§ 45-49-42 — Legislative Findings

The Legislature of the State of Alabama declares and finds that the business of operating massage parlors as defined herein are businesses affecting the public health, safety, and general welfare; that such businesses have been used in Mobile County and elsewhere as fronts for the conduct of prostitution, assignation, and lewdness; that the method of operation of such business generally is such that female persons bargain with male customers for illicit sexual activities, including prostitution and sodomy, only after performing so-called massages while the male customer is nude, and after engaging the customer as part of the so-called massage in sexual foreplay to the point of sexual arousal; that because of the method of operation the gathering of evidence by law enforcement officers sufficient for the officers to make an arrest or to institute some other civil proceeding requires male officers to pose as customers, and to perform degrading, demeaning, compromising, and unethical acts, to wit: becoming nude in the performance of his duty, submitting to an erotic massage, and engaging in sexual foreplay to the extent of sexual arousal, all of which invades the officer’s right of privacy, and interferes with, or potentially interferes with, the officer’s family relationship; and that in order to provide for effective enforcement of the laws of the State of Alabama concerning prostitution, assignation, and sodomy, and to protect the public interest, health, safety, and general welfare, it is necessary that bisexual and genital massage be prohibited and that such businesses be regulated in order to prevent their use for unlawful and illegal activities, and in order to protect the public health and safety.

Legislative History

(Act 81-132, p. 152, § 1.)