Patronizing prostitutes consists of:
A. entering or remaining in a house of prostitution or any other place where prostitution is practiced, encouraged or allowed with intent to engage in a sexual act with a prostitute; or
B. knowingly hiring or offering to hire a prostitute, or one believed by the offeror to be a prostitute, to engage in a sexual act with the actor or another.
As used in this section, "a sexual act" means sexual intercourse, cunnilingus, fellatio, masturbation of another, anal intercourse or the causing of penetration to any extent and with any object of the genital or an anal opening of another whether or not there is any emission.
Whoever commits patronizing prostitutes is guilty of a petty misdemeanor, unless such crime is a second or subsequent conviction, in which case such person is guilty of a misdemeanor.
History: 1953 Comp., § 40A-9-12, enacted by Laws 1963, ch. 303, § 9-12; 1981, ch. 233, § 2; 1989, ch. 132, § 2.
The 1989 amendment, effective June 16, 1989, substituted "a sexual act" for "sexual penetration" throughout the section, in Subsection B inserted "or one believed by the offeror to be a prostitute", inserted "masturbation of another" in the next-to-last undesignated paragraph, and substituted "an anal" for "oral" in the next-to-last undesignated paragraph.
Law reviews. — For symposium, "The Impact of the Equal Rights Amendment on the New Mexico Criminal Code," see 3 N.M.L. Rev. 106 (1973).