Soliciting

Solicitation is the act of offering, or attempting to purchase, goods or services. Legal status may be specific to the time or place where occurs. The crime of "solicitation to commit a crime" occurs when a person encourages, "solicits, requests, commands, importunes or otherwise attempts to cause" another person to attempt or commit a crime, with the purpose of thereby facilitating the attempt or commission of that crime.

In England and Wales, the term soliciting is usually "for a person (whether male or female) persistently to loiter or solicit in a street or public place for the purpose of prostitution" under the Street Offences Act 1959 as amended. The crime of soliciting should not be confused with the profession of a solicitor, which under UK law is typically that of a lawyer, who may also function as a legal agent to obtain the services of a barrister on behalf of a client.

In the United States, solicitation is the name of a crime, an inchoate offense that consists of a person offering money or inducing another to commit a crime with the specific intent that the person solicited commit the crime.

In the United States, the term "solicitation" implies some part of commercial element, consideration, or payment. In some other common law countries, the situation is different:

Solicitation has in the U.S. these unique elements:

Unlike conspiracy, there is no overt step necessary for solicitation, one person can be a defendant and it merges with the substantive crime.

It is not necessary that the person commit the crime, nor is it necessary that the person solicited be willing or able to commit the crime (such as if the "solicitee" were an undercover police officer).

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