Escort agency
An escort agency (often also called escort agency ) arranges women or men (so-called escorts) who offer their company for a fee for an agreed period of time ; usually it is a form of prostitution . Escort agencies act as service providers and intermediaries between the escort ladies (rarely gentlemen) and the customers. Unlike Etablissements classic prostitution ( brothels , clubs and running stores ) pretend escort agencies, only the house or hotel visits to customers and the accompaniment by a society lady or -herrn offer.
Business model
Escort agencies are service providers and have this relationship with both the customers and the escorts. The earnings often result from a fee, which is included in the hourly price of the escort and is paid to the agency as a commission . Thus, the commission is linked to the agency's service to be able to arrange several and long appointments. The escorts are usually self- employed and not employees of the escort agency.
In order to work in Germany , you need to register with the tax office under the designation "Erotikmodell", "Escort" or "Prostitute", a tax number is assigned by the tax office. The income is subject to income , sales and trade tax , depending on the amount of sales and profit , although prostitutes cannot register as business owners.
In countries where prostitution or the provision of implicit sexual services is prohibited, the escort agencies only provide social and entertainment services; the sexual services are offered by the escorts themselves and therefore privately. The political and police forces in such countries are well aware of this fact, but in the past they concentrated their efforts on uncontrolled street prostitution. In some countries legislation has been introduced that prohibits street prostitution, but allows prostitution in the form of licensed escort agencies and brothels.
Activities of an escort agency
Escort agencies take on the marketing for the escorts in particular . The customer acquisition results from an appealing presentation and advertising of the escorts. The escort agency takes over the creation of a sedcard for the escorts , which contains photos and the description of the respective person. This differs from sedcards for model agencies in that it is usually digital and has an increasingly erotic content, both in terms of the photos and the textual content. The content of a sedcard is heavily dependent on the customer orientation of the respective agency.
As the erotic aspect is usually always represented in the escort service, the personal characteristics and special erotic services of the respective escorts are listed in the sedcard. Nowadays, the sedcard is presented primarily on the agency's website and on local advertising portals for escort and companion services. Secondly, advertising is placed in daily newspapers and used traditional sales channels. Google closes since 2008 the application of monitoring and escort agencies to Google Adwords from.
Customer contact and advice, and thus also the coordination of bookings, is carried out by the escort agency. In addition to customer acquisition, this is a more time-consuming area of the service. Therefore, it is one of the main reasons why the cooperation with an escort agency is chosen, especially for professional escorts. By submitting the customer service, customers can be reached without having to answer the calls themselves.
The security aspect during an escort appointment is usually ensured by telephone contact. Since the escort can be reached by phone and the agency, as the contact person for the customer, signals that the appointment will be accompanied, the security for the escorts should be increased and attacks minimized. Accompanying agencies sometimes offer their own driver service, which is supposed to guarantee additional safety through greater presence.
According to a publication by Udo Gerheim for the German Institute for Human Rights , Dieter Kleiber and Doris Velten's "Everyman Hypothesis" is scientifically proven. This states that male prostitution customers from the average age, marital status , educational level , occupational and income groups do not differ as well in terms of psychological and violence-related parameters from the average male population.
The additional security guaranteed by an escort agency is therefore only partly justified, since there is no increased potential for violence from customers, but it can certainly be present, but in accordance with the average potential for violence of the population.
Differences to establishments
The escort and escort service shows differences to work in establishments despite the erotic offer. These mainly affect the sex workers themselves and their earnings.
The prices in the escort sector are higher than in establishments. Although prostitution customers do not differ from the average population in terms of overall income, customers of escort agencies tend to be in the higher-income sector due to the higher prices.
While in 2011 brothels in the middle price segment are asking for an average of 100 euros per hour, in the escort sector they start at 150 euros and up to 300 euros.
The prices in the upper segment affect the expectations and demands of customers. Weekly bookings are not uncommon in the escort sector. Accompanying agencies therefore try to achieve and justify the prices and booking duration through a targeted selection of the accompanying persons according to education and other socially-related criteria. Therefore, especially students are very often represented in the escort sector.
A survey published by the Studienkolleg zu Berlin states that 3.7% of all Berlin students are active as sex workers in the broader sense, with half offering erotic services and 80% offering these services as part of an escort service.
criticism
Reputable agencies are clearly outnumbered in this market. They provide accompaniment to events such as business lunches , balls or vernissages , whereby the service is clearly limited to this ( anchored in the terms and conditions of the respective agency). Most (dubious) agencies only supposedly book the services for accompanying people to a social event.
In practice (“escort agencies”), however, the services of escorts are mostly used with the aim of erotic or sexual contact . In countries where prostitution is forbidden, or in countries where prostitution is allowed but the mediation of sexual contacts as pimping is a punishable offense, escort agencies, but also individual escorts, protect themselves with the advice that payment is made exclusively for the company, but that ultimately people who enjoy each other cannot be prevented from having sex with each other .
Almost all escort agencies nowadays use the internet to advertise their offer. Depending on the legal circumstances, advertisements are also placed in daily newspapers, event calendars and other media. Customers can choose from the range at home and then book by email or phone. However, not all escort agencies only use real photos.
Motives and Distribution
In Germany there are only very few reputable agencies where celebrities and greats from the economy book escorts in order not to appear alone for a social occasion. The motives for a booking can be very different; occasionally to cover up homosexuality , for one's own image or to represent “success” in the broadest sense.
A report by the government in New Zealand, where prostitution has been legalized and regulated since 2003 , shows that around 20% of prostitutes working there work for escort agencies. In Europe around 26% of the escorts working in escort agencies come from an EU country. 34% come from Eastern Europe, 12% from Africa and 11% from Latin America. The motives of the employees in escort agencies are often economic, but with different starting situations. Migrant women in Germany make the decision to work as escorts, more in a situation of economic pressure, given limited alternatives.
See also
literature
- Jeannette Angell: call girl. My lucrative excursion to the oldest trade in the world (= Goldmann 15300 original ). Goldmann, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-442-15300-X .
- Martin Auer : Whore taxi. From the life of the call girls (= field research. Vol. 3). Lit, Vienna / Berlin / Münster 2006, ISBN 3-8258-9939-X .
- Belle de Jour : The intimate notes of a London call girl (= Goldmann 46069). Goldmann, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-442-46069-7 .
- Amanda Brooks : The Internet Escort's Handbook. Book 1: The Foundation. Basic mental, emotional and physical Considerations in Escort Work. Golden Girl Press, West Vancouver 2006, ISBN 0-9780944-0-9 .
- Amanda Brooks: The Internet Escort's Handbook. Book 2: Advertising and Marketing. Golden Girl Press, West Vancouver 2009, ISBN 978-0-9780944-1-6 .
- Ines Witka : Imagine that I am your secret lover. The charm of the escort service. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-89602-894-5 .
Individual evidence
- ^ FG Munich , decision of January 18, 2013, Az. 3 V 3225/12 full text .
- ↑ Phoenix Advice: Taxation of Prostitution (PDF; 55 kB).
- ↑ Google Policy for Adwords: Adwords and Companion Agencies .
- ^ Federal Ministry of Health , Dieter Kleiber / Doris Velten: Prostitutionskunden , 1994, ISBN 978-3-7890-3260-8 .
- ↑ Udo Gerheim - Motives of the male demand for sex for sale: Institute for Human Rights - Prostitution (PDF; 847 kB)
- ↑ a b Udo Gerheim: The production of the suitor - power in the field of prostitution 2012, ISBN 978-3-8376-1758-0 .
- ↑ Studienkolleg zu Berlin Survey: Part-time job prostitution (PDF; 193 kB).
- ↑ Snapshot of sex industry finds 6000 prostitutes
- ↑ Sex work in Europe ( Memento from July 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Barbara Kavemann, Heike Rabe: The Prostitution Act - Current research results, implementation and further development. Budrich Unipress (2008)
- ↑ Non-profit Foundation for Sexuality and Health (GSSG): Prostitution in Germany - Professional consideration of complex challenges .
