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PUBLIC MORALS

Municipal Code of Chicago tit. 8, ch. 8-8
in effect

Municipal Code of Chicago § 8-8-010 House of ill-fame or assignation.

8-8-010 House of ill-fame or assignation. Every house of ill-fame or house of assignation where men and women resort for the purpose of fornication, prostitution, or lewdness is hereby declared to be a nuisance. No person shall keep or maintain a house of ill- fame or assignation, or a place for the practice of fornication, prostitution, or lewdness. Each 24 hours that such house or place shall be kept or maintained for such purpose shall constitute a separate and distinct offense. No person shall patronize, frequent, be found in, or be an inmate of any such house or place used for any of the purposes set forth in this section. No person shall lease to another any house, room, or other premises, in whole or in part, for any of the uses or purposes set forth in this section or knowingly permit the same to be used or occupied for such purposes. (Prior code § 192-1)

Municipal Code of Chicago § 8-8-020 Directing persons to houses of ill-fame.

8-8-020 Directing persons to houses of ill-fame. No person knowingly shall direct, take, transport, or offer to direct, take, or transport, any person for immoral purposes to any other person, or assist any person by any means to seek or to find any prostitute or other person engaged in immoral practices, or any brothel, bawdy house, or any other place of ill-fame. Any person that shall violate the provisions of this section shall be fined not less than $100.00 nor more than $400.00 for each offense. (Prior code § 192-2; Amend Coun. J. 9-4-02, p. 92888, § 1)

Municipal Code of Chicago § 8-8-030 Prostitution or lewdness in conveyances.

8-8-030 Prostitution or lewdness in conveyances. No person shall knowingly receive any person for purposes of lewdness, assignation, or prostitution into or upon any vehicle or other conveyance or permit any person to remain for any of the said purposes in or upon any such vehicle or other conveyance. Any person that shall violate the provisions of this section shall be fined not less than $100.00 nor more than $400.00 for each offense. (Prior code § 192-3; Amend Coun. J. 9-4-02, p. 92888, § 1)

Municipal Code of Chicago § 8-8-040 Revocation of license.

8-8-040 Revocation of license. The license of any such person or employees thereof directly involved in the violation of Sections 8-8-020 or 8-8-030 may be revoked, and also the license of the vehicle or conveyance used may be revoked in the discretion of the mayor. No license so revoked hereunder shall be reinstated until the lapse of a period of one year after such revocation. (Prior code § 192-4)

Municipal Code of Chicago § 8-8-060 Solicitation for prostitution.

8-8-060 Solicitation for prostitution. (a) For the purposes of this section: (1) "Public place" means any street, sidewalk, bridge, alley or alleyway, plaza, park, driveway, parking lot or transportation facility or the doorways and entrance ways to any building which fronts on any of the aforesaid places, or a motor vehicle in or on any such place, or any other public way. (2) "Prostitution", "solicitation of a sexual act" and "promoting prostitution" have the same meanings given them in Title III, Part B, Article 11, Subdivision 15 of the Illinois Criminal Code of 2012. (b) Prostitution. (1) Any person who appears, remains, or wanders about in a public place and repeatedly beckons to, or repeatedly attempts to engage, passersby in conversation, or repeatedly interferes with the free passage of other persons, for the purpose of prostitution, shall be guilty of a violation of this section. (2) Any person who appears, remains, or wanders about in a public place and exposes the genitals, vulva, pubis, pubic hair, buttocks, perineum, anus, anal region or pubic hair region, or any portion of the female breast at or below the upper edge of the areola, for the purpose of prostitution shall be guilty of a violation of this section. (c) Solicitation of a Sexual Act. (1) A person commits solicitation of a sexual act when a person remains or wanders about in a public place and repeatedly beckons to, or repeatedly attempts to engage, passersby in conversation, or repeatedly interferes with the free passage of other persons, for the purpose of soliciting a sexual act. (2) Any person who responds to the beckoning of a prostitute in a public place by inquiring about, negotiating for, accepting an offer of or engaging in an act of prostitution, or by allowing another into his or her motor vehicle for purposes of inquiring about, negotiating for, accepting an offer of or engaging in an act of prostitution, shall be guilty of a violation of this section. The superintendent of police shall make available to local newspapers, radio and television stations the names of all persons charged with violating this section. (3) Any person who by any overt acts in or upon the public ways or in any hotel, motel or other public place of accommodation or on public conveyances or in any establishment licensed to sell alcoholic beverages, offers to perform or who solicits for another person to perform any act of prostitution shall be guilty of a violation of this section. (d) Promoting Prostitution. (1) Any person who remains or wanders about in a public place and repeatedly beckons to, or repeatedly attempts to engage, passersby in conversation, or repeatedly interferes with the free passage of other persons, for the purpose of promoting prostitution shall be guilty of a violation of this section. (2) Any person who promotes prostitution by any overt acts in a public place, or in any hotel, motel, or other public place of accommodation, or on any public conveyances, or in any establishment licensed to sell alcoholic beverages shall be guilty of a violation of this section. (e) Penalties. (1) A person who violates Section 8-8-060(b) shall be fined not less than $50.00 nor more than $1,500.00, or imprisoned for a period of not more than six months, or both fined and imprisoned, for each offense. In addition to or instead of the foregoing penalties, the corporation counsel shall request that a violator be required to perform up to 120 hours of community service. (2) A person who violates Section 8-8-060(c) or 8-8-060(d) shall be fined not less than $1,000.00 nor more than $1,750.00, for the first offense and be fined not less than $1,750.00 nor more than $3,000.00 for each subsequent offense and may be imprisoned for a period of not more than six months. In addition to the foregoing penalties, the corporation counsel shall request that each violator be required to perform up to 120 hours of community service. (A) A motor vehicle that is used in the violation of this section, or in the commission of prostitution, solicitation of a sexual act, promoting prostitution, patronizing a prostitute as defined in Section 11-18 of the Criminal Code of 2012, or patronizing a minor engaged in prostitution as defined in Section 11-18.1 of such code, shall be subject to seizure and impoundment under this subsection. The owner of record of such vehicle shall be liable to the City for an administrative penalty of $2,000.00 in addition to fees for the towing and storage of the vehicle. (B) Whenever a police officer has probable cause to believe that a vehicle is subject to seizure and impoundment pursuant to this section, the police officer shall provide for the towing of the vehicle to a facility controlled by the City or its agents. Before or at the time the vehicle is towed, the police officer shall notify any person identifying himself as the owner of the vehicle at the time of the alleged violation or the person who is found to be in control of the vehicle at the time of the alleged violation, if there is such person, of the fact of the seizure and of the vehicle owner's right to request a preliminary hearing to be conducted under Section 2-14-132 of this Code by serving such person with a copy of the vehicle impoundment seizure report. \ (C) Section 2-14-132 shall apply whenever a motor vehicle is seized and impounded pursuant to this section. (Prior code § 192-5.2; Amend Coun. J. 11-14-84, p. 10994; Amend Coun. J. 7-24-91, p. 3938; Amend Coun. J. 7-29-92, p. 20064; Amend Coun. J. 7-14-93, p. 35530; Amend Coun. J. 6-10-96, p. 23795; Amend Coun. J. 7-31-96, p. 26907; Amend Coun. J. 4-29-98, p. 66564, § 2; Amend Coun. J. 9-9-98, p. 77360; Amend Coun. J. 9-4-02, p. 92888, § 1; Amend Coun. J. 12-15-04, p. 39840, § 1; Amend Coun. J. 11-16-11, p. 14596, Art. I, § 1; Amend Coun. J. 6-27-18, p. 80207, § 3; Amend Coun. J. 7-22-20, p. 18957, § 5)

Municipal Code of Chicago § 8-8-080 Indecent exposure or dress.

8-8-080 Indecent exposure or dress. Any person who shall appear, bathe, sunbathe, walk or be in any public park, playground, beach or the waters adjacent thereto, or any school facility and the area adjacent thereto, or any municipal building and the areas adjacent thereto, or any public way within the City of Chicago in such a manner that the genitals, vulva, pubis, pubic hair, buttocks, perineum, anus, anal region, or pubic hair region of any person, or any portion of the breast at or below the upper edge of the areola thereof of any female person, is exposed to public view or is not covered by an opaque covering, shall be fined not less than $100.00 nor more than $500.00 for each offense. (Prior code § 192-8; Amend Coun. J. 12-4-02, p. 99931, § 5.4)

Municipal Code of Chicago § 8-8-090 Indecent publications and exhibitions.

8-8-090 Indecent publications and exhibitions. It shall be unlawful for any person knowingly to exhibit, sell, print, offer to sell, give away, circulate, publish, distribute, or attempt to distribute any obscene book, magazine, pamphlet, paper, writing, card, advertisement, circular, print, picture, photograph, motion picture film, play, image, instrument, statue, drawing, or other article which is obscene. Any person violating any provisions of this section shall be fined not less than $20.00 nor more than $200.00 for each offense. Obscene for the purpose of this section is defined as follows: whether to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to prurient interests. (Prior code § 192-9)

Municipal Code of Chicago § 8-8-100 Sale of literature represented as immoral.

8-8-100 Sale of literature represented as immoral. It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, or to offer or to exhibit for sale, in sealed form, or in any form which indicates that the sale thereof is surreptitious or contrary to law, any book, pamphlet, or literature of any kind bearing the title of some well- known book of salacious character, or bearing the title of a book of which the sale is prohibited, or bearing the title of a book of which the contents are actually lewd, lascivious, obscene, immoral, or indecent. It shall likewise be unlawful to sell, or to offer or exhibit for sale, any book, pamphlet, or literature of any kind having anything about it which indicates that its contents are of an obscene, immoral, lewd, lascivious, or indecent character, or to sell, or to offer or exhibit for sale, any book, pamphlet, or literature of any kind under the guise or pretense that the same is obscene, immoral, lewd, lascivious, or indecent, or in a manner that indicates concealment of anything as contrary to law or immoral contained therein, or to use any pretense, trick, fraud, artifice, or device to convey the impression that such book, pamphlet, or literature is lewd, lascivious, indecent, obscene, or immoral, whether such pretense, trick, fraud, artifice or device is a misrepresentation in regard to the contents of the same or not. (Prior code § 192-10)

Municipal Code of Chicago § 8-8-110 Material harmful to minors unlawful.

8-8-110 Material harmful to minors unlawful. A. For the purposes of this section the following words shall be defined as follows: (a) "Minor" means any person under the age of 18 years. (b) "Nudity" means the showing of the human male or female genitals, pubic area or buttocks with less than a fully opaque covering, or the showing of the female breast with less than a full opaque covering of any portion thereof below the top of the nipple, or the depiction of covered male genitals in a discernible turgid state. (c) "Sexual conduct" includes any of the following depicted sexual conduct: (i) Any act of sexual intercourse, actual or simulated, including genital, anal-genital, or oral- genital intercourse, whether between human beings or between a human being and an animal; (ii) Sadomasochistic abuse, meaning flagellation or torture by or upon a person who is nude or clad in undergarments or in a revealing costume or the condition of being fettered, bound or otherwise physically restricted on the part of one so clothed; (iii) Masturbation or lewd exhibitions of the genitals including any explicit, closeup representation of a human genital organ; (iv) Physical contact or simulated physical contact with the clothed or unclothed pubic areas or buttocks of a human male or female, or the breasts of the female, whether alone or between members of the same or opposite sex or between humans and animals in an act of apparent sexual stimulation or gratification; (v) An act of sexual assault where physical violence or drugs are employed to overcome the will of or achieve the consent of a person to an act of sexual conduct and the effects or results of the violence or drugs are shown. (d) "Sexual excitement" means the condition of human male or female genitals when in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal. (e) "Harmful to minors" means that quality of any description or representation in whatever form, or nudity, sexual conduct, or sexual excitement, when it: (i) Predominantly appeals to the prurient, shameful, or morbid interest of minors in sex; and (ii) Is patently offensive to contemporary standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable sexual material for minors; and (iii) Taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. (f) "Knowingly" means having general knowledge of, or reason to know, or a belief or ground for belief which warrants further inspection or inquiry or both. B. It is unlawful for any person knowingly to sell or loan for monetary consideration to a minor any written, photographic, printed, sound, published material or videotape, or similar visual representation or image of a person or portion of the human body which depicts nudity, sexual conduct, or sexual excitement and which is harmful to minors. It is unlawful for any person commercially and knowingly to exhibit, display, sell, offer to sell, lend, give away, circulate, distribute, or attempt to distribute any written, photographic, printed, sound, published material or videotape which is harmful to minors in its context in any place where minors are or may be present or allowed to be present and where minors are able to view such material unless each item of such material is at all times kept in a sealed wrapper. It is also unlawful for any person commercially and knowingly to exhibit, display, sell, offer to sell, give away, circulate, distribute, or attempt to distribute, any written, photographic, printed, sound, published material or videotape whose cover, covers, or packaging, standing alone, is harmful to minors, in any place where minors are to be present and where minors are able to view such material unless each item of such material is at all times blocked from view by an opaque cover. The requirement of an opaque cover shall be deemed satisfied concerning such material if those portions of the cover, covers, or packaging containing such material harmful to minors are blocked from view by an opaque cover. The provisions of this subdivision shall not apply to distribution or attempt to distribute the exhibition, display, sale, offer of sale, circulation, giving away of material harmful to minors where such material is sold, exhibited, displayed, offered for sale, given away, circulated, distributed, or attempted to be distributed under circumstances where minors are not present, not allowed to be present, or are not able to view such material or the cover, covers, or packaging of such material. Any business may comply with the requirements of this clause by physically segregating such material in a manner so as to physically prohibit the access to and view of the material by minors, by prominently posting at the entrance(s) to such restricted area, "Adults Only – you must be 18 to enter", and by enforcing said restrictions. (Prior code § 192-10.1; Amend Coun. J. 11-26-86, p. 37627; Amend Coun. J. 7-29-87, p. 2824)

Municipal Code of Chicago § 8-8-120 Violation - Penalty for Section 8-8-110.

8-8-120 Violation - Penalty for Section 8-8-110. Any person violating any of the provisions of Section 8-8-110 shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be fined in an amount not less than $100.00 nor more than $200.00 or be imprisoned for a period not exceeding six months or be both so fined and imprisoned. Each day that such violation is committed or permitted to continue shall constitute a separate offense and shall be punishable as such hereunder. If more than one written, photographic, printed, sound, published material or videotape shall knowingly be sold, lent, displayed, offered to be sold, given away, circulated, distributed or in any way furnished or attempted to be furnished to any such person in violation of Section 8-8-110, the sale, loan, display, offer to sell, giving away, circulation, distribution or in any way furnishing or attempting to furnish to any such person of each separate written, photographic, printed, sound, published material or videotape shall constitute a separate offense and shall be punished as such hereunder. (Prior code § 192-10.2; Amend Coun. J. 11-26-86, p. 37627)

Municipal Code of Chicago § 8-8-160 Selling nontransferable railroad tickets.

8-8-160 Selling nontransferable railroad tickets. No person shall be permitted to remain in or about any railroad depot in the city, having in his possession the unused portion or portions of nontransferable railroad tickets restricted for the use to the original purchaser thereof by the railroad company issuing the same, for the purpose of selling the same, offering the same for sale, advertising the same for sale, or in any manner to aid in the sale or purchase of such partially used nontransferable railroad tickets. No person shall sell within the city the whole or any portion of any said ticket. Any person violating any of the provisions of this section shall be fined not less than $5.00 nor more than $50.00 for each offense. (Prior code § 192-16)

Municipal Code of Chicago § 8-8-170 Selling or giving away transfers.

8-8-170 Selling or giving away transfers. No person, in violation of the rules or regulations approved or promulgated by the Illinois Commerce Commission shall sell, barter, or exchange for any consideration any transfer ticket or other instrument issued by any person operating any street railroad, elevated rapid transit railroad, unified local transportation system, or otherwise, within the city, giving, or purporting to give to the holder of such transfer ticket or other instrument the right to transfer from one street railroad car, bus, or trolley bus to another street railway car, bus, or trolley bus on the same line or route or on any other line or route, or from a street railroad car, bus, or trolley bus to an elevated railroad car or train, or from an elevated railroad car or train to a street railroad car, bus, or trolley bus. No person shall give away any such transfer ticket or other instrument as aforesaid to another for the purpose of enabling, or with intent to enable, the latter to use or offer the same for passage upon any car, bus, or trolley bus of said street railroad, elevated rapid transit railroad, unified local transportation system, or otherwise; nor shall any person not lawfully entitled thereto receive or acquire possession of any such transfer ticket or other instrument as aforesaid, use, or attempt to use, or offer the same for passage upon any car, bus, or trolley bus of the said street railroad, elevated rapid transit railroad, unified local transportation company, or otherwise. Provided, however, that this section shall not relate to, or in any manner affect, the issuing and giving of transfer tickets or other instruments as aforesaid by the agents or employees of any street railroad, elevated rapid transit railroad, unified local transportation system, or otherwise, to passengers thereof lawfully entitled thereto. (Prior code § 192-17)

Municipal Code of Chicago § 8-8-180 Manipulating telephone coin boxes.

8-8-180 Manipulating telephone coin boxes. It shall be unlawful for any person to insert, or to attempt to insert, into the coin box or money receptacle of any telephone, any slug, button, or other substance, or to manipulate or operate, or to attempt to manipulate or operate, in any manner whatever, any telephone instrument or any mechanism or device connected or commonly used therewith, with the intent to obtain telephone service without paying therefor. It shall be unlawful for any person to insert, or to attempt to insert, into the coin box or money receptacle of any telephone, any slug, button, wire, hook, or other implements or substances with the intent to obtain from such coin box or money receptacle a legal tender coin of the United States. (Prior code § 192-18)

Municipal Code of Chicago § 8-8-190 Violation - Penalty.

8-8-190 Violation - Penalty. Any person violating any of the provisions of this chapter, where no other penalty is provided, shall be fined not less than $5.00 nor more than $200.00 for each offense. (Prior code § 192-19)
Source: City of Chicago, Municipal Code of Chicago (American Legal Publishing, codelibrary.amlegal.com)URL: https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/chicago/latest/chicago_il/0-0-0-2643882Fetched: 10/24/2026

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