Is it against the law for me to be in conversation with a hooker?

We rented and watched the movie I am Sam the other night, and in one fairly early scene a prostitute engaged Sam in conversation – pretty obviously flirting with him, he oblivious to the fact that she is doing so (let alone that she is a hooker), she oblivious to the fact that he is mentally retarded or developmentally disabled. Then the police come in and bust both of them.

I’ve seen variations on this theme in other movies and TV shows from time to time.

Am I incorrect in assuming that such arrests would not be legitimate arrests, and that no charges could be leveled at either party (give or take corrupt local officials in the police force and/or judiciary at any rate), without more taking place than these stereotypical incidents show taking place?

Specifically: Wouldn’t one party or the other need to outline a proposition that sex take place in exchange for a consideration in order for a crime to have taken place?

Quite aside from the letter of the law, am I incorrect in assuming that, aside from TV and movies, police officers do not go around arresting someone for “prostitution” or “soliciting a prostitute” for doing no more than walking back and forth on the sidewalk or hanging out in a hotel lobby or other pickup-worthy locale (female) or being found in the company of someone who happens to be known to be a prostitute? And that if they did, an individual subjected to such arrest would have no difficulties showing up in court and having the charges dismissed for lack of evidence?

I’ve always been told that it was illegal to talk about sexual relations and money with a hooker. Something along the lines of:
“How much?”
“What can you do?”
“Wanna have sex? I’ll pay you”:wink:

Back in my youth, i often ate at a slice place frequented by prostitutes, and the ladies and had many conversations.

Seriously, it would depend. I suppose if cops felt like they could make a case and arrested you, and then you and a hooker showed up in court claiming it weren’t no thing, well, a judge or jury might not be inclined to believe you and the lovely lady. As far as “I am Sam” goes, the sexual urges of such people are a major issue. (They’re not big children. They are adults with low inteligence.) If you look hard enough, I’m sure you can find someone in social work who’s had a problem with a group home member going out looking for a $20 blowjob.

I don’t think they can arrest you without hard evidence.

:smiley:

I don’t get it. What’s so sexually provocative about the line, “Are you taking any prescription medication?”

Oh, wait. Wrong movie. :slight_smile:

In my opinion, Prostitution is an agreement of an act of sex for an amount of money. You need two things: 1) sex 2) money. If you make an agreement with an undercover cop, can you be arrested? Sure, they do this on Cops all the time.

So long as you’re not talking about pricing or product, there’s not a whole lot they can do about it. Freedom of Assembly, you know.

I hope this is not too far off-topic, but this question is about situations where people have gotten arrested in movies for acts they might not have known they were doing.

Namely: I’ve seen movies where someone gets busted for “associating with a known [insert criminal type here]”. Hey! I didn’t know he was one of them!! Does this happen in real life?

I saw a Cops episode in which a woman offered a guy sex for free on the condition he gave her a loan.They arrested her for public lewdness.

It’s not illegal to have a simple conversation with a prostitute, though you run the risk of being cited for solicitation of prostitution if you do so in an area of high prostitution traffic. What level of risk really depends on what the political climate of your locality is at the moment you have your conversation.

In the movie (and, often, IRL), the police assumed that the conversation was a solicitation to engage in an act of prostitution (illegal almost everywhere in the US), and arrested both parties. OK, “assumed” is the wrong word. I’m sure the police officer would testify that he observed a person with whom he has had numerous encounters, all of which suggested that the person was a known prostitute, engaging a person of the opposite sex, acting in such a way as to suggest that she was negotiating an illegal transaction. Based upon that officer’s experience and training, he came to the conclusion that X and Y were soliciting for an act of prostitution.

Also in the city I worked in (well, in my brief experience as a prosecutor in a large city), this sort of thing wouldn’t go much beyond a brief detention. If anything, they would be cited on the scene, pressured into a “treatment” program, and released to “go and sin no more.” The officer would write up the arrest report, and forward it to a DA, who’d laugh heartily as he “circular filed” it. No jail time would be likely. Not even an immediate booking, just a confirmation of identity, a written citation with promise to appear (much like a traffic citation), and a stern warning not to return. Mind you, I’m not a police officer (never was), just a former prosecutor, though my work allowed me to see a lot of how vice departments worked.

I can’t say it doesn’t happen the way it was shown in NY, just that it wouldn’t have happened that way in my home town. Of course, showing it that way would have just looked dull on screen, and wouldn’t have served to progress the story. FWIW.

Keeve-

Sure, it happens all the time :rolleyes:. Seriously, the person of average intelligence would generally figure out what was going on pretty quickly, and is aware of the risk of being present and “associating” with someone who’s committing (or attempting to commit) a crime. For example, prostitutes are rarely subtle about their occupation. It doesn’t pay to be so.

P.S. Keeve, the rolleyes wasn’t directed at you, but at some jokers I saw in court who professed doe-eyed innocence and ignorance that such goings-on were going on about them.