Wisconsin Dells is a city of approximately 3,200 residents, located at the crossroads of Adams, Columbia, Juneau and Salk Counties in southeastern Wisconsin.  Prostitution and sex trafficking have been the subject to complaints to police by residents, and child sex trafficking is known to have occurred in the city.  Children in the area have been rescued from child trafficking and suspects arrested in nationwide FBI investigations. In 2013, a national roundup targeted Milwaukee, the Madison/Wisconsin Dells area and the Fox Valley, according to the FBI, which worked with the Milwaukee Police Department and several other state agencies in the sweep.  Cases of physical assaults of prostituted women in the city have also been documented.

In December 2008, officers from the Wisconsin Dells and Lake Delton Police Departments conducted a web sting after receiving a tip that a woman was advertising sexual services online. Police arranged to meet the woman in her Lake Delton home, and arrested her when she attempted to sell sex to an undercover officer. Police then used a cell phone seized during the arrest to intercept 11 male sex buyers responding to the woman’s original web listing. All arrestees had their names and other identifying information published by local media outlets.