Undercover solicitation stings in Nevada are only considered entrapment if the undercover officers overstep their bounds.
1. What is entrapment?
“Entrapment” is when police trick people into committing crimes they are not predisposed to commit. Since entrapment is illegal, it serves as an effective legal defense against criminal charges.1
2. What is an example?
An example of entrapment is a cop threatening to beat a suspected prostitute unless she agrees to accept his money in exchange for having sex with him. If the prostitute agrees, she should not be criminally liable for the Nevada crime of solicitation of prostitution because the cop “entrapped” her into engaging in solicitation of prostitution.
Note that Nevada police are legally permitted to go undercover and pose as prostitutes or prostitution customers to catch actual hookers and “johns.” These “solicitation stings” do not in and of themselves qualify as entrapment. However, undercover cops have to abide by strict rules during solicitation stings.
Police may go undercover and pretend to solicit sexual favors for a fee. But police may not pressure, threaten, or otherwise force someone else to solicit prostitution if that person is not otherwise predisposed to solicit prostitution.
In short, an undercover solicitation sting is considered entrapment if the suspect would not have solicited prostitution but for the police’s pressure.
But as long as the police do not coerce someone into soliciting prostitution, the Nevada defense of entrapment will not prevent that person from being convicted of solicitation of prostitution. Read our article, “Can I get my solicitation charge dismissed in Nevada?”
Legal References:
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- See, for example, Black’s Law Dictionary, “Entrapment.” See also Sorrells v. U.S., 287 U.S. 435 (1932).
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