Legal Definitions - Pandering

Pandering is a serious criminal offense that generally involves actively encouraging, persuading, or forcing another person into prostitution, or arranging opportunities for someone to engage in prostitution. It focuses on the actions of an individual who facilitates or initiates another person's involvement in commercial sex acts, often with the intent of profiting from their activities. The specific legal details and requirements for a pandering conviction can vary significantly from state to state.

Here are some examples to illustrate the concept of pandering:

• Example 1: A person approaches a vulnerable individual who is experiencing homelessness, offering them a place to stay and daily necessities, but only if they agree to engage in prostitution. The person then actively pressures and manipulates the individual into performing sex acts for money, which the person then collects.

  Explanation: This scenario illustrates pandering because the individual is compelling another person to become a prostitute by exploiting their vulnerable circumstances and offering inducements in exchange for engaging in commercial sex acts.

• Example 2: An individual creates and manages a sophisticated online platform that specifically advertises and connects people seeking sexual services with individuals willing to provide them. The platform operator takes a significant percentage of the fees for each arranged encounter, actively facilitating the transactions and providing a marketplace for prostitution.

  Explanation: This demonstrates pandering as the individual is arranging or offering to arrange situations where people may practice prostitution through the operation of their specialized online service, directly profiting from these arrangements.

• Example 3: The owner of a seemingly legitimate massage parlor instructs their receptionists to discreetly offer "additional services" of a sexual nature to clients. The owner then schedules specific employees to provide these services in private rooms within the parlor, taking a large portion of the payment for these illicit acts.

  Explanation: This is an example of pandering because the owner is actively arranging and facilitating situations for individuals to engage in prostitution within their establishment, creating the environment and managing the opportunities for commercial sex acts to occur.