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Criminal Law Newsletter

Distinctions Between Pimping and Pandering

The crimes of pimping and pandering target the same type of individual, but they are actually different crimes created to prevent two different and distinguishable types of conduct.

Pimping

Pimping is the commercial exploitation of a prostitute. Anyone, whether male or female, who derives support from a prostitute’s earnings can be guilty of pimping. However, one key element to the crime is that the person involved with the pimp must actually be a prostitute; if he or she is not, then there is no pimping despite the exploitation. Interestingly, the crime of pimping was actually created to discourage anyone other than the prostitute from deriving money from prostitution, thereby discouraging the practice of pimping.

Pandering

Pandering, on the other hand, occurs when someone encourages another to become a prostitute. This may be accomplished by putting someone in a place where prostitution is encouraged or by promising, threatening, or using violence to induce someone to become a prostitute. While this crime appears to punish the pimp (the individual who is inducing another to become a prostitute), it was actually created to prevent prostitution because it is primarily aimed at stopping the inducement to become a prostitute.

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