this is a very wide generalization and is a line of thinking often used as justification for police and state violence against sex workers.

Exploitation and violence from third parties are certainly an issue, however this also tends to be over-applied or used to conflate sex work and human trafficking as the same thing.

I’d also recommend not using the term “pimp” as it’s a very gendered, racialized and classed term. The term “pimp” does not recognize the range of third party roles, the services they provide nor the relationships they have with sex workers.