Before we answer that question, let’s take a look at exactly what we mean when we say “escort”. The most common current definition of the term ‘escort’ would be a call girl, or a sex worker who doesn’t display her profession openly, unlike a prostitute who works ‘on the street’ or in a brothel. Call girls usually either work for themselves, setting up their meetings with clients online, or through an escort agency as a medium.
In most cases, clients set up meetings with call girls by calling a provided number where they provide payment information ahead of time and settle on a time to meet. Either way, the clear implication is that a client who books a call girl is arranging a sex-for-money transaction. The idea of an escort as an attractive woman who goes with a man to an event as his “date” (in other words “escorting” him to a public event) for the evening so he doesn’t have to go alone, is quaint but very rare these days.
So if an escort is just another name for prostitute…
In Michigan, prostitution is illegal, and anyone who provides sex or sexual acts in exchange for money can be charged with prostitution. You may call it ‘hiring an escort’ or ‘acquiring the services of a call girl’ but it makes no difference. Using different names doesn’t change the facts in the eyes of the law. If you pay someone to have sex with you, or to perform sexual acts on you (or on another person for you to watch), then you’re engaging in prostitution and you could be charged with a crime.
Under Michigan law, prostitution is a misdemeanor, at least for the first and second offenses. Only when you’re arrested for prostitution for three or more times will you be charged with a felony. This is actually an interesting fact, because many other associated crimes, like Pandering, Sharing in the Earnings of a Prostitute, or Maintaining a House for Prostitution, are all felonies right from the get-go!
Hollywood makes it look glamorous, but there’s nothing glam about jail!
Movies and TV shows make the life of an escort seem glamorous, and by default, the lives of her clients. But true to form, the Hollywood machine only shows part of the story. The Client List, The Girlfriend Experience, Chloe, and Secret Diary of a Call Girl all show the life of escorts as being lucrative and exciting. What they fail to show is the increased risk of STDs and violence, and the time spent in jail.
And remember, while the traditional view of prostitution, or hiring an escort, involves an exchange of money for sex, offering someone favors, items, gifts of value, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, rent money, help, future employment, discounts on payments or purchases, or anything else of value, still counts as payment when it comes to prostitution charges.
Sex crime charges are no joke in Michigan!
The idea of hiring an escort may sound exciting and glamorous, but the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. And having a sex crime in your criminal history, or having to explain to your future boss why you’re on the sex offender registry isn’t remotely exciting or glamorous. So if we can leave you with one piece of advice it would be this: never pay for sex unless you’re in a place where it’s legal to do so. For example, some counties in Nevada have legal brothels.
If you’ve made a mistake, misunderstood the law, or been accused of any sex crime, we urge you to call Michigan’s Top Criminal Defense Attorneys, The Kronzek Firm at 866 766 5245 (866 7No Jail). Our skilled and highly regarded sex crime defense attorneys have spent decades successfully defending the people of Michigan against sex crime conviction, and everything that entails (think: sex offender registry!) We’ve been fighting for our clients right here in Michigan for nearly a quarter century. We can help you too.