The Psychopath as Pimp

Although the study of psychopathy has become a significant area for research in recent years, relatively little attention has been paid to examining the role of psychopathy in offenders who live off the avails of prostitution (i.e., “pimps”). It may be argued that this dearth in the literature is surprising given that psychopathy is defined by a unique set of interpersonal and affective characteristics that theoretically should facilitate the business of pimping. As such, the present investigation attempted to profile characteristics of perpetrators who engage in pimping. As expected, psychopathy was an important feature of these perpetrators: over one-third of the 22 perpetrators examined met the diagnostic cut-off of 30 on the Psychopathy Checklist-revised. to expand our understanding of pimps and their actions, other important perpetrator characteristics were also examined. the implications of these findings are discussed in relation to criminal justice factors. *Comments concerning this article may be addressed to: Alicia Spidel, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6T 1Z4 (email : [email protected]). the relative lack of empirical attention paid to examining offenders who live off the avails of prostitution (i.e., “pimps”) is surprising given the high estimates of pimp-controlled prostitution and its consequences both for society and for the prostitutes themselves (Kennedy, Klein, Bristowe, Cooper, & Yuille, in press). Certainly, it may be argued that recent information regarding this issue warrants research in the area. For example, estimates of pimp-controlled prostitution range from just under 40% to as high as 95% (Barry, 1995; Dalla, 2002) and research suggests that most prostitutes either start in the sex trade under the control of a pimp or end up being controlled by a pimp at some point in their lives (Giobbe, 1993). In addition, contrary to lay beliefs, pimps mostly have a negative impact on the prostitutes under their control (Kennedy et al., in press). not only have pimps received little empirical attention, most of the research that has been conducted has failed to consider the role of psychopathy. this is intriguing, as there are many reasons to expect that pimps have a significant number of psychopathic qualities. Indeed, the little research that has been conducted suggests an association between pimping and psychopathy. Moreover, as described throughout this article, psychopathic offenders possess a unique set of interpersonal, affective, and lifestyle characteristics (e.g., superficial charm, shallow affect, lack of empathy, manipulativeness, parasitic) (Hare, 1991, 2003) that indicate they are especially well suited to engage in pimp activity. Given the above, the present investigation aimed to profile the psychological characteristics (e.g., personality, substance abuse history, criminal history, etc.) of offenders who, at some point, have lived off the avails of prostitution, with special attention given to the construct of psychopathy. In the following sections, the act of pimping is described, as are the qualities of the perpetrators who engage in such activity. Connections between pimps and the characteristics of psychopathy are discussed. Spidel, A.* the University of British Columbia Greaves, C. Simon Fraser University Cooper, B. S. Forensic Psychiatric Services Commission the Ekman Group-training Division (tEG-tD) Hervé, H. Forensic Psychiatric Hospital the Ekman Group-training Division (tEG-tD) Hare, r. D. the University of British Columbia Yuille, J. C. the University of British Columbia