PERSUADE - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

PERSUADEAuthored

The Law Mind • 1071 words

Definition

To persuade is to influence another person's belief, decision, or conduct through reasoning, argument, entreaty, or moral suasion — without resort to force, coercion, or deception. In legal contexts, the word appears in two principal roles:

1. As a transactional or testimonial concept: describing the legitimate movement of another person's will through communication, which underpins the law of persuasion as distinct from coercion or fraud. The law treats persuasion as the lawful pole of a spectrum whose unlawful poles are duress and deceit.

2. As a term in criminal statutes: appearing in formulations like "inveigle, persuade, or entice," particularly in offenses involving child exploitation, trafficking, and solicitation. In this statutory use, "persuade" connotes inducement that wins assent — however obtained — and is construed broadly to include not only reasoned argument but emotional appeals, enticement through promises, and influence exercised by persons in positions of trust.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To successfully convince someone to agree to, accept, or do something, usually through reasoning and verbal influence; also, more loosely, to urge or plead with someone to do something.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To influence or gain over by argument, advice, entreaty, or expostulation; to draw or incline a person to a determination by presenting sufficient motives.

Editorial note: The common and legal meanings are close, but the legal use extends the word in ways ordinary usage does not anticipate. In criminal statutes, "persuade" reaches conduct that a lay reader might categorize as manipulation or grooming rather than fair argument. Courts have consistently held that "persuade" in trafficking and child exploitation statutes does not require rational debate — an emotional appeal, a false promise, or incremental pressure applied by a trusted adult all qualify. The ordinary English sense (reasoned argument leading to genuine assent) is narrower than the statutory sense.

Common Confusion

Persuade vs. Coerce: Persuasion operates on the will by presenting reasons or inducements; coercion operates by threat or force that overcomes free will. The distinction is legally material — a contract induced by persuasion is binding; one induced by coercion is voidable. In criminal law, solicitation often requires persuasion, while extortion requires coercion. The line between aggressive persuasion and coercive pressure is litigated frequently in undue influence cases.

Persuade vs. Deceive: Persuasion through true argument is lawful. Persuasion through false representation shades into fraud or misrepresentation. Statutes using "inveigle, persuade, or entice" treat all three as distinct mechanisms toward the same prohibited end, suggesting that lawmakers viewed each as independently sufficient and conceptually separate.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers encounter "persuade" most prominently in two bodies of law that require careful distinction.

First, in federal criminal law — particularly statutes targeting child trafficking and involuntary servitude — "persuade" appears in a cluster with "inveigle" and "entice." Anderson's entry directly addresses this usage in the context of R.S. § 5424 and § 5436, the Reconstruction-era federal statutes on peonage and involuntary servitude. Courts interpreting successor statutes (including 18 U.S.C. § 2422, which prohibits persuading, inducing, enticing, or coercing a minor into sexual activity) have given "persuade" an expansive reading that encompasses online communications, incremental grooming, and appeals made through intermediaries. Researchers using 19th-century sources should note that the word carried the same broad connotation even then — Anderson's note that persuasion "necessarily implies assent yielded as the result of the persuading or enticing" confirms that courts were already focused on the result (compromised assent), not the method.

Second, in civil law — contracts, wills, and agency — "persuade" marks the outer boundary of lawful influence. Undue influence doctrine asks whether a grantor or testator was persuaded (permissible) or whether their will was overcome (impermissible). Researchers examining old equity cases will find that courts used "persuade" almost as a term of art to signal the lawful-influence side of the line, in contrast to language like "importunity," "domination," or "subjugation" of the will.

A research trap: historical sources indexed this term under "INFLUENCE" rather than giving it a standalone entry. Anderson's explicitly redirects to that heading. Researchers using historical legal dictionaries should check both entries, as doctrine on what constitutes permissible persuasion was developed primarily under the influence heading.

Historical Dictionary Support

Anderson's Dictionary of Law does not give "persuade" a self-contained doctrinal entry but instead directs the reader to "INFLUENCE" — a choice that itself signals how 19th-century legal lexicographers categorized the concept. The substantive content Anderson provides comes through the involuntary servitude example, where the text clarifies that to "inveigle, persuade, or entice" a child implies assent yielded as the result of the inducement, regardless of who applies the pressure (parents, uncles, or others). This construction treats persuasion as result-oriented — what matters is that the victim's will was moved, not that the persuader used any particular method.

Anderson cross-references Blackstone (4 Bl. Com. 248) and Russell on Crimes (2 Russ. Cr. 479), situating the term within the criminal law of personal liberty rather than contract or evidence. This framing diverges somewhat from how modern civil litigation uses the concept. Researchers should not read the Anderson entry as comprehensive — its silence on the evidentiary and contractual dimensions of persuasion reflects the entry's narrow statutory focus, not the full scope of legal usage.

No standard historical legal dictionary (Black's first editions, Bouvier, Burrill) appears to have given "persuade" a primary entry independent of influence, fraud, or coercion — suggesting the term was considered too common and too context-dependent to warrant standalone treatment. That gap means researchers must reconstruct doctrine from surrounding entries rather than relying on a single authoritative definition.

Jurisdictional Note

In federal criminal law, "persuade" in trafficking and exploitation statutes is construed uniformly and broadly across circuits. In state law, the word's legal weight varies by context: state undue influence doctrine differs meaningfully across common law and community property jurisdictions, particularly in will contests. Researchers working in any single state should verify how local courts draw the persuasion-versus-undue-influence line, as the threshold for vitiating consent varies.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

Law Mind Encyclopedia — Undue Influence
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Fraud and Misrepresentation
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Criminal Solicitation

PERSUADEmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

See INFLUENCE. To "inveigle, persuade, or entice" a child into involuntary servitude, necessarily implies assent yielded as the result of the persuading or enticing, by whom1 See 4 Bl. Com. 248; 2 Russ. Cr. 479. 2 Stat. 37 & 38 Vict. c. 36. R. S. § 5424. R. S. § 5436. soever the influence is brought to bear, whether by parents, uncles, or others.1 Penal servitude. In England, a punishment introduced by 16 and 17 Vict. (1853), c. 99, in lieu of transportation. A convict subjected to this punishment may be kept in any place of confinement in the kingdom, or in any river, port, or harbor thereof, or in some place in her majesty's dominions beyond the seas, appointed therefor by order in council, according as the secretary of the state may direct; and may be kept at hard labor, and be otherwise dealt with, as was a person transported. Statute 20 and 21 Vict. (1857), c. 3, abolished transportation; and 27 and 28 Vict. (1864), c. 47, sec. 2, forbids sentence to penal 1 Pennoyer v. Neff, 95 U. S. 727 (1877), Field, J. Constitution, Amd. XIII. Ratified Dec. 18, 1865. 3 Slaughter-House Cases, 16 Wall. 69 (1872), Miller, J. See also Civil Rights Cases, 109 U. S. 21 (1883). 42 Bancroft, Const. 211. 18 St. L. 251: 1 Sup. R. S. 103. • United States v. Aucarola, 17 Blatch. 423, 430-31 (1880). servitude for a shorter period than five years. See TICKET, Of leave. 2. Metaphorically, a charge upon one estate for the benefit of another. An incorporeal right, derived from the civil law, and answering to the easement (q. v.) of the common law. An example is the right to fasten joists in another's wall. See SUPPORT, 1. The Roman law admitted and provided for rights in the property of others, jura in re aliena, or, as they were usually called, jura in re. The oldest of these rights were called servitutes, servitudes, subjections-the subjection of one estate to another, the liability of one estate to be used for the advantage of another. The relation was not affected by a change of owners. Among the most important were servitudes of way, drive, road, water-draining. These were known as the "praedial" servitudes. There were also "personal" servitudes, in which the right of use vested in a particular individual, and terminated with his life. The most important of this class was the usufructus (q. v.) the right to use and enjoy some property of another.3

PERSUADEv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To influence or gain over by argument, advice, entreaty, expostulation, etc.; to draw or incline to a determination by presenting sufficient motives. Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. Acts xxvi. 28. We will persuade him, be it possible. Shak. To try to influence. [Obsolescent] Hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you. 2 Kings xviii. 32. To convince by argument, or by reasons offered or suggested from reflection, etc.; to cause to believe. Beloved, we are persuaded better things of you. Heb. vi. 9. To inculcate by argument or expostulation; to advise; to recommend. Jer. Taylor.

PERSUADEv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To use persuasion; to plead; to prevail by persuasion. Shak.

PERSUADEn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

Persuasion. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.

persuadeverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

To successfully convince (someone) to agree to, accept, or do something, usually through reasoning and verbal influence. | To convince of by argument, or by reasons offered or suggested from reflection, etc.; to cause to believe (something). | To urge, plead; to try to convince (someone to do something).

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