Call girl

A call girl is a prostitute who is not visible to the general public, like a street walker, and does not commonly belong to an institution like a brothel. One must summon her, usually by calling a telephone number, although an intermediary such as an escort agency, pimp or a pander may be involved. By this act of calling the term call girl was derived.

Call girls are commonly perceived to be of the highest social standing amongst prostitutes, far more skilled, able to pick and choose amongst their potential clients and therefore demand higher prices for their favors. In practice, a call girl may be the same woman whom the customer or john saw soliciting on a street corner only moments before.

Sometimes police carries out a sting operation: a police officer, posing as a client, summons a call girl to a hired hotel room.

In the Netherlands this is carried out since 2004; although this business is not illegal per se, until now in half of the cases the prostitute was a foreigner illegally staying or working in the country. The operation also serves to check the age of the prostitute: if he or she is below 18, the escort agency violates the law. To avoid entrapment police does not specially ask for a foreign or very young call girl.