Involvement of Escort Service in Illegal Conducts – Case Study of a Local City

• Main Authors: CHEN,YING-KAI, 陳英凱
• Other Authors: YANG,SHIH-LONG
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/7qpn2q

碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 犯罪防治碩士在職專班 === 104 === Cabarets, amongst the special businesses in Taiwan today, are the entertainment places where people go to relax and enjoy. Since 1990s, escort service has started to emerge as pimps and escort girls showed up on the floor. Recent news reports have indicated that there are loudly dressed escort girls at several chain karaoke places as locally known, in a local city. They just sit around at the lobby and waiting to be chosen by customers to sing with them, as if it was a “market of human flesh.” However, illegal conducts arise from such activities, including violent fights, drug deals, gangster negotiations and sexual assault on drunken women (sexual harassment, or “body pickup” as locally referred to), which cause serious problems for the society in general and concerns of the public. Qualitative Research was adopted in this study. In-depth interviews and purposive sampling were employed on 4 karaoke places in the local city of study and 7 male and female members of the escort service. In addition, 6 law enforcement members of heterogeneous nature, including a crime investigation officer, a member of organized crime investigation unit, a sergeant who participated in the investigation of police officer murder in Taipei, the director of local police station, a senior patrol officer and a policeman, were interviewed. The interview also covered 2 owners of KTV and an officer from Department of Economic Development of the local city of study. In total 16 were interviewed for better understanding of the illegal behaviors derived from this trade of business and as an attempt to propose strategies and suggestions. It is found that pimps and escort girls present at chain cabarets and karaoke places soliciting their service in not unique to the local city of study. Increased abuse of narcotics and drugs is detected in such entertainment places. Since there is no law regulating the “singing escort by pimps and escort girls,” illegal conducts arise from such behaviors, including gangster negotiation, violence crime, sexual assault, sexual harassment and drunk and drive. The authority should develop a defined set of rules to ask these business owners to establish self-management, as to prevent crimes of violence and disturbance of society at karaoke places, night clubs and other businesses that open late at night. To deal with this once and for all, it is the government’s responsibility to develop a dedicated set of legislation specifically for these business places and seamlessly connect with the management policies of municipalities and local administrations for special business in order to construct a development package for domestic entertainment industry, enhance the safety management specifications for this domain, keep karaoke places from gangster crimes, drugs and sex trades, and give people of Taiwan a clear, healthy and legitimate place of entertainment.