West Palm Beach Prostitution Lawyer
Sex crimes are serious, and having a charge for a prostitution crime on your record can affect your reputation and your future. Florida law prohibits engaging in prostitution and soliciting a prostitute, and also prohibits third parties from facilitating or engaging in the business of prostitution. If you have been charged with a prostitution crime in Florida, you should call a West Palm Beach prostitution lawyer today.
Prostitution and Solicitation
Prostitution and solicitation are criminal offenses in Florida. It is illegal to buy, sell, offer, solicit, or agree to engage in sexual favors in exchange for money. Florida’s prostitution laws apply both to prostitutes and to johns, or those who act as customers.
Florida law prohibits merely agreeing to engage in prostitution or soliciting a prostitute. Actually engaging in sexual acts is not required for criminal prosecution, and a defendant can be convicted based on words alone, without any physical evidence.
Prostitution and solicitation are second-degree misdemeanors for a first violation. The charges escalate with every subsequent offense.
Pimping and Pandering
Florida law also targets those who make money from the sex trade, which are generally more serious offenses than prostitution and solicitation. In Florida, it is against the law to pimp, meaning to make money from another’s acts of prostitution. Living off of or being supported by such money is a second-degree felony for a first offense.
Pandering, meaning facilitating or promoting prostitution, is also a criminal offense. Enticing or procuring someone to engage in prostitution is a first-degree misdemeanor for a first violation. It is also illegal to offer to find someone engage in prostitution, to direct anyone to a place of prostitution, to enter or remain in any place or vehicle for purposes of prostitution, or to transport anyone to a place for prostitution.
Owning, renting or operating property for the purpose of facilitating prostitution is also a crime in Florida. If a person owns property and rents it to another, knowing that the renter is going to use the property for prostitution, he or she commits a second-degree misdemeanor for a first violation.
Coercing or forcing someone to engage in prostitution is a more serious crime, and is a third-degree felony. Additionally, the person who has been coerced has a civil cause of action against the coercer and can collect money damages to compensate him or her for the harm caused as a result of the force.
Florida Prostitution Laws
In Florida, prostitution is the use of one’s body to give or receive sexual acts in exchange for money, goods, or services. Prostitution is one of several crimes where a person may be convicted for his or her involvement without physically being involved in the sexual acts; this is because for many who are convicted for their involvement in the crime, it is because they coerce or otherwise force another to engage in the sexual acts. A person in this case may be colloquially known as a “pimp” where the person who is actually engaging in the sex act may be unable to consent to or benefit financially from the act. If you or a loved one have been arrested for participation or involvement in prostitution, please contact West Palm Beach criminal defense attorney William Wallshein for a confidential consultation.
Florida’s Prostitution and the Criminal Liability for Everyone Involved
In Florida, it is illegal to be connected to prostitution in the following ways:
- Engaging in the sexual act as a patron who enjoys the services of the prostitute;
- Owning, maintaining, renting, or leasing space knowing that the premises will be used for these illegal sexual services;
- Offering or agreeing to provide a person that a patron may use or engage in sexual acts with;
- Knowingly transporting or otherwise directing a person to the premises where illegal sex acts for hire will take place; among other criminal acts associated with prostitution.
The Law Against Benefiting or Deriving Support from the Proceeds of Prostitution
It is also a criminal offense to knowingly derive support or benefit from the proceeds of prostitution. To knowingly benefit from the proceeds of prostitution, a first offense will lead to a conviction of a second-degree felony conviction; a second offense will lead to a conviction of a first-degree felony conviction; and a third and any subsequent offenses will lead to a first-degree felony conviction with a fixed minimum criminal sentence of 10 years.
Criminal Punishments for Spreading Sexually Transmissible Diseases and HIV
There are also serious criminal punishments for those involved in prostitution who may transmit any sexually transmissible disease to others as a result of illegal sexual acts. The seriousness of the crime of spreading sexually transmissible diseases (STD) stems from public health and welfare concerns where there is a serious fear of transmission of these diseases throughout the population, including those who have not engaged in illegal sex acts. Those who have been arrested and/or convicted of prostitution must undergo screening for sexually transmitted diseases. In the event that the person is found to be positive for an STD, he or she will be required to start a treatment plan and submit to any and all tests and treatments associated with this treatment plan.
Protecting Public Welfare from HIV/STD Exposure
It is unlawful in Florida for prostitutes who know that they are infected with HIV or another sexually transmitted disease to engage in prostitution. It is also illegal for anyone infected with HIV to offer to engage in prostitution. This offense is a third-degree felony for those infected with HIV and a first-degree misdemeanor for those infected with other sexually transmitted diseases.
If the person who was engaging in prostitution knew or should have known that he or she had been diagnosed or exposed to an STD, but continued to engage in illegal sexual acts, he or she may be convicted and given a sentence associated with a misdemeanor in the first degree. This conviction will be based on the type of STD and the extent to which the STD may be treatable for those who were exposed as a result of the prostitution.
However, when a person engages in illegal sex acts and knows or had reason to know that he or she had been diagnosed with or exposed to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), he or she may be charged with criminal transmission of HIV, which can be a third-degree felony. This is due to the life-altering effects (and possible life-threatening results) of HIV, and the threats to public safety and welfare resulting from widespread exposure.
Minors
It is a more serious crime to solicit a minor for prostitution or be involved with a minor’s prostitution. In Florida, the charges are more serious, and go up one step if a minor is involved. For example, if a crime is a second degree misdemeanor if the prostitute is an adult, it will be a first degree misdemeanor if the prostitute is underage.
Defenses
Entrapment is a defense to prostitution crimes. It is available when a law enforcement officer improperly induces a defendant to engage in a prostitution offense. If the defendant would not have engaged in prostitution except that a police officer pressured him or her into it, the defendant may assert this defense and avoid conviction.
Contact An Experienced West Palm Beach Prostitution Lawyer
If you have been charged with a prostitution offense, please contact West Palm Beach criminal defense attorney William Wallshein to schedule a free initial consultation.
