ABSTRACT
The present study examines the violence and change in violence experienced by domestically sex trafficked women from their pimps since their recruitment. A total of 100 women who currently had a pimp were interviewed, and 71 indicated that they had been recruited into prostitution, many under conditions meeting the federal definition of trafficking. Violence and coercive control were measured at 2 different points for each woman and compared separately and together. On average, violence had increased since recruitment, and those women who experienced more forms of coercive control generally experienced higher levels of violence from their pimps. The majority of women experienced violence and coercion, thereby meeting federal sex trafficking definitions.
