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BDSM and The Law
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- North Dakota
This is NOT legal advice.
If you live in North Dakota ask your Legislator
to change these laws
Age of Consent in North Dakota is 18
12.1-29-01. Promoting prostitution.
1. A person is guilty of an offense if he:
a. Operates a prostitution business or a house of prostitution;
b. Induces or otherwise intentionally causes another to become
engaged in sexual activity as a business; or
c. Knowingly procures a prostitute for a prostitution business
or a house of prostitution.
2. The offense is a class C felony if it is under subdivision b
or c of subsection 1 or if it is under
subdivision a and the actor owns, controls, manages, or otherwise supervises
the prostitution business or house of prostitution. Otherwise the offense
is a class A misdemeanor.
12.1-29-02. Facilitating prostitution.
1. A person is guilty of an offense if he:
a. Knowingly solicits a person to patronize a prostitute;
b. Knowingly procures a prostitute for a patron;
c. Knowingly leases or otherwise permits a place controlled by
the actor, alone or in association with
others, to be regularly used for prostitution, promoting prostitution,
or facilitating prostitution, or fails to make reasonable effort to abate
such use by ejecting the tenant, notifying law
enforcement authorities, or taking other
legally available means; or
d. Knowingly induces or otherwise intentionally causes another
to remain a prostitute. A person who is
supported in whole or substantial part by the proceeds
of prostitution, other than the prostitute or the prostitute's minor child
or a person whom the prostitute is required by law
to support, is presumed to be knowingly
inducing or intentionally causing another to remain a prostitute.
2.1-29-03. Prostitution. An
individual is guilty of prostitution, a class B misdemeanor, if the
individual:
1. Is an inmate of a house of prostitution or is otherwise
engaged in sexual activity as a business;
2. Solicits another person with the intention of being hired to
engage in sexual activity;
or
3. Agrees to engage in sexual activity with another for money or
other items of pecuniary value.
12.1-29-05. Definitions. In
this chapter:
1. A "house of prostitution" is any place where
prostitution is regularly carried on by a person
under the control, management, or supervision of another.
2. An "inmate" is a prostitute who acts as such in or
through the agency of a house of prostitution.
3. A "prostitute" is a person who engages in sexual
activity for hire.
4. A "prostitution business" is any business which
derives funds from prostitution regularly
carried on by a person under the control, management, or supervision of another.
5. "Sexual activity" means sexual act or sexual
contact as those terms are defined in
section 12.1-20-02.
12.1-29-06. Hiring an individual to engage in sexual activity. An
individual who hires or offers or agrees to
hire another individual with the intention of engaging in sexual activity is
guilty of a class B misdemeanor.
12.1-27.1-01. Obscenity - Definitions - Dissemination -
Classification of offenses.
1. A person is guilty of a class C felony if, knowing of its
character, the person disseminates obscene
material or if the person produces, transports, or sends obscene
material with intent that it be disseminated.
2. A person is guilty of a class C felony if the person presents
or directs an obscene performance for
pecuniary gain or participates in any portion of a performance which contributes
to the obscenity of the performance as a whole.
3. A person is guilty of a class C felony if the person, as
owner or manager of an establishment licensed
under section 5-02-01, permits an obscene performance in the
establishment. A person is guilty of a class C felony if that person
participates, whether or not for
compensation, in an obscene performance in an establishmentlicensed under
section 5-02-01.
4. a. In addition to the penalty provided in subsection 1, 2, or
3, any person who violates subsection 1, 2,
or 3 in the course of a commercial or for-profit activity or
transaction in which the offender had or shared ownership, control, managerial
responsibility, or a financial interest other than wages is subject to
the following penalty:
(1) For an individual, a fine not to exceed ten thousand
dollars; or
(2) For a corporation, limited liability company, association,
partnership, or other legal entity, a fine
not to exceed twenty-five thousand dollars.
b. In addition to the penalty provided in subsection 1, 2, or 3,
the court shall impose the following penalty
upon the conviction of a person or entity described
in subdivision a for a second or subsequent offense under
subsection 1, 2, or 3:
(1) For an individual, a fine not to exceed fifty thousand
dollars; or
(2) For a corporation, limited liability company, association,
partnership, or
other legal entity, a fine not to exceed one hundred thousand
dollars.
5. As used in this chapter, the terms "obscene
material" and "obscene performance"
mean material or a performance which:
a. Taken as a whole, the average person, applying contemporary
North Dakota
standards, would find predominantly appeals to a prurient
interest;
b. Depicts or describes in a patently offensive manner sexual
conduct, whether normal or perverted; and
c. Taken as a whole, the reasonable person would find lacking in
serious literary, artistic, political, or
scientific value.
Whether material or a performance is obscene must be judged with
reference to ordinary adults, unless it
appears from the character of the material or the circumstances
of its dissemination that the material or performance is designed for minors
or other specially susceptible audience, in which case the material or performance
must be judged with reference to that type of audience.
6. As used in this chapter, "disseminate" means to
sell, lease, rent, advertise,
broadcast, transmit, exhibit, or distribute for pecuniary gain.
"Disseminate" includes
any transmission of visual material shown on a cable television
system, whether or
not accompanied by a soundtrack, and any sound recording played
on a cable
television system.
7. As used in this chapter, the term "material" means
any physical object, including, but
not limited to, any type of book, sound recording, film, or
picture used as a means of
presenting or communicating information, knowledge, sensation,
image, or emotion
to or through a human being's receptive senses.
8. As used in this chapter, the term "patently
offensive" means so offensive on its face
as to affront the contemporary North Dakota standards of
decency.
9. As used in this chapter, the term "performance"
means any play, dance, or other
exhibition presented before an audience.
10. As used in this chapter, the term "prurient
interest" means a voyeuristic, lascivious,
degrading, shameful, or morbid interest in nudity, sex, or
excretion that goes
substantially beyond customary limits of candor in description
or representation of
those matters.
11. As used in this chapter, the term "sexual conduct"
means actual or simulated:
a. Sexual intercourse;
b. Sodomy;
c. Sexual bestiality;
d. Masturbation;
e. Sadomasochistic abuse;
f. Excretion; or
g. Lewd exhibition of the male or female genitals.
As used in this subsection, the term "sodomy" means
contact between the penis and the anus, the
mouth and the penis, the mouth and the vulva, or the mouth and the anus.
As used in this subsection, the term "sadomasochistic abuse" means
a depiction or description of
flagellation or torture by or upon a person who is nude or clad
in undergarments or in a bizarre or revealing costume; or the condition of being
fettered, bound, or otherwise physically
restrained on the part of one so clothed.
12. As used in this chapter, the term "book" means any
book, magazine, pamphlet, newspaper, or other article made out of paper and
containing printed, typewritten, or handwritten
words.
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