Laws on escorts, is ignorance is no excuse?

[ScottS_So_Cal]

What is the name of your state? California

According to what I have read online, and to quote Wikipedia, which summarizes it best;

" In the United States, prostitution is primarily illegal. In all but two U.S. states, the buying and selling of sexual services is illegal and usually classified as a misdemeanor. Regulated brothels are legal in several counties of Nevada (see prostitution in Nevada). In Rhode Island, the act of sex for money is not illegal, but street solicitation and operating a brothel are. in Japan, for example, vaginal prostitution is against the law while fellatio prostitution is legal, as women who perform fellatio for money are not considered prostitutes in Japan.[".

California leads the nation with over 14,000 arrests per year for solicitation and/ or prostitution in 2006.

Not much specific information is available online relative to when the law is actually broken.

Is it to be assumed that any exchange of money for 'sexual services' against the law in California?>

What if per-se one was to hire an escort from an online advertisement, pay a mutually agreed amount of cash for a mutually agreed upon service, both parties being of legal age and within ones own private residence;

Would non-coital sex (sexual intimacy without penetration), be considered illegal in California ?

If no contact or touching took place however one pleasured oneself, is that also illegal?

Seems like laws concerning 'sexual services' are vague and further hard to find specifics where the line is drawn between 'legal' and 'illegal'

Thank you in advance for your clarification.

 

[CdwJava]

Is it to be assumed that any exchange of money for 'sexual services' against the law in California?

Almost ... it doesn't have to be for money.

"... solicits or who agrees to engage in or who engages in any act of prostitution. A person agrees to engage in an act of prostitution ... 'prostitution' includes any lewd act between persons for money or other consideration."​

Note that ANY other consideration is possible. So, a sex act for a favor might also be prostitution. it does not HAVE to be just about the money.

Would non-coital sex (sexual intimacy without penetration), be considered illegal in California ?

If it fallus under the prostitution statutes, yes. In other words, if the act was compsensated for money or other consideration it would be a crime.

If no contact or touching took place however one pleasured oneself, is that also illegal?

Possibly.

Here is the text of PC 647(b):

647. Every person who commits any of the following acts is guilty
of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor:
(b) Who solicits or who agrees to engage in or who engages in any
act of prostitution. A person agrees to engage in an act of
prostitution when, with specific intent to so engage, he or she
manifests an acceptance of an offer or solicitation to so engage,
regardless of whether the offer or solicitation was made by a person
who also possessed the specific intent to engage in prostitution. No
agreement to engage in an act of prostitution shall constitute a
violation of this subdivision unless some act, in addition to the
agreement, is done within this state in furtherance of the commission
of an act of prostitution by the person agreeing to engage in that
act. As used in this subdivision, "prostitution" includes any lewd
act between persons for money or other consideration.​

- Carl