Estimating demand for illicit massage businesses in Houston, Texas

Authors: Bouche, Vanessa & Crotty, Sean

Abstract: Illicit massage businesses are growing in number across the United States, yet they remain an understudied niche of the underground commercial sex economy despite implications for public health and criminal justice. This research fills an empirical gap in our understanding of illicit massage businesses by estimating actual demand for these businesses in one U.S. city, Houston, TX. We find that there are roughly 2,869 customers per day at illicit massage business in Houston, and that this yields total annual gross revenues of $107 million.

Keywords: Illicit massage parlor, brothels, human trafficking, Houston, volunteered geographic data