A Summary of Prostitution Laws in Arizona
At the federal level, prostitution is illegal. However, each state can set its own laws regarding the age of consent, what exactly constitutes prostitution, and what the legal repercussions are for committing prostitution-related crimes.
Arizona Revised Statute § 13-1401, the state’s definition of sex offenses, states that a person is guilty of prostitution if the person "engages in sexual conduct with another person in exchange for a fee." Sexual conduct, per Arizona Revised Statute § 13-1401, means "intentional or knowing direct or indirect physical contact with another person’s body either: (a) Including sexual intercourse… ." The state statute also tells us that prostitution offenses are usually Class 1 misdemeanors unless strict conditions are met , such as "The fee exceeds two hundred fifty dollars." In such a case, prostitution may be charged as a Class 5 felony.
Phoenix is specifically known for enforcing its prohibition of prostitution, making the city an extremely unpopular destination for sex workers. Still, there are plenty of people who practice it there, and doing so won’t necessarily get one arrested. If one suggests to a prostitute that he or she is theirs for the night and makes a certain amount of money changing hands, then that person will likely be arrested for solicitation.
Prostitution is not a sex crime. It is sex conduct in exchange for money. It has no victim other than the parties involved.
Charges and Penalties for Prostitution
Engaging in prostitution in Arizona, whether as a sex provider or customer, is a crime and comes with legal penalties. While the severity of the punishment depends on what the law enforcement officers uncover, the police officer making the arrest always overstates the issue to add pressure on a defendant to admit to wrongdoing and make a statement to incriminate themselves.
Prostitution is legally defined as:
- (1) For money or goods or services of value which are more than de minimis, knowingly engaging in sexual conduct with another person.
- (2) To knowingly solicit another person to engage with another person in sexual contact for money or goods or services of value which are more than de minimis.
- (3) Engaging in sexual contact for money or goods or services of value which are more than de minimis is a third degree felony.
While many lawmakers and government officials have tried to reform prostitution laws, there are those who believe that prostitution is a public issue and the approach has remained unchanged for years. That said, while sex solicitation may be a crime, the state does not investigate unless they have reason to believe that prostitution is occurring in their area and a police officer cannot make an arrest unless they witnessed with their own eyes the act of prostitution taking place.
If arrested for engaging in prostitution you could be sentenced to anywhere from 6 months in jail to 2 years. This is true whether you are a patron or provider of sexual services. The fine in both scenarios can be as high as $1,100. It’s important to remember that if there is any indication that you want to help yourself in the matter, such as if you cooperated with the police officers in the first instance, the prosecution may take the alleged charge into consideration later, and they may be more amenable to clemency should your case go to trial.
Considering the seriousness of this offense involving sexual conduct, the prosecution is always going to try and make the case against you as strong as possible. When in truth it is not a strong case at all. Because of this, engaging in prostitution should always be handled by a qualified prostitution defense attorney. If not it can mean jail time, a lasting criminal record, probation, and more.
Prostitution: An Inter-State Comparison
In comparison to a number of other states, prostitution is a crime in Arizona. In fact it is a class 1 misdemeanor as outlined under section 13-3202 of the Arizona Revised Statutes. In this state, like many others, prostitution and solicitation for prostitution are illegal. Solicitation can come in the form of either the person who wants to engage in sex acts for compensation or the person who pays a person for sex acts.
While they both are illegal, there are still a number of differences in the way prostitution and solicitation charges are treated between Arizona and other states. In some states like California, solicitation is not a criminal offense at all. Instead, it’s an infraction, which is often punished by fines.
The laws governing the request for and acceptance of compensation for sexual activity vary greatly from state to state. The definition of prostitution is not uniform among the states. Some states do not define prostitution as offering to engage in sexual conduct for compensation, but rather act of "sexual contact." Sexual conduct can be broadly defined in one state, while another state might only regulate sexual acts that involve penetration. In many states, there is no clear definition of "sexual conduct" and there are also some states where prostitution is only defined by the exemption clause. A "massages" bill was passed in Rhode Island and once in effect, it was expected that the licensed massage therapists in the state had nothing to worry about when it came to performing unlawful activities, thanks to a weak law. Like many other states, prostitution is illegal in Alaska but strictly regulated.
In New York, prostitution is a class B misdemeanor punishable by up to three months in jail. Solicitation is also punishable by a fine of $500 in NYC. New Jersey legislation is stricter with regards to prostitution laws as both prostitution and solicitation are treated as disorderly persons offenses and not misdemeanors. Offenders can face fines of up to $1,000 and imprisonment of up to six months in jail. Some states have chosen to decriminalize solicitation. This means that offers to exchange sex for compensation may not be treated as a crime.
This is not the case in Arizona where prostitution is illegal but much less regulated than it is in other states.
Prostitution’s Effects on Our Society
The criminalization of prostitution makes issues of sex work an ongoing source of societal concern, not only in Arizona but also nationwide. The creation of legal and societal structures that demand intervention and punishment for prostitution has a significant impact on our communities beyond merely designing the system by which we prosecute and punish those who engage in the trade. Prostitution law shapes perceptions of agency, morality, gender, sexuality, consent, ability, vulnerability, and much more. And when it comes to how societies think about sex workers, it affects everyone, regardless of whether they have any direct involvement in sex work.
Deviance, distress, or both, are often at the heart of societal concern with prostitution and sex trafficking. Those who engage in sex work have disturbing life circumstances that require policing and punishment. Those who pay for sex must be prevented from enabling exploitation and victimization among the most vulnerable in our society, usually by way of trafficking, addiction, or poverty. But often overlooked is the fact that many people consensually engage in sex work and sex trafficking is extremely rare.
The stigma of sex work—which is a relatively new phenomenon in human history—discourages individuals from openly discussing whether engagement with the trade is voluntary or not. Harmful binaries of agency versus victim are rarely the result of real inquiry into the motivations and intentions of sex workers. White western women are often at the forefront of this discussion, but not all sex workers fit in their neat boxes of choice and control. Furthermore, these binaries are also not particularly applicable to the reality of sex work. Agency and victimization aren’t binary, and neither are sex work and trafficking. The consenting sex worker and the victim of trafficking cannot be so easily separated.
The consequences of socializing our views of sex work and trafficking this way has resounding implications. Law enforcement and prosecutors have become invested in ensuring law enforcement budgets are adequate to target prostitution. Anti-trafficking campaigns, like the well-meaning "Say Something" campaign in Arizona , gain traction and funding from which law enforcement and NGOs uniquely profit. And the social justice movement has at times been absorbed by the message that sex workers’ best hope for security and safety lies in decriminalization, leaving many marginalized people without protection.
Prostitution laws can be weaponized against the most vulnerable populations: marginalized communities experience heightened risks of police violence and harassment; the LGBTQ community is targeted at higher rates than their heterosexual counterparts; and people of color are more likely to be arrested for prostitution offenses than their white counterparts. Immigrants are similarly subject to particular vulnerabilities as they may fear approaching law enforcement for help or information, or they are subject to increasingly restrictive immigration policies that criminalize their status and further enable police, ICE, and other law enforcement to target them. These vestiges of past are used to normalize and perpetuate the criminalization of sex workers, area-based policing, and continued prosecution of all those who engage in the trade, despite the fact that consent and agency cannot be so easily divided.
Community responses to sex work have generally focused on policing and punishment. This approach comes from a misunderstanding of who sex workers are, what motivates their work, and how they perceive their circumstances. Survival sex and sex trafficking are toxic and destructive realities that must be addressed and mitigated, but criminalizing the sex worker will not help victims. Law enforcement will not make all communities safer. And engaging in sex work is not a binary—even in a society where it is criminalized.
With this in mind, prostitution laws have profound impacts on individuals and communities. They create social structures of stigmatization and segregation that are used as justification for and tools of state violence. They define individuals as deviant not just through action, but by nature (though the "badness" of the act remains up for debate), and create a system by which those individuals are punished and members of the community are invited to engage in that punishment. A nuanced understanding of sex work and trafficking help us answer many questions about our social service frameworks, criminal justice system, and the communities we create.
Alternatives to the Current Prostitution Law
Until 2009, Arizona offered two "diversion" programs to sex workers caught up in criminal charges. The first was the Phoenix Prostitution Diversion Program (PPDP), which stopped diverting cases in 2006 but has since been reactivated by the Phoenix Court. The PPDP provides first-time offenders with treatment focused on mental health and substance abuse issues, as well as money management and job skills. Offenders must attend drug and alcohol treatment programs, must be abstinent from all drugs and alcohol, and are strictly monitored by probation officers to ensure their participation within the program. If they succeed, their cases are dismissed and will not appear on their criminal record.
The other diversion program is essentially a form of permanent home detention that is aimed at trafficking victims. Known as the Prostituted Minors Recovery Act, the program has little success with trafficking victims and is, according to some advocates, often used primarily for minors charged with prostitution.
While the PPDP remains active, there are no active criminal diversion programs for prostitution within the state. Numerous bills have been proposed recently to decriminalize prostitution and/or create diversion programs, but none passed into law.
In 2016, one bill sought to decriminalize prostitution and create a diversion program for prostituted children. However, the bill, which was introduced in the Arizona State Legislature by Rep. Lela Alston (D), did not provide any help for adult women and men charged with solicitation.
That same year, then-State Rep. Bob Thorpe (R) introduced a bill that would affect both minors and adults, and remove criminal penalties for prostitution. Thorpe’s bill was opposed by numerous advocacy groups who felt the bill was too broad and did nothing to help those people being exploited. The bill failed to pass.
More recently, in 2017, State Sen. Kelli Ward (R) supported several bills that sought to add an exemption for prostitution to the human trafficking laws that she was already sponsoring. All of these failed to pass.
The most current bill to be proposed in Arizona is HB2441, which was pre-filed on July 16, 2019. The bill would add an exemption to the state’s human trafficking law for individuals charged with solicitation, and would require law enforcement to divert people accused of prostitution to law enforcement-assisted diversion programs. The bill would mandate that such programs assist participants in "containing and addressing underlying driver issues contributing to the conduct resulting in arrest or citation," such as substance abuse disorders and mental illness. The bill would also protect participants from having a criminal record that would be detrimental when applying for jobs, education, or government assistance.
The bill has yet to be scheduled for a hearing. In early August 2019, it sat undiscussed in the Arizona Senate Rules Committee.
Common Questions about Prostitution in Arizona
Andrews attempts to clarify some of the more common questions about the legality of prostitution in Arizona:
1. Is prostitution legal in the entire state of Arizona? No, Arizona has judicial and legislative authority with respect to the regulation of its laws. Even if prostitution is legal in one part of the state, there are no guarantees that it will be legal in all parts of the state. When determining if a law is in effect, the areas of interest are the city and county in which the alleged violation occurred. Both city and county each have ordinances in effect that may or may not mirror each other or other Arizona statutes. Therefore, when determining if prostitution occurred, the location in which it occurred is essential.
2. Is "call girl" activity prostitution? Both call girls and escort services may involve prostitution. If sexual conduct is offered or provided in exchange for money, typically that conduct constitutes prostitution.
3 . Is "escort service" prostitution? As stated previously, both call girl and escort services may involve prostitution. If sexual conduct is offered or provided in exchange for money, typically that conduct constitutes prostitution.
- Are there any locations in Arizona, where prostitution is legal? Not that I am aware of; there may be a city or community in Arizona that has legalized prostitution, but I have no knowledge of this.
- Are there any circumstances under which solicitation of prostitution is legal? No.
- Are hookers or prostitutes ever legal? Arizona Revised Statutes Section 13-3214 makes it illegal to "perform or offer or agree to perform a sexual act . . ." in return for something of value.
- Are brothels ever legal? No. Arizona Revised Statute Section 13-3214 makes it illegal to "knowingly own, lease, manage, maintain, control, conduct, operate or permit a public or private place to be used for the purpose of prostitution." To the best of my knowledge, this is illegal throughout Arizona.