really good bosses are women, that's true, but it's not the case that every woman is a good boss. There are a lot of Madames out there, the woman who started out herself as a prostitute, worked her way up and is determined to exploit the hell out of everybody who's working for her.on page 120:
The people who run the brothels are definitely bosses, not colleagues. But don't call them "pimps," they get so pissed off if you say that. They're just businessmen and women offering a service, for which they ask a reasonable price. I guess what pisses me off is the way they run their businesses. The way they think about the women who work in their clubs and the way they treat them is full of 17th century paternalism. There's "papa," the sex club owner, and "zijn meisjes," they all say it, "my girls," not "the girls," certainly not "the women," but "my girls." But at the same time, "papa" isn't shouldering any of the responsibilities of a boss under Dutch law, such as making sure that workers are insured, paying national health care premiums, that kind of thing.
I did escort work for a while, too, but escort is only a little better than clubs. Really the only improvement is that you don't have to drink and you don't have to sit around there all day. But the only way to make good money in escort is to be available to be beeped for work all the time, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. You can go for days without any work and suddenly they beep you at three in the morning or in the middle of dinner with friends. And if you don't say "yes" you don't make any money and they probably won't call you again.Margot Alvarez (she is one of the founders of the Red Thread, and was prostitute) also says something similar in an interview in 1994 in the book “Live Sex Acts” (Wendy Chapkis, 1997):
on page 201-202:
A big difference for me was that I had never led a double life. My parents always knew that I was a whore, and while they weren't thrilled about it, they accepted it. I wasn't willing to be secretive about my work because to be really secretive I would have had to work in a club, and I knew that the women in the clubs were exploited like mad. Working behind the window meant that you could be your own boss.Also the Red Thread is very negative, although the situation has somewhat improved since the legalization of prostitution in 2000. I have some translated bits over here:The rights of prostitutes... (Oktober, 2006). For instance:
The authority of the operator is present everywhere. Most of the time the independent entrepreneurs are not allowed to decide for themselves to speak with us or not. (...) The extension of the human trafficking section to slavery like conditions in other professions has led to a better definition of the ‘exploitative situation’. The signals of slavery like conditions, like ‘forced to live on the workplace’, ‘being dependent on the operator’, ‘extremely long working hours’ and ‘poor payment’ can therefore often be applied to the prostitution-business.But… despite all these bad stories, it has to be admitted that there are other sources that give a relatively more positive image. For instance the report by Ine Vanwesenbeeck, Mechtild Höing and Paul Vennix, "De sociale positie van prostituees in de gereguleerde bedrijven een jaar na de wetswijziging” (2002) [the social position of prostitutes in the regulated businesses a year after te amendment].
In this sample the prostitutes where very autonomous, 81% of the 230 interviewed prostitutes said they could always refuse clients (page 22). Also the number of prostitutes who regularly use drugs is surprisingly low (see page 34, table 23): 15% uses softdrugs, 8% uses tranquilizers and 5% harddrugs (especially when you compare this number to the 'rampant coke use' in clubs and in the escort). On the other hand, 22% said that drugs trafficking happened often in the sex businesses they knew (30% said sometimes, 20% said never and 28% didn’t know, see page 27). That’s surprising, I’m wondering if this is because of the sample method. The researchers directly approached licensed sex businesses and then you might expect that obviously only the better and humane brothels would allow access. But actually, the response was very high; 29%, the non-response was 21%. Per brothel around two workers responded (207 prostitutes per 98 brothels). In the first profeit-studie from 2000 it is estimated that on a daily basis app 5,5 women work in a brothel (see page 19). That would mean that at least in a big minority of the sex businesses the situation is not that bad at all, but the overall response for prostitutes is low, app 207/98/5,5*29=11,1%. It is also surprising that most prostitutes in this study pay taxes, 64% (see page 18), what only a few prostitutes in reality seem to do, only 921 were registered at the tax departement according to the study "Handhaving prostitutiebranche door politiekorpsen, belastingdienst, arbeidsinspectie en UWV/GAK" (2002, ES&E, Pauline Naber, Léon van Lier). Compare this number to the rougly 12.500 prostitutes work at each moment in the Netherlands according to Jan Visser of the mr A de Graaf foundation (see the article 'Betaalde liefde' by Marieke van Doorninck in "C.V. Koers", February 2000, page 6 and further).
On the other hand (concerning hard drugs), in an e