Statutes: Louisiana

A. Enticing persons into prostitution is committed when any person over the age of seventeen entices, places, persuades, encourages, or causes the entrance of any other person under the age of twenty-one into the practice of prostitution, either by force, threats, promises, or by any other device or scheme. Lack of knowledge of the other person’s age shall not be a defense.

B. (1)(a) Whoever commits the crime of enticing persons into prostitution shall be imprisoned, with or without hard labor, for not less than two years nor more than ten years.

(b) Whoever commits the crime of enticing persons into prostitution when the person being enticed into prostitution is under the age of eighteen years shall be fined not more than fifty thousand dollars, imprisoned at hard labor for not less than fifteen years nor more than fifty years, or both.

(c) Whoever commits the crime of enticing persons into prostitution when the person being enticed into prostitution is under the age of fourteen years shall be fined not more than seventy-five thousand dollars, imprisoned at hard labor for not less than twenty-five years nor more than fifty years, or both.

(2) In addition, the court shall order that the personal property used in the commission of the offense, or the proceeds of any such conduct, shall be seized and impounded, and after conviction, sold at public sale or public auction by the district attorney, or otherwise distributed or disposed of, in accordance with R.S. 15:539.1.

(3) The personal property made subject to seizure and sale pursuant to Paragraph (2) of this Subsection may include, but shall not be limited to, electronic communication devices, computers, computer related equipment, motor vehicles, photographic equipment used to record or create still or moving visual images of the victim that are recorded on paper, film, video tape, disc, or any other type of digital recording media, and currency, instruments, or securities.

C. (1) It shall not be a defense to prosecution for a violation of this Section that the person being enticed is actually a law enforcement officer or peace officer acting in his official capacity.

(2) It shall not be a defense to prosecution for a violation of this Section that the person being enticed consented to the activity.