Edison, also known as Edison Township, is located in central New Jersey’s Middlesex County. The township has a population of roughly 100,000.   Documented cases of prostitution and sex trafficking have occurred in the city, particularly along Route 27 and in massage businesses serving as fronts for illegal brothels, generating complaints to police and other types of crime occurring in prostitution transactions. For example, in November 2013, a state grand jury indicted a township man on first-degree charges of human trafficking, kidnapping and racketeering for allegedly enslaving women in a prostitution ring through violence and threats of violence, according to the Attorney General’s Office.  The alleged pimp (trafficker) was also indicted with another person on charges of racketeering conspiracy, receiving stolen property and promoting prostitution.  The charges stemmed from an investigation by the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice and the Edison Police Department.  The found young women in various locations, including the Cleveland, Ohio, area and brought them to New Jersey to enslave them in prostitution. In December, 2022, police announced that nine massage parlors were busted and 20 people were arrested in Edison for dealing in prostitution and drugs.

Among the efforts to address such crimes have been the use of demand reduction tactics.  For example, in 2011, due to complaints about prostitution received from the community, the Edison Police Department executed their first known reverse sting operation, resulting in six arrests.  In the three months leading up to that reverse sting, 20 arrests had been made on charges of prostitution and promoting prostitution, but when that didn’t seem to impact the problem, police decided to switch their focus to the demand side of the commercial sex market and arrest sex buyers.  As the majority of the prostitution is ‘indoors’ in Edison, the sting operations have been web-based.  Since the first reverse sting in 2011, the Edison Division of Police has continued to use this method as a way of attempting to reduce the demand for prostitution.