Sex for Hire: Real Stories of Prostitution in America
ABC News' Two-Year Examination of Women Working in the Commercial Sex Industry
Men spend large amounts of money at the ranch for not only sex but for what is commonly referred to as the GFE: The Girlfriend Experience. "He wants you to be his girlfriend for however long he booked you for," one prostitute explained. "Whether that's 10 minutes or 10 hours, kissing, holding hands, cuddling."
Hoff tells his employees to "fulfill those fantasies. Be the fantasy experience you know and create them. You'll be rewarded handsomely, have six figures and live happily ever after."
"My rate is $2,000 an hour for everything, $1,000 for half an hour, $500 for 15 minutes," another employee claimed.
Though licensed sex workers are legally allowed to charge for their services in Nevada, the drug culture still integrates itself into the lives of some women there.
According to a Bunny Ranch prostitute named Danielle, "A lot of the girls here do drugs. Whether it's illegal drugs on the street, coke and ecstasy kind of stuff, or whether its prescription drugs, three or four Xanax to get through the day, most of them are on something."
Dependence on Pimps
There are about 800 women working in legal brothels in Nevada. However, the majority of prostitutes in America are the tens of thousands working in fear of and dependency on the men who make the money -- the pimps.
"Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the girls we work with have been under, or are under, the control of a pimp at some point," said GEM's Lloyd. "If we're talking about girls or young women who have been, you know, systematically abused, who have previous trauma, who maybe have run away from home and are currently in a really vulnerable situation, and this adult man who comes onto them, and promises them the world, that can be very intoxicating."
"It's like a cult where they brainwash you," said one woman who escaped the world of prostitution. "In the beginning, it's as if they're training you like a dog, but when I wanted something, I got it. If I wanted a car, I got it. If I wanted a fur coat, I got it. If I wanted to go shopping, I got it."
Kristof explains that for law enforcement, the difficulty in prosecuting pimps begins with the victim's reluctance to help. "You would have to show force, fraud and coercion, and the argument is that if the pimp is essentially a financial manager to a young woman, then that is not so serious a crime, while if he's forcing the girl to sell herself, that is. The problem is that to prove force, fraud and coercion, you pretty much have to get this young woman to testify against her pimp. That means her life will be in jeopardy, [the lives] of her family will be in jeopardy, and also there really is often an emotional bond in a very weird way between her and that pimp."
An emotional bond that another young former prostitute formerly known as Caramel knows all too well. "I thought I was so in love," she said. "You've got somebody there to take care of you, take care of your money."
Do you have more information about this topic? If so, please click here to contact the editors of ABC News.
