Definition
Procurers has two distinct legal meanings that share only the root concept of causing or obtaining something through the efforts of another.
1. Criminal law (primary historical meaning): Persons who solicit, entice, or arrange for the sexual exploitation or defilement of others — historically, girls under the age of legal protection — typically through inducement, false pretense, or coercion. In this sense, a procurer is distinct from the person who commits the act directly; the procurer is the facilitator or arranger. Modern criminal law uses the terms procurer and procurement interchangeably with trafficking, pandering, or solicitation offenses, depending on jurisdiction.
2. Agency and commercial law (secondary meaning): Persons who obtain a result on behalf of another — most commonly, a broker or agent who brings about a transaction, such as securing a buyer for a seller of real property. This meaning underlies the doctrine of procuring cause in real estate and commission disputes.
---
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Plural of procurer — one who obtains or acquires something; also, one who procures another person for sexual purposes.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): One who procures or obtains; one who provides gratification for the lust of others; a pander.
The ordinary language meaning tracks the criminal law meaning closely enough that no sharp gap exists there. The gap worth noting is the commercial law meaning: in ordinary speech, calling someone a "procurer" carries almost exclusively a criminal or morally charged connotation, while in agency and real estate law, the term is entirely neutral and professional — a "procuring broker" is simply the agent who was the efficient cause of a transaction.
---
Common Confusion
Procurers is frequently conflated with panderers and pimps in casual usage, but these terms carry distinct legal definitions in most jurisdictions. A procurer arranges for or facilitates sexual exploitation, typically through solicitation or false pretenses; a pander (pandering) often implies a broader scheme of promotion or management; a pimp typically implies ongoing control and profit from another's prostitution. The overlap is real, but the distinctions matter for charging decisions and elements of proof. Separately, procurer in the agency law context is sometimes confused with the principal or the ultimate buyer — the procurer is the intermediary who brings the deal about, not the party who consummates it.
---
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encounter procurers in two largely separate bodies of law that rarely cross-reference each other, and historical sources treat them almost entirely in isolation.
In criminal law research, the term appears prominently in 19th- and early 20th-century English statutory materials and their American counterparts. The Rapalje & Lawrence entry ties the term to 24 & 25 Vict. c. (the Offences Against the Person Act era), reflecting a statutory framework that has since been substantially revised. Researchers using historical English sources should be alert to the age thresholds and the specific role of false pretenses, both of which have shifted considerably. Modern U.S. research will find the conduct formerly described as procurement absorbed into human trafficking statutes, Mann Act offenses, and state-level pandering and solicitation codes — the word procurer itself may not appear in current statutory text even when the conduct is covered.
In real estate and agency law research, the relevant term is procuring cause rather than procurers, and the corpus will reflect that phrasing. Commission disputes hinge on which broker was the procuring cause of a sale — the broker whose efforts were the efficient, unbroken cause leading to the completed transaction. This doctrine is heavily litigated and varies in application by jurisdiction and MLS rule. Researchers should not assume that historical dictionary entries about procurers in the criminal law context have any bearing on agency law disputes.
The fragment in Rapalje & Lawrence following the criminal definition — referencing procuration fees and bills of exchange — reflects the additional, distinct meaning of procuration in negotiable instruments law. That usage belongs under PROCURATION rather than PROCURERS and should not be conflated here.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence is the sole historical dictionary source available for this entry. Its definition is narrow and jurisdiction-specific: it defines procurers specifically as persons who bring about the defilement of girls under twenty-one through false pretenses, and fixes the English penalty at up to two years' imprisonment with or without hard labor under mid-Victorian statute. This reflects the state of the law at the time of the dictionary's compilation and is useful primarily for understanding the historical English criminal framework.
Rapalje & Lawrence does not address the agency law meaning of the term at all, and its entry abruptly transitions — apparently through a typographic artifact — into a discussion of procuration fees taken by scriveners, which is a separate legal concept entirely. Researchers should treat these as distinct terms and not read the procuration fee discussion as elaborating on the criminal definition of procurers.
No entry for this term was available from Bouvier, Black, or other major historical dictionaries in the current source set. The absence is notable: the term's criminal law meaning was well established by the mid-19th century, and researchers consulting other historical American dictionaries may find more developed treatment.
---
Jurisdictional Note
In modern U.S. law, the conduct historically described under procurers is typically charged under state trafficking, pandering, or promoting prostitution statutes, or under federal law including the Mann Act (18 U.S.C. §§ 2421–2423). Terminology, age thresholds, and elements vary significantly by state. In English law, the relevant framework has been superseded by the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and subsequent trafficking legislation.
---
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Broker Commission Disputes — Procuring Cause, Ready Willing and Able Buyer, and MLS Cooperation (Law Mind Real Estate Transactions & Construction Encyclopedia) — for the agency and commission law dimension of procuring.
---