Mark Levine, D-Alexandria, said he is considering updating another "outdated" Virginia law next year. In Virginia, that means using a building for lewdness, assignation or prostitution. Violating this law is a Class 1 misdemeanor. Mikki Alexander, an organizing member of the Richmond chapter of the Sex Workers Outreach Project, said that the broad definition of bawdy place law heightens the risk that sex workers could be charged with prostitution crimes.
Sex work, Alexander said, is an umbrella term that includes any sort of erotic or sexual services in exchange for money or goods, from lap dances at a strip club, to escorting, to modeling or performing in an adult video. Alexander said the Sex Workers Outreach Project supports full decriminalization of sex work and prostitution. Levine was inspired to update bawdy place law after discussion that centered around. Those two words prompted a Senate committee to carry over the bill into The committee had a minute discussion about how a person could be criminalized for visiting a bawdy place.
Joseph D. Morrissey, D-Richmond, said that a couple could become felons for having a secret meeting in a seedy hotel. Of the arrests made in the past decade, Henrico County charged five juveniles with keeping a bawdy place, and one with frequenting a bawdy place. There were three juveniles charged in the past decade for prostitution. Morrissey proposed an amendment that would remove the words lewdness and assignation from the bill, but this would require removing them from the bawdy place code.
Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, said that the amendment could impact existing case law. He said that a prostitution case cannot be made without a substantial act in furtherance.
Feinmel said that rather than placing undercover police officers in a situation where a substantial act in furtherance would take place, Henrico County law enforcement uses the bawdy place law.
