Prostitution Recruitment
There is a constant demand in Hong Kong for young prostitutes and many active Triad gangs pander to this need. Recruitment takes several forms, ranging from the outright coercion of totally unwilling victims to the luring, cajoling and encouraging of young females into prostitution. There has been evidence of out-. right coercion by Triad gangs in several recent cases. Owing to present limitations of intelligence and precise statistics in this field exact figures are unknown. Suffice to say however that in 1973 T.S.B.* alone dealt with some 148 young female victims of such practices, and between January and March 1974 a further 28 such females had come to notice,
The methods used by the gangs follow a common pattern. In the first instance contact is made between the seller and the would-be buyer, who is usually the operator or manager of a call-girl centre. The demands of the market and the related purchase price are discussed. A fresh and attractive young female at present can be priced at anything up to $7,000, the amount being an advance by the buyer to the seller against the future carnings from prostitution by the girl victim. The girl herself receives little out (of) the transaction. Age is no barrier to the trade in young females and cases involving 15 and 16 year old girls have been recorded, notwithstanding the law.
The victims are obtained in various ways. In the more brutal cases, they have been literally snatched off the streets. Generally the gangs seek out attractive young females with limited intelligence and with few family ties. Young girls who have run away from home are prime targets. Victims are quickly raped and in some cases “gang-raped”. This practice is referred to as “sealing" or "stamping" their property. The victims subsequently, through a mixture of fear, shock and shame, are reduced to a state where they are mentally and physically incapable of resisting the orders of the gang. Newly "stamped” or “sealed” victims are then "sold" to pre-arranged buyers. The sale can take place within twenty-four hours of the victim falling into the hands of the gang.
Other methods involve the use of gang members to cajole selected young fe- males into permitting themselves, albeit reluctantly, to be used for prostitution. In such cases selected victims are lured into close liaison with a member or members of the gang. The relationship is quickly made an intimate one and at an appro- priate time the victim is confronted with a deliberately devised situation where her “boyfriend” finds himself in need of help to pay off heavy and pressing debts, usually said to be connected with Triad-backed gambling or Triad loan-sharking operations. In some cases the ploy is backed by other members of the gang posing as pressing creditors. The young victim is then cajoled into prostitution to earn money to enable the boyfriend to pay off his debts. When she agrees, she is traded to a call-girl centre in similar fashion to the victims of direct coercion. The "boyfriend” quickly disappears with his profit, leaving the victim to repay the purchase price to the call-girl centre by way of her income from prostitution. In most cases the conditions of safe include the "seller" guaranteeing to the "buyer" the control of the victim. Freshly abducted but unwilling young victims are initially physically escorted to and from all prostitution assignments by mem- bers of the "selling" gang. Gradually "security" is tapered off, normally after a week or so, with the girl entertaining up to 10 to 14 different customers a day. The responsibility for the security of the girl then passes to the buyer with the call-girl centres employing their own gangs of thugs for this purpose.
The repayment of the “purchase" prices is handled in the following manner, Of every $100 the victim earns from prostitution, $40 is normally taken by the party responsible for finding the customer, i.e. the apartment house keeper etc. The remaining $60 is taken by the call-girl centre; of this sum $30 is held as direct income by the centre operator and the other $30 is credited to the young victim. From this she must not only repay the whole purchase price by instalments but also contribute her day-to-day living expenses, food and lodging etc. The pro-
*T.S.B. Triad Societies Bureau.
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