New Mexico Prostitution and Solicitation Laws

Prostitution:

Engaging or offering to engage in a sexual act for pay.

Solicitation (a.k.a. patronizing a prostitute):

Knowingly hiring or offering to hire a prostitute or a person believed to be a prostitute or remaining in a house of prostitution or other place where prostitution is practiced, encouraged, or allowed with the intent of engaging in a sexual act with a prostitute.

Pimping (a.k.a. promoting prostitution):

Promoting prostitution consists of knowingly performing any of the following:

• Establishing, owning, maintaining, or managing a house of prostitution or other place where prostitution is encouraged or allowed or participating in any of the above acts
• Renting or leasing premises knowing that it is to be used for prostitution purposes
• Inducing another person to become a prostitute
• Soliciting a patron for a prostitute or prostitution business
• Transporting, procuring, or paying for transportation of a person within the state for prostitution purposes
• Causing a person to come to or leave the state for prostitution purposes through promise, threat, duress, or fraud
• Under pretense of marriage, detaining a person or causing a person to come to or leave the state for prostitution purposes

Prostitution and solicitation are petty misdemeanors punishable by up to 6 months in prison and up to $500 in fines. A second or subsequent offense of prostitution or solicitation is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 1 year in prison and up to $1,000 in fines.

Pimping is a fourth-degree felony punishable by up to 18 months in prison and up to $5,000 in fines.