Pandering
Pandering refers to the acts of intermediaries who exploit individuals engaged in prostitution, often categorized as pimping, procuring, or promoting prostitution. It is generally illegal in all states, targeting those who act as agents for prostitutes or derive financial support from their activities, rather than the prostitutes themselves. Although pandering offenses are typically classified as misdemeanors, some states impose harsher penalties, especially for cases involving coercion, minors, or vulnerable individuals. Pimps, usually men, are primarily responsible for finding clients for prostitutes and may use violence, drugs, or threats to maintain control. Madams, on the other hand, often run houses of prostitution, managing operations and taking a cut of the earnings. Legal challenges in prosecuting pandering cases can arise, particularly due to the reliance on the testimony of the exploited individuals. Furthermore, the transport of individuals across state lines for prostitution is regulated by federal law, specifically the Mann Act, which supersedes state laws on this issue. Understanding the nuances of pandering is essential for grasping the complexities surrounding the legal and social aspects of prostitution.
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Pandering
SIGNIFICANCE: The acts of intermediaries who exploit prostitutes or who act as agents for prostitutes are prohibited in all states. Such conduct is variously known as pandering, pimping, procuring, promoting prostitution, and deriving support from prostitution. Laws against such behavior are directed against those who act as agents for prostitutes or who derive support from prostitutes, not against prostitutes themselves.
Under most circumstances these offenses are characterized as misdemeanors, but some states provide harsher punishments for pandering offenses than for prostitution itself. Some statutes provide higher penalties for those who compel others to enter into prostitution by force or threat of force, for those who promote the prostitution of a minor, or for those who promote the prostitution of a spouse, child, or ward. The Model Penal Code, for example, makes such offenses felonies as opposed to misdemeanors.
Commonly, persons who engage in pandering are called either pimps or madams. Pimps are usually men who obtain customers for prostitutes, who induce other people to enter into prostitution, or who receive all or part of the earnings of a prostitute. The relationship between a pimp and the prostitutes who work for him is frequently characterized by violence and exploitation. Pimps are notorious for supplying drugs to prostitutes in order to keep them in a state of dependence and generally induce prostitutes to work for them either by promises of protection and money or by force or threat of force. Prosecutions against pimps can be difficult to maintain, since the testimony of the prostitutes they exploit is often necessary to support a conviction and prostitutes may be reluctant to testify.
Madams are usually women who operate houses of prostitution. They procure customers for prostitutes, provide a place for prostitution to be performed, and take a percentage of prostitutes’ earnings. Maintaining a house of prostitution is illegal in almost every state. Laws against this offense generally require that prostitution be regularly engaged in on the premises and that the person maintaining or having control of the property have knowledge of the activity.
In some jurisdictions it is also illegal to transport a person for the purpose of prostitution. In order for state laws of this nature to be valid, they must encompass transportation only within that particular state. Any state laws which presume to prohibit interstate transportation of persons for the purpose of prostitution will be held invalid as being in conflict with the federal White Slave Traffic Act of 1910, also known as the Mann Act, which prohibits such interstate transportation under the principle that federal legislation regarding any form of interstate commerce always supersedes state legislation on the subject.
Bibliography
Chapkis, Wendy. Live Sex Acts: Women Performing Erotic Labor. New York: Routledge, 1997.
Fleiss, Heidi. Pandering. Los Angeles: One Hour Entertainment, 2002.
Meier, Robert, and Gilbert Geis. Victimless Crime? Prostitution, Drugs, Homosexuality, and Abortion. Los Angeles: Roxbury, 1997.
"Pandering." Cornell Law School, August 2020, www.law.cornell.edu/wex/pandering. Accessed 8 July 2024.