Massachusetts Statutes

Section 5. Whoever, except as permitted under chapters 23K and 23N, keeps or assists in keeping a common gaming house, or building or place occupied, used or kept for the purposes described in section twenty-three, or is found playing or present as provided in said section, or co…

Section 50. Whoever, alone or in concert with others, sells to another, or arranges for or assists in such sale for another, a theme, term paper, thesis or other paper or the written results of research, knowing or having reason to know that such theme, term paper, thesis or othe…

Section 51. (a) As used in this section, the following terms shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly requires otherwise:- ''First responder'', a law enforcement officer, a paid, call, reserve or volunteer firefighter, a paid, call, reserve or volunteer emerge…

Section 5A. Whoever manufactures, transports, sells, offers for sale, stores, displays, repairs, reconditions, possesses or uses any gambling device or parts for use therein shall be punished by a fine of not more than five thousand dollars; provided, however, that fifty percent …

Section 5B. (a) As used in this section the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings:— ''Electronic machine or device'', a mechanically, electrically or electronically operated machine or device that is: (i) owned, leased o…

Section 6. Whoever, during or within twelve hours of the time of holding a cattle show, military muster or public gathering, within one mile of the place thereof, practices or engages in illegal gaming, shall forfeit not more than twenty dollars. If discovered in the act, he may …

Section 6A. Whoever sets up or promotes a plan by which goods or anything of value is sold to a person for a consideration and upon the further consideration that the purchaser agrees to secure one or more persons to participate in the plan by respectively making a similar purcha…

Section 6B. Whoever, except as provided in section twenty-two B, sets up or promotes the game commonly known as skilo or any similar game regardless of name, shall be held to have set up and promoted a lottery and shall be punished as provided in section seven.

Section 7. Whoever sets up or promotes a lottery for money or other property of value, or by way of lottery disposes of any property of value, or under the pretext of a sale, gift or delivery of other property or of any right, privilege or thing whatever disposes of or offers or …

Section 7A. In this section the following words shall have the following meanings: ''Raffle'', an arrangement for raising money by the sale of tickets, certain among which, as determined by chance after the sale, entitle the holders to prizes. ''Bazaar'', a place maintained by th…

Section 8. Whoever owns, occupies or is in control of a house, shop or building and knowingly permits the establishing, managing or drawing of a lottery, or the disposal or attempt to dispose of property, or the sale of a lottery ticket or share of a ticket, or any other writing,…

Section 9. Whoever, for himself or for another, sells or offers for sale or has in his possession with intent to sell or offer for sale, or to exchange or negotiate, or aids or assists in the selling, exchanging, negotiating or disposing of a ticket in such lottery, or a share of…

Section 1. As used in this chapter, the following words shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly requires otherwise: ''Criminal enterprise activity'', the commission, attempt to commit or conspiracy to commit or the solicitation, coercion, aiding, abetting or …

Section 2. Whoever knowingly: (1) through a pattern of criminal enterprise activity or through the collection of an unlawful debt acquires or maintains, directly or indirectly, an interest in or control of an enterprise which is engaged in, or the activities of which affect, lice…

Section 3. All monetary proceeds or other property, real, intellectual or personal, obtained directly as a result of a violation of this chapter, shall be subject to seizure and forfeiture to the commonwealth. Forfeiture proceedings shall be conducted as provided in subsections (…

Section 1. Whoever fraudulently and deceitfully entices or takes away an unmarried person under sixteen from the house of such person's parents or elsewhere, without the consent of the parent or guardian, if any, under whose care and custody such person is living, for the purpose…

Section 10. Nothing in the preceding section shall prevent the arrest and detention without a warrant of any person who, the officer serving said process may have reasonable cause to believe, is violating any provision of this chapter, or is keeping a house, room or place resorte…

Section 104. (a) As used in this section, the word ''authority'' shall mean an organization or the authorized agent of an organization that seizes or impounds an animal pursuant to the General Laws. (b) If an animal is seized or impounded pursuant to section 112 of chapter 266 or…

Section 105. (a) As used in this section, the following words shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly requires otherwise: ''Electronically surveils'' or ''electronically surveilled'', to view, obtain or record a person's visual image by the use or aid of a ca…

Section 106. (a) A person commits the crime of stolen valor if that person knowingly, with the intent to obtain money, property or any other tangible benefit: (i) fraudulently represents such person to be an active member or veteran of the United States Navy, Army, Air Force, Mar…

Section 107. The court shall transmit fines collected pursuant to section 8 and subsection (b) and subsection (c) of section 53A to the state treasurer. The treasurer shall deposit such fines into the Victims of Human Trafficking Trust Fund established pursuant to section 66A of …

Section 11. A person shall not be convicted under sections 2, 4 and 6 upon the evidence of one witness only, unless his testimony is corroborated in a material particular, and prosecution for a violation of any of said sections shall not be commenced more than one year after the …

Section 12. Whoever knowingly procures, entices, sends, or aids or abets in procuring, enticing or sending, a person to practice prostitution, or to enter as an inmate or a servant a house of ill fame or other place resorted to for prostitution, whether within or without the comm…

Section 13. Whoever, for any length of time, unlawfully detains or attempts to detain, or aids or abets in unlawfully detaining or attempting to detain, or provides or administers or aids or abets in providing or administering any drug or liquor for the purpose of detaining a per…

Section 15. Whoever, having a former husband or wife living, marries another person or continues to cohabit with a second husband or wife in the commonwealth shall be guilty of polygamy, and be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than five years or in jail f…

Section 16. A man or woman, married or unmarried, who is guilty of open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than three years or in jail for not more than two years or by a fine of not more than three hundr…

Section 17. Persons within degrees of consanguinity within which marriages are prohibited or declared by law to be incestuous and void, who intermarry or have sexual intercourse with each other, or who engage in sexual activities with each other, including but not limited to, ora…

Section 2. Whoever fraudulently and deceitfully entices or takes away a person from the house of his parent or guardian or elsewhere, for the purpose of prostitution or for the purpose of unlawful sexual intercourse, and whoever aids and assists in such abduction for such purpose…

Section 21A. An authorized health care provider may administer or prescribe to any person drugs or articles for the prevention of pregnancy or conception. A registered pharmacist may provide such drugs or articles to any person presenting a prescription from an authorized health …

Section 21B. No privately controlled hospital or other health facility shall be required to admit any patient for the purpose of performing an abortion, performing any sterilization procedure, or receiving contraceptive devices or information. No privately controlled hospital or …

Section 22. A parent who conceals the death of the issue of such parent, which if born alive would be a child born out of wedlock, so that it cannot be ascertained whether it was born alive or, if born alive, whether it was murdered, shall be punished by a fine of not more than o…

Section 23. A parent indicted for murder of the infant child born out of wedlock of such parent may also be charged in the same indictment with the crime described in the preceding section, and if acquitted of murder, such parent may be convicted of the concealment.

Section 24. Whoever keeps a house of ill fame which is resorted to for prostitution or lewdness shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than two years.

Section 25. Any person owning, managing or controlling a restaurant, tavern or other place in any town, where food or drink is sold to the public to be consumed upon the premises or required to be licensed under chapter one hundred and thirty-eight, and any employee of such perso…

Section 26. Whoever, for the purpose of immoral solicitation or immoral bargaining, shall resort to any café, restaurant, tavern, as defined in section one of chapter one hundred and thirty-eight, or other place where food or drink is sold or served to be consumed upon the premis…

Section 27. The clerk of the court in which any person is convicted of a violation of either of the two preceding sections shall forthwith send a copy of the record of such conviction to the officer or board issuing any license or licenses under which the place where the offence …

Section 28. Whoever purposefully disseminates to a person he knows or believes to be a minor any matter harmful to minors, as defined in section 31, knowing it to be harmful to minors, or has in his possession any such matter with the intent to disseminate the same to a person he…

Section 28C. Whenever there is reasonable cause to believe that a book which is being disseminated, or is in the possession of any person who intends to disseminate the same, is obscene, the attorney general, or any district attorney within his district, shall bring an informatio…

Section 28D. Any person interested in the dissemination of said book may appear and file an answer on or before the return day named in said notice or within such further time as the court may allow, and may claim a right to trial by jury on the issue whether said book is obscene…

Section 28E. If no person appears and answers within the time allowed, the court may at once upon motion of the petitioner, or of its own motion, no reason to the contrary appearing, order a general default and if the court finds that the book is obscene, may make an adjudication…

Section 28F. If an appearance is entered and answer filed, the case shall be set down for speedy hearing, but a default and order shall first be entered against all persons who have not appeared and answered, in the manner provided in section twenty-eight E. Such hearing shall be…

Section 28G. An information or petition in equity under the provisions of section twenty-eight C shall not be open to objection on the ground that a mere judgment, order or decree is sought thereby and that no relief is or could be claimed thereunder on the issue of the defendant…

Section 28H. In any trial under section twenty-nine on an indictment found or a complaint made for any offence committed after the filing of a proceeding under section twenty-eight C, the fact of such filing and the action of the court or jury thereon, if any, shall be admissible…

Section 28I. The procedures set forth in sections twenty-eight C, twenty-eight D, twenty-eight E, twenty-eight G and twenty-eight H shall be a condition precedent to the institution of any proceedings pursuant to section twenty-nine or thirty for dissemination of obscene books.

Section 29. Whoever disseminates any matter which is obscene, knowing it to be obscene, or whoever has in his possession any matter which is obscene, knowing it to be obscene, with the intent to disseminate the same, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not m…

Section 29A. (a) Whoever, either with knowledge that a person is a child under eighteen years of age or while in possession of such facts that he should have reason to know that such person is a child under eighteen years of age, and with lascivious intent, hires, coerces, solici…