Solicitation, in criminal law, is the act of encouraging, requesting or otherwise attempting to cause another person to commit a crime. The offense is complete once the solicitation is made with the specific intent that the crime be carried out, regardless of whether the person solicited actually goes on to commit it. It is treated as an inchoate offense, meaning it punishes an attempt to bring about a crime rather than the underlying crime itself, and its precise definition and penalties differ between jurisdictions.
Facts
Classification CodeIn the United States, solicitation is classified as an inchoate offense 1 Elements of OffenseSolicitation is complete once a person encourages, bribes, requests or commands another with the intent that a crime be committed; it does not require that the crime actually be committed or that the person solicited be willing or able to commit it 1 Jurisdiction VariationIn England and Wales, soliciting refers specifically to persistently loitering or soliciting in a street or public place for the purpose of prostitution, a narrower usage than the general inchoate offense definition used in the United States 1 Classification
Offense GradeMinor or Summary Offense 1 Connections
Has Offense Grade
Entity-backed identity for the offense-grade enum value this offense already carries, resolved to a crime concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The offense-grade fact itself stays on the offense unchanged.
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Solicitation (Wikipedia)
United States section
solicitation is the name of a crime, an inchoate offense that consists of a person offering money or inducing another to commit a crime
Differences from other crimes section
It is not necessary that the person commit the crime, nor is it necessary that the person solicited be willing or able to commit the crime
England and Wales section
persistently to loiter or solicit in a street or public place for the purpose of prostitution
View the SourceReader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.