The Legality of Escort Services. Escort services is usually described where companionship is hired for a night of entertainment or for more a night of intimate but non-sexual services, such as massage. For the most part, these services are legal in the U.S. The state legislatures however recognize the reality that escort services are part of the adult entertainment business and pass various measures to control these services and to ensure that they are distinct from prostitution which is illegal everywhere (except strangely some outlying districts of Nevada).
The most obvious reason for this is anxiety is over the exploitation of minors. Others are rooted in an intolerance of prostitution in American culture since the prohibition era and the recognition that it is often a front for other organized criminal activities.
Different approaches are taken by different states. Some use a regulatory approach and attempt to control the activities that take place through indirect means. Utah taxes escort services where they advertise themselves through partial nudity (leaving the obvious loophole of advertising through fully but glamorously dressed females). North Carolina uses zoning laws to establish and maintain boundaries between adult entertainment areas and other 'family' zones. California law requires escort services to have a police license, thus allowing 'unsuitable' businesses to be closed without the necessity of proving criminal charges.
Both federal and state legislatures use anti-trafficking legislation to prevent adult services being sold across state lines again to prevent the exploitation of minors or foreign nationals.
Finally, all states use traditional anti-prostitution legislation to deal with escort services or escorts who step over the line. There are various legal positions on where this line is but most states take it that an explicit ('verbal') offer of genital based sexual activity in return for an explicit offer of money constitutes prostitution. This does not, however, prevent an escort being hired for other services and deciding on a personal basis to have sex with the customer. And in some states or cities (Seattle, for example) if money put down in return but it is not made verbalized that this would happen then prostitution is not deemed to take place.
In most cases, the prostitute is arrested and charged. Different states and districts take different views of the customer. There is evidence of inconsistencies in the application of the law, depending on local tolerance of the activities. The owners of escort services may be indicted but only if it can be proved that they 'knowingly' ran the escort agency as a prostitution service.
The legality of Internet advertising of escort services is also questionable. An advert which is legal in California may break laws in Florida. The age of consent also differs between states meaning that simply entering the site and viewing a picture may leave the individual open to charges of pedophilia. Many sites have taken to posting legal warnings but the technology forces them to leave the decision to enter the site to the customer's discretion.
The UK legal system is often a version of the jokes about good news and bad news.
Prostitution - exchanging participation in sexual activities for money or other goods - has always been legal in the UK. It's actually arguably more acceptable to charge for your sexual skills than your cooking or brewing skills - you need a certificate or licence for the latter two!
However, many of the activities that prostitution often involve are illegal.
The legal situation in England and Wales has changed over time, and keeps changing. A government consultation on sex work laws, Paying the Price, was held in 2004 and we await developments from that. The London market is booming since the EU expansion in May 2004 and with a flood of gorgeous women coming to work to the UK - there has never been a better time from a customer's point view as the competition in the business is fierce.
Escort services do provide a tantalizing and for the most part enjoyable experience. Do your research and go in with your head free of assumptions. In short, as in any area of adult entertainment, discretion is the better part of value.
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