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Solicitation is the act of offering, or attempting to purchase, goods and/or services. Legal status may be specific to the time or place where it occurs. The crime of "solicitation to commit a crime" occurs when a person encourages, "solicits, requests, commands, importunes or otherwise attempts to cause" another person to attempt or commit a crime, with the purpose of thereby facilitating the attempt or commission of that crime.
In Great Britain, the act of engaging in sex or exchanging various sexual services for money is legal, but a number of related activities, including soliciting in a public place, kerb crawling, owning or managing a brothel, and pimping, are illegal. In Northern Ireland, which previously had similar laws, paying for sex became illegal from 1 June 2015.
Loitering is the act of standing or waiting around idly without apparent purpose in some public places.
A kerb crawler is a person who drives around areas known for street prostitution, soliciting prostitutes for sexual activity. The act is known as kerb crawling because the person will typically drive very slowly along the kerbside.
Prostitution in Ireland is legal. However, since March 2017, it has been an offence to buy sex. All forms of third party involvement are illegal but are commonly practiced. Since the law that criminalises clients came into being, with the purpose of reducing the demand for prostitution, the number of prosecutions for the purchase of sex increased from 10 in 2018 to 92 in 2020. In a report from UCD's Sexual Exploitation Research Programme the development is called ”a promising start in interrupting the demand for prostitution.” Most prostitution in Ireland occurs indoors. Street prostitution has declined considerably in the 21st century, with the vast majority of prostitution now advertised on the internet.
Prostitution in Australia is governed by state and territory laws, which vary considerably, although none ban the selling of sex itself.
Prostitution in Belize is legal, but the buying of sexual services is not. Associated activities such as operating a brothel, loitering for the purposes of prostitution and soliciting sex are also illegal.
Current laws passed by the Parliament of Canada in 2014 make it illegal to purchase or advertise sexual services and illegal to live on the material benefits from sex work. The law officially enacted criminal penalties for "Purchasing sexual services and communicating in any place for that purpose."
The legality of prostitution in Europe varies by country.
Prostitution in Scotland has been similar to that in England under the State of Union, but since devolution, the new Scottish Parliament has pursued its own policies.
There are a number of sexual offences under the law of England and Wales, the law of Scotland, and the law of Northern Ireland.
Prostitution in Northern Ireland is governed by the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Act 2015, which makes it illegal to pay for sex in Northern Ireland. Prior to the act coming into effect, prostitution in Northern Ireland was regulated by the same or similar laws to those in England and Wales, as it is elsewhere in the United Kingdom. At that time, prostitution in Northern Ireland was legal subject to a number of restraints which controlled certain activities associated with prostitution, such as soliciting, procuring, living on the proceeds of prostitution (pimping), exploitation of prostitutes, under-age prostitution, and keeping a brothel. However, devolution provided the opportunity for separate legislation in Northern Ireland.
Prostitution in Namibia is legal and a highly prevalent common practice. Related activities such as solicitation, procuring and being involved in the running of a brothel are illegal. A World Bank study estimated there were about 11,000 prostitutes in Namibia.
Canada inherited its criminal laws from England. The first recorded laws dealing with prostitution were in Nova Scotia in 1759, although as early as August 19, 1675 the Sovereign Council of New France convicted Catherine Guichelin, one of the King's Daughters, with leading a "life scandalous and dishonest to the public", declared her a prostitute and banished her from the walls of Quebec City under threat of the whip. Following Canadian Confederation, the laws were consolidated in the Criminal Code. These dealt principally with pimping, procuring, operating brothels and soliciting. Most amendments to date have dealt with the latter, originally classified as a vagrancy offence, this was amended to soliciting in 1972, and communicating in 1985. Since the Charter of Rights and Freedoms became law, the constitutionality of Canada's prostitution laws have been challenged on a number of occasions.
The Street Offences Act 1959 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning street prostitution. It was passed following the publication of the Wolfenden report which discussed the rise in street prostitution at the time.
Prostitution in Oceania varies greatly across the region. In American Samoa, for instance, prostitution is illegal, whereas in New Zealand most aspects of the trade are decriminalised.
A Soho walk-up is a flat in Soho, London, United Kingdom, that is used by a female sex worker for the purposes of prostitution. The flats are located on the upper floors of buildings in Soho's red light district, often above shops, and accessed by a staircase from a door on the street. They form a distinctive way of working that is characteristic of the sex industry in Soho, originating in the 1960s and declining during the 21st century.
Crown dependencies are independently administered jurisdictions which do not form part of either the United Kingdom or the British Overseas Territories. They are self-governing possessions of the Crown. Internationally, the dependencies are considered "territories for which the United Kingdom is responsible", rather than sovereign states.
Streetwalking consists of individuals, primarily women, standing on street corners selling sex to passersby. In Scotland, this practice was most prevalent in busy city areas, where there were more potential clients. Specific areas with high numbers of prostitution offenses depended on economic, social, and political circumstances. Scottish laws were against soliciting for the purpose of selling sex, with many warnings and little punishment given. Policies against streetwalking were specific to local districts, with the most severe sanctions given in big cities. Laws regarding prostitution were applied differently towards men and women, which was met with protest. The police, government agencies, and Scottish churches contributed to the public opinion about prostitution, which had a variety of implications for streetwalkers. Advocacy groups became more common towards the end of the twentieth-century following the Women's Suffrage Movement and attacks on sex workers.
A prostitute's caution is a type of police caution in the United Kingdom. They are issued to those the police consider to be "loitering and soliciting". Unlike other forms of police cautions, they are not regulated by statute law, but are based on an agreement between British police chiefs.
References
- ↑ Street Offences Act 1959
- ↑ Rob Jerrard. "Prostitution, "Common Prostitutes", "Living" and "loiter" what do they mean?". Archived from the original on 2007-09-04. Retrieved 2007-11-25.
- ↑ "'Common prostitute' erased from law". Metro. 2007-06-26. Retrieved 2007-11-25.
- ↑ Prostitution loitering paying or soliciting a prostitute subjected to force Archived 2010-12-01 at the Wayback Machine