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A pimp finds and manages clients for a prostitute and engages them in prostitution (in brothels in most cases and some cases street prostitution) in order to profit from their earnings. Typically, a pimp does not force prostitutes to stay with him, but the low-level types will abuse them in order to keep them in line or maximize profits. A pimp may also offer to protect them from other pimps, prostitutes or abusive clients. He can also enable a prostitute to work in a particular area under his control. Pimping is a sex crime in most jurisdictions.

Most people who work managing prostitutes are men, but some women (often prostitutes or former prostitutes themselves) work in this capacity as well, but rarely in street prostitution. Women are rarely called pimps, as the word implies male dominance (see Pimps in Popular Culture below) - a woman who manages prostitutes is generally called a madam. (This should not be confused with the title of respect given to adult women in most English-speaking countries.)

Often, low level pimps will initially present themselves as lovers or father-figures to prostitutes (who may be run-aways or otherwise lack a family network) before introducing them to prostitution and drug addiction. This practice is called "turning out." Most pimp-prostitute relationships are suggestive and guided while the low life types are abusive, using psychological intimidation, manipulation and physical force to control the members in the "stable".

In 1949, the United Nations adopted a convention stating that prostitution is incompatible with human dignity, requiring all signing parties to punish pimps and brothel owners and operators, and to abolish all special treatment or registration of prostitutes. The convention was ratified by 89 countries, non-signatories included Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and the United States.

In the Netherlands, Germany, and several other countries, prostitution is legal, though pimping is not. (See Prostitution in the Netherlands and Prostitution in Germany for more information.) Managing a brothel is not classified as pimping in these jurisdictions.

In the United States, prostitution is illegal except in licensed brothels in certain counties of Nevada; however, pimping is illegal everywhere. Some municipalities, such as the city of Chicago, have made it possible for female prostitutes to take legal action against their pimps without the danger of being prosecuted for prostitution.

The number of pimps and the prostitutes' level of dependency on them is usually higher in areas where prostitution is illegal or heavily restricted. In places where prostitution is largely unrestricted, the power of pimps seems to decrease, since the prostitutes are less in need of protection.

Starting in the late '90s, the pimp culture saw a rise in popularity, and can be currently seen in the modern hip hop culture of today.

Pimps in popular culture

Historically in much of the criminal world, pimps have been looked down on. Rather than disapproval of prostitution, this attitude is due to the pimp is being economically supported by his women and is therefore less of a man. This attitude started to change in the late 1960s.

In the United States, urban pimps and prostitutes began to constitute an imaginary colorful and overly dramatized subculture starting in the 1970s. American pimps are also erroneously known as "macks" and often refer to their business as "the game". The archetypical flamboyant and abusive African American pimp was described in Iceberg Slim's 1969 autobiographical novel Pimp, to be followed by several other similar insider descriptions by other authors. The most accurate version of the pimp life is illustrated by author Alfred 'Bilbo' Gholson in his book The Pimp Bible:Sweet Science of Sin.

Subsequently, the pimp subculture described by the authors has been portrayed, with varying accuracy and inaccuracy, in a number of blaxploitation films. American pimps, as depicted in these films, would be seen as people from a lower-class urban setting without a higher education dressed in wild, flashy clothes and driving customized Cadillacs or Lincolns—Cadillac Eldorados in particular are seen as "pimpmobiles". The films Superfly, Dolemite, The Mack, and Willie Dynamite are good examples. Another good example would be Boss'n Up where Corde, portrayed by Snoop Dogg, becomes the most diabolical pimp in the game, after quitting his job as a grocery clerk.

The acclaimed 1976 film Taxi Driver revolves around an underage prostitute who is freed from her stereotypical urban pimp by a crazed psychopath.

There have also been American films that depicted pimps as coming from the elite of society, such as the character portrayed by Eddie Albert in Robert Aldrich's film Hustle (1975).

In the 1970s, the pimp images projected in books and films began feeding back into the urban pimp culture itself.

The 1999 documentary American Pimp features interviews with American pimps and prostitutes.

In television, notable stereotypical pimps include Antonio Fargas as "Huggy Bear" in the 1970s TV show Starsky and Hutch, who was also a police informant and was played primarily for humorous effect. This role was later recreated in the 2004 film with Snoop Dogg in the role. Eddie Murphy also portrayed a pimp called Velvet Jones in a recurring Saturday Night Live comedy sketch.

The imagery of the pimp lifestyle has been popularized by hip-hop culture since the 1980s. Artists such as Snoop Dogg, Ice-T, Jay-Z, The Game, Ludacris, Ice Cube, and Too $hort paid obvious tribute to pimping within their lyrics. Many hip-hop artists have embraced a modern version of the pimp image in their music videos by including entourages of scantily-clad women, flashy jewelry (from which the phrase bling-bling emerged) and luxury automobiles . This popular image often eliminates the use of force against women in an effort to portray the pimp lifestyle in a positive light. Well known hit songs that include the word "pimp" in their titles include, Big Pimpin' by Jay-Z, Pimpin' all over the world by Ludacris.

In the late 1990s and earlier part of this decade, Charles Wright portrayed a character entitled "The Godfather", a pimp character in the WWF/WWE. This character helped popularize the slogan "pimpin' ain't easy"; this is also a song by rapper Big Daddy Kane. The movie Hustle and Flow (2005) featured a pimp played by Terrence Howard; its soundtrack contained the song It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp by Three 6 Mafia which would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Song.

Pimping and prostitution have also been themes in the popular culture of other nations, such as China, France, and Russia.

In Shakespeare's Hamlet some contend that the word fishmonger (someone who sells "fish", a modern euphemism for vagina perhaps in use at the time) was in turn a euphemism for a pimp.

The term "pimp" is sometimes used figuratively, as in poverty pimp.

Other uses

According to The Art of Pimping by Brancati, German surgeon Walter Karl Koch first recorded "Puempfrage" questions in 1889 to be used while seeing patients with his students in Heidelberg. In America, Abraham Flexner noted on his visit to Johns Hopkins in 1916 that Osler (likely William Osler) used rapid-fire questions on his students.

P.I.M.P. is an online magazine for the computer underground. The Chicago based magazine started in 1993 and ended in 1998 by hacker group probe industries. Several topics were covered including articles on cell phone cloning, hacking computer systems, and guides on banking computer systems. Creators Fringe and Stickman were investigated by the FBI and NSA but no charges were ever filed. The group of hackers that were involved with probe industries was considered a high level threat for most of the nineties.

Pimp can also be used as a verb such as "You're pimped up!" or "Pimp my ride." The latter example refers to customizing an automobile, made popular by the show Pimp My Ride on MTV. It can also be used as an adjective connoting the same, i.e. "Man, that car's pimp!" Either use was originally a derogatory term, implying that the subject was overly decorated and tacky (referring to the stereotype of pimps with excessive jewelry, flashy clothes, or brightly colored cars with animal-print upholstery and crystal chandeliers). It was eventually reclaimed as an American slang term for being unique, "cool" or socially desirable, in much the same way as the term "ghetto fabulous". It's even used to describe a young teenage male as "cool" or who is very popular with teenage girls, and can meet and talk to them with ease. This would make the word Pimp another word for a Player or "Lady's Man", to describe it technically. The feminine version of pimp, in this case, is a pimpette, which describes the ultimate female who can get whatever she wants with teenage males just by using her looks. Pimp costumes, in recent years, have been marketed during Halloween and/or used in costume-themed parties either as a throwback to the 1970s and/or entertainment purposes. One Houston-area art car artist was seen in the 2006 Houston Art Car Parade wearing a pimp-themed costume with a fur scarf.

Famous pimps/madams

• Don "Magic" Juan
• Iceberg Slim
• Charles Manson
• Jelly Roll Morton
• Al Capone
• Lucky Luciano
• Charles Mingus (self-proclaimed)
• Snoop Dogg (self-styled)
• OG Loc (fictional)
• Heidi Fleiss
• Sally Stanford
• Polly Adler
• Rick James

Etymology

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the origins of the word "pimp" are unknown, but it is thought to be related to the sixteenth century French verb pimper, which means "alluring or seducing in outward appearance or dress". Nowadays, the French adjective "pimpant" is used when talking about something which draws attention due to its flashy or clean look.

See also

• Baller

External links

• U.S. DOJ guide to street prostitution
• Pimp Anthropology, radio show from This American Life featuring an interview with a former pimp.

• Prostitution
• Illegal occupations
• Criminology topics