Prostitution Defense – Don’t Hesitate to Build Your Case

If you've been arrested for prostitution you need to ensure you hire a prostitution defense lawyer as soon as possible. It would be extremely unlikely that after your arrest you were not read your Miranda rights, which informs you of your right to remain silent and to have an attorney appointed if you could not afford one. Unfortunately many people make the mistake of believing that they can talk their way out of an arrest by cooperating with the police to the point that they incriminate themselves. When you are arrested you should cooperate fully with the police, but that doesn't mean you have to incriminate yourself in the process.

When the police begin to ask you questions, bear in mind they already know the answers to the questions they are asking. Your answers do little more than confirm what they suspected and this can help them build their case to present to the district attorney for prosecution.

In most states, prostitution is considered a misdemeanor crime that falls under the category of disorderly conduct. Prostitution itself is defined as exchanging sexual favors for monetary gain. Many police departments across the United States conduct sting operations using undercover police officers as both prostitutes and John's in order to make an arrest of those soliciting for sex on both ends of the equation.

If you've been arrested in a police sting operation, it may be harder for you to build a prostitution defense, but not impossible. A prostitution defense lawyer will look at several angles in order to build your defense, including your arrest record and how the police sting operation was conducted.

In order to prove a prostitution charge the prosecutor must show three things. They must demonstrate that there was a solicitation for sex and that you agreed to engage in sex for money. If you are arrested in a police sting operation this is generally as far as the case has to go, however if you are arrested and it was not part of the police operation the prosecution must also show that the sexual act occurred. This can be harder to do unless the John is cooperative, in which case he would also be charged with solicitation. This is why most prostitution arrests are the result of a police sting operation instead of a random arrest.

The penalties for prostitution if arrested and convicted generally include community service, court-ordered counseling, probation, jail time, and court fines. If you have been arrested and convicted of prostitution in the past you will likely face enhanced jail time as a further deterrent from re-offending. This is why it's important to ensure you limit how much you incriminate yourself after an arrest in order to help your attorney build the best defense case possible to avoid enhanced penalties if you are convicted.