As used in §§ 39-13-512 – 39-13-515, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) “House of prostitution” means any place where prostitution or the promotion of prostitution is regularly carried on by one (1) or more persons under the control, management or supervision of another;
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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 39-13-512

  • Benefit: means anything reasonably regarded as economic gain, enhancement or advantage, including benefit to any other person in whose welfare the beneficiary is interested. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Person: includes the singular and the plural and means and includes any individual, firm, partnership, copartnership, association, corporation, governmental subdivision or agency, or other organization or other legal entity, or any agent or servant thereof. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Public place: means a place to which the public or a group of persons has access and includes, but is not limited to, highways, transportation facilities, schools, places of amusement, parks, places of business, playgrounds and hallways, lobbies and other portions of apartment houses and hotels not constituting rooms or apartments designed for actual residence. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
(2) “Inmate” means, within the meaning of this part concerning prostitution, a person who engages in prostitution in or through the agency of a house of prostitution;
(3) “Patronizing prostitution” means soliciting or hiring another person with the intent that the other person engage in prostitution, or entering or remaining in a house of prostitution for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity;
(4)

(A) “Promoting prostitution” means:

(i) Owning, controlling, managing, supervising, or in any way keeping, alone or in association with others, a business for the purpose of engaging in prostitution, or a house of prostitution;
(ii) Procuring an inmate for a house of prostitution;
(iii) Encouraging, inducing, or otherwise purposely causing another to become a prostitute;
(iv) Soliciting a person to patronize a prostitute;
(v) Procuring a prostitute for a patron; or
(vi) Soliciting, receiving, or agreeing to receive any benefit for engaging in any of the activities defined in subdivisions (4)(A)(i)-(v); and
(B) “Promoting prostitution” does not include a person who solicits, procures, induces, encourages, or attempts to cause another to patronize a prostitute if:

(i) The person promoting the prostitute and the prostitute being promoted are the same person; and
(ii) The intent of the promotion is the solicitation of business for only the prostitute engaging in the promotion;
(5) “Promoting prostitution of a minor” means engaging in any of the activities described in subdivision (4) when one (1) or more of the persons engaged in prostitution is less than eighteen (18) years of age or has an intellectual disability;
(6) “Prostitution” means engaging in, or offering to engage in, sexual activity as a business or being an inmate in a house of prostitution or loitering in a public place for the purpose of being hired to engage in sexual activity; and
(7) “Sexual activity” means any sexual relations including homosexual sexual relations.