The legal definition of solicitation is the act of asking, encouraging, or pressuring another person to commit a specific crime, with the genuine intent that they actually commit it. The offense is finished the moment you make the request. It does not matter whether the other person agrees, refuses, laughs, or walks straight to the police. The law punishes the recruitment itself, which is why solicitation sits apart from crimes that require real-world harm or concrete steps toward a result.
The Two Elements of Solicitation
Every solicitation charge turns on two elements, and the prosecution has to prove both.
- Specific intent. You genuinely wanted the other person to commit a particular crime. Sarcasm, offhand remarks, and abstract conversation do not qualify. The state must show you actually meant for the criminal act to happen.
- An overt act of communication. You conveyed that intent to another person through words, writing, gestures, or any other medium. Thoughts and private wishes are not enough. The line is drawn when the request leaves your head.
Both elements must coexist. Wanting a crime to happen but never telling anyone is not solicitation. Jokingly telling a friend to rob a bank, with no real intent behind it, is not solicitation either. Genuine criminal purpose plus outward communication is what crosses the line.1Legal Information Institute. Solicitation
When the Crime Is Complete
Solicitation is an inchoate offense. That means it criminalizes conduct that stops short of a completed crime. There is no victim who suffers at the moment solicitation happens; the criminal act is the communication itself.2Legal Information Institute. Inchoate Offense
The practical consequence is that nothing the other person does changes your liability. Offer someone money to commit arson and they laugh in your face, you have still committed solicitation. They report you to the police an hour later, you have still committed solicitation. Your conduct locked in when you made the request with genuine intent.
States split on one wrinkle. Under the Model Penal Code, even an uncommunicated solicitation counts: mail a letter asking someone to commit a crime and it gets lost in transit, you are still guilty because your conduct was designed to make that communication happen. Other states require the message to actually reach the recipient. In those jurisdictions, a lost letter or intercepted message might reduce the charge to attempted solicitation.
What Counts as Solicitation
The request does not have to be elaborate or formal. Courts have found solicitation in a wide range of communications when specific intent and a clear ask are present.
- Offering payment. Telling someone you will pay them to assault a rival or steal property.
- Giving instructions. Providing a target’s address and daily schedule along with a clear directive to commit a crime there.
- Persistent pressure. Repeatedly urging a friend to help with a burglary, even if they keep saying no. Each renewed request can be a separate act of solicitation.
- Written communications. Texts, emails, letters, or social media messages asking someone to commit an offense.
The common thread is a direct, purposeful communication aimed at getting another person to engage in specific criminal conduct. Vague hints do not count. The communication has to be one a reasonable listener would understand as a genuine request to commit a crime.1Legal Information Institute. Solicitation
What Does Not Count
Not every conversation about crime is criminal. The line between illegal solicitation and lawful speech is sharper than most people realize.
Thoughts and Solo Planning
Thinking about a crime, even obsessively, is not solicitation. Planning a crime entirely on your own is not solicitation either. Buying tools, researching methods, or staking out a location may be evidence of other offenses like attempt, but they do not become solicitation unless you try to pull another person into the plan.
General Conversation About Crime
Two people discussing whether a bank could theoretically be robbed, debating the flaws in a security system, or expressing admiration for a fictional heist are not committing solicitation. The conversation has to cross into a specific request directed at the other person to actually commit the crime.
Protected Speech
The First Amendment protects a surprising amount of speech about illegal activity. Under Brandenburg v. Ohio, the government cannot punish advocacy of lawbreaking unless the speech is directed at inciting imminent lawless action and is actually likely to produce it.3Legal Information Institute. Brandenburg Test A political speaker urging a crowd to “resist unjust laws” at some unspecified future time is protected. Someone handing an accomplice a target’s home address and saying “do it tonight” is not.
Solicitation Compared With Conspiracy and Attempt
Solicitation, conspiracy, and attempt are all inchoate crimes, but each captures a different stage of criminal planning.
- Solicitation. You ask someone to commit a crime. No agreement from the other person is required, and no steps toward the crime need to happen.
- Conspiracy. You and at least one other person agree to commit a crime. The agreement is the critical difference. If the person you solicit says yes, the solicitation typically merges into a conspiracy.
- Attempt. You take a substantial step toward actually committing a crime yourself. This goes well beyond talking about it.
When a solicited crime actually gets carried out, solicitation merges into the completed offense. You face the underlying crime, not solicitation on top of it. Conspiracy is the exception to this merger principle: a defendant can be convicted of both conspiracy to commit a crime and the completed crime from the same facts.2Legal Information Institute. Inchoate Offense
Solicitation casts the widest net of the three. You do not need a co-conspirator who agrees, and you do not need to take any real-world steps toward the crime. The bare act of asking is enough. Prosecutors sometimes rely on solicitation charges when they cannot prove a full conspiracy because the other party never agreed to participate.
Federal Solicitation Under 18 U.S.C. § 373
Federal law specifically criminalizes soliciting someone to commit a crime of violence. The government must prove you intended for another person to commit a violent federal felony and that you actually asked, encouraged, or tried to persuade them to do it. The statute also requires “strongly corroborative circumstances” showing your intent was serious rather than idle talk.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 373 – Solicitation to Commit a Crime of Violence
Penalties scale with the solicited offense. A conviction carries up to half the maximum prison sentence for the underlying crime. Solicit a crime punishable by up to ten years and you face up to five. The cap is 20 years when the solicited crime carries a life sentence. Federal sentencing guidelines treat solicitation similarly to attempt and conspiracy, starting the base offense level at the same level as the completed crime, with a potential three-level reduction when the solicited person never got close to carrying out the offense.5Justia. Sentencing Guidelines 2X1.1 – Attempt, Solicitation, or Conspiracy
Defenses
Renunciation
Both federal law and many state codes recognize renunciation as an affirmative defense. You have to show that after soliciting the crime, you voluntarily and completely abandoned your criminal intent and actually prevented the crime. The renunciation cannot be motivated by postponing the crime, picking a different victim, or switching to a similar objective. Under federal law, the defendant carries the burden of proving renunciation by a preponderance of the evidence.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 373 – Solicitation to Commit a Crime of Violence
This is where most renunciation defenses fall apart. Getting cold feet is not enough. You have to affirmatively stop the crime you set in motion, and the change of heart has to be genuine, not strategic. Calling off a hit because you noticed surveillance cameras is not voluntary renunciation.
Lack of Specific Intent
If the communication was a joke, sarcasm, or an offhand remark with no real expectation that the other person would follow through, the intent element is missing. This defense often turns on context: the relationship between the parties, the setting, and whether any follow-up actions suggested the request was serious.
No Communication Received
In states that require the solicitation to actually reach the recipient, proof that the message was never delivered can defeat the charge. A letter intercepted before delivery or a voicemail that was never heard may not satisfy the communication element. This defense does not work under the Model Penal Code approach, which treats even failed attempts to communicate as completed solicitation.
State Penalties
State penalties vary widely. Many states grade solicitation one or more levels below the target offense: soliciting a felony might be charged as a lower-degree felony, and soliciting a misdemeanor might drop to a lesser category. Some states set fixed penalty ranges regardless of the underlying crime. The seriousness of the solicited offense almost always influences the sentence, with solicitation of murder carrying the heaviest penalties. Because grading differs so much from state to state, anyone facing a charge should look at the specific statute in their jurisdiction. The underlying crime, the defendant’s criminal history, and whether the solicited offense was ever attempted all shape the outcome.
A Note on Solicitation of Prostitution
When most people hear the word “solicitation,” they think of solicitation of prostitution. That is a distinct criminal offense with its own elements, penalties, and statutory framework in every state. It involves offering or agreeing to pay for sexual services, or offering sexual services for payment. The general criminal solicitation covered here is broader and reaches any crime. If you are facing a solicitation of prostitution charge specifically, the relevant statute in your jurisdiction defines the elements and penalties separately from general solicitation law.