Anti-prostitution laws seem to be pretty strict around here, yet the newspaper is full of ads for escort services that certainly indicate that they offer a good deal more than somebody to go bowling or play checkers with. How do they get away with it?
They’re not out on the street, and the police would have to set up a sting operation to prove that they’re breaking the law. They don’t have the manpower. Even then, I don’t know if they would be able to get the company. They might only be able to get the individual.
Agreed, but why don’t the police suggest to the newspapers that they not run such ads? It’s hardly a First Amendment issue to claim that the newspapers have a right to run ads for illegal services.
Sure they can suggest, but the papers need the advertising income, and nothing illegal appears in the ad. All they’re advertising is an attractive escort for wherever it is that you’re going. (Why some people want or need such a thing is beyond me, but its a free country…)
The ads I have seen suggest thhings like “special” massages and fetish play but don’t come out and say they will have sex. What they advertize is legal -what happens behind closed doors is between the client and the person offering services.
As long as the escorts are offering only their time for sale and not a direct exchange of sex for money, the ads are legal. It is no more illegal for someone to offer their time for sale as a companion than it is for you or me to offer our time for sale to an employer to answer phones or sweep floors or perform surgery. Of course with many of these ads there is the understanding that tips are accepted, and many ads (mostly on the web is where I’ve seen this) there is a line in the ad that specifically states “prices are for the escort’s time only. Anything that happens between client and escort during that time is completely consensual and is not for money” or words to that effect. IANAL and YMMV.
“It’s hardly a First Amendment issue to claim that the newspapers have a right to run ads for illegal services.”
Where’s the proof that the services are illegal ?
Good points. It does remind tho, of an episode of “Dave Attell up all night”, when he took a hooker, in full regalia, bowling.
I did a website for a local escort once. There wasn’t anything illegal about it. The only thing that I thought was weird was that her massages started at $160 per hour.
Another lady wanted to become an escort, so she gave another escort agency a call & they said they get $160 & she could have anything above that.
The rest I guess is just left to the imagination.
This is a matter of letting an obvious dodge slide because of what can happen if the police are given too much interpretive power. Yes, escort services are obviously just covers for prostitution, but they aren’t openly advertising prostitution. Why does that matter? If the police can say “Well, everybody knows this about escort services”, then they can come along and say “Well, everybody knows that X Cultural Center is just a cover for seditious activity”. It has happened before in the USA.
My understanding (not from personal experience) is that the “escort” will request that the “client” remove their cloths first before any negotiation for sex takes place. A police officer cannot do that and still make an arrest. So how are you going to bust them unless they get careless and/or are into other illegal business like dealing drugs?
The pragmatic side of the situation is that the police are much more concerned with what takes place and is visible on the street. Hookers taking over a neighborhood is bad for the community. What happens in private between consenting adults is not worth the time and resources of a police department.
Hmmm…so this does sound like a case of, “As long as you don’t do it in the streets, it’s OK.” I knew that was the unwritten law in England for a long time, but I wasn’t sure of it here. Gotcha.
Spartydog, a police officer can strip naked, swear that he’s not an officer, smoke a joint, paint “I am not a cop” on his belly, have sex with the escort, sell her some cocaine, and still arrest her for prosititution. Most of the ‘a cop can’t arrest you if you do this magic thing’ rules are completely wrong. Some or all of the above is probably against departmental policy or local law (and so would get him into trouble), but it doesn’t make the another crime go away.
There are two ways that escort services ‘get away with it’; one of them is simply not being on the street. Most anti-prositution laws are really aimed at street prositution, in general the voting population will get pissed about streetwalkers and doesn’t really care about what escorts do where they can’t see. The other one is offering services that don’t qualify as prostitution in the local jurisdiction; while genital-genital contact is almost always verboten, other techniques may not be, thus neatly avoiding the risk of prosecution.
Riboflavin–you’re correct that cops can still arrest prostitutes no matter what they do, but departmental policy usually forbids cops from doing certain things, rather than just getting them into trouble if they do them. IIRC, New Orleans has a policy that cops can’t get completely naked with prostitutes, which greatly impairs their ability to fight prositution, since all prostitutes now require their clients to strip naked before making any formal offer.
I’m talking about the practicality of the situation. No, the “crime” doesn’t go away but in reality, the ability to prosecute the crime goes away. Try taking that scenario into court against a half competent defense lawyer and see how far you get. The policeman’s credibility is shot to hell and the judge would probably give the cop a dressing down that would make him look more ridiculous than he looked when he made the arrest.
Police sometimes do stupid things but on the whole they see enough of the real world to not waste their time on situations that will do nothing but cause them aggravation.
P.S. That doesn’t mean that they will never bust an escort service. There just may be another agenda that is being attended to. Also, what is ignored in a major city is not always the same as what is ignored/tolerated in some other community.
unless you can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they are committing a crime then you cant do anything. Prostitution rings get busted usually because of complaints from residents of the neighborhood wheres it’s taking place, or if the city in general is in a state of gentrification. its pretty much impossible to catch call girls or escorts red handed, unless they’re stupid enough to blatantly advertise their services. any way this is what i know from living in the city i currently live in. if any one else has had different experiences please do share.
Zombie escorts.
I don’t know whether this zombie is worth feeding, but here are some brains anyway –
Escort services do occasionally get busted. In 2008, the “D.C. Madam” was convicted of racketeering, illegal use of the mail, and money laundering. She hanged herself rather than serve a prison sentence. One of her customers was U.S. Sen. David B. Vitter (R-La.), who has not been convicted of anything (statute of limitations) and has not hanged himself and who still serves in the U.S. Senate.
Note that from what little I have seen, hookers dress slightly more conservatively than today’s girls out niteclubbing.
Brains is brains, so what the hell.
New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was busted with a hooker from a “VIP Club.” What actually happened was that Spitzer transferred more than $10,000 from his bank account to the club, which automatically triggered a report to the IRS. Suspicions were raised when Spitzer tried to break his transactions into smaller chunks, which wouldn’t trigger the automatic report. However, it was orginally believed that Spitzer was either the target of extortion, or identity theft, not that he was consorting with hookers.