Chapter 5 The Dark Side of Routine Dynamics: Deceit and the Work of Romeo Pimps

In this chapter, the authors examine the use of deceit to drive routine emergence. The authors do so by tracing the relationship among deceit, roles, and routine dynamics in the context of Romeo pimps and the women they lure into sex trafficking. Previous research has focused on routine participants openly negotiating their roles and expected interactions during the (re) creation of routines. In contrast, this study shows how Romeo pimps use deceit to control the co-constitution of roles and increasingly coercive actions of the “Romeo pimp routine” – a process of premeditated routine emergence designed to entrap the women. The authors contribute to the literature on routine dynamics by emphasizing the unexplored influence of deceit on the interplay between roles and routines. Bringing deception to center stage in routine dynamics highlights the importance of linking actors and actions to motivations that exist behind the veil of transparently observable behavior.