This is a very good point - because the costs of trusting the wrong person are so high (Jail, them stealing your money) then the most important thing for criminals is a solid understanding of the background of the other person.
This is why families and old school friends frequently figure together. And why jail makes for furure partners.
Perhaps we should start oldjailbuddy.com - networking for criminals
It's actually just one example of my point - we don't really need to speculate on whether there's a market or if not, why not.
It's like if entrapment convinces your performance-oriented daughter who's short on cash (to make this an analogy with the artist in this article) to have sex for money as a kind of performance (same convoluted logic as the artist's in the article).
If afterwards she tries again, there's no proof there's actually a criminal market for her and her criminal soliciting skills learned for the entrapment. But she may or may not know that. One entrapment operation can ruin your daughter's life, who perhaps had literally never given a single thought to prostitution, just as you and I have never thought of armed robbery. It's like a fucked-up internship offered by the government, only instead of setting you up for life with your newfound skills, it fucks you up for life, as in the case we've just read about.
This is why families and old school friends frequently figure together. And why jail makes for furure partners.
Perhaps we should start oldjailbuddy.com - networking for criminals