Roxboro is a city of approximately 8,300 residents, located 30 miles north of Durham, North Carolina.  It is the county seat of Person County, which is part of the four-county Durham-Chapel Hill Metropolitan Statistical Area. Prostitution and sexual exploitation, including of minors, have been well-documented in the city and surrounding communities. This activity and the ancillary crimes it generates have resulted in complaints to law enforcement agencies from local residents and businesses.

In June 2019, a Roxboro restaurant owner was arrested on charges of soliciting prostitution. The suspect was charged with four counts of solicitation of prostitution, three of which involved soliciting minors. The Roxboro Police Chief said the incidents involved four boys between ages 15 and 17. The man owned a restaurant on Durham Road, and the first alleged victim that came forward was an employee of the restaurant. Investigators the man offered money to the minors to perform oral sex on him. Authorities said they believe at least one of the sex acts happened near the restaurant. The man was arrested at the restaurant after the first victim was identified, and was released on $60,000 bond.

Also in June 2019, a Roxboro minister was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison and lifetime probation after he accepted a plea deal of making and possessing “child pornography” (i.e., child sexual abuse materials, or CSAM) in a case where prosecutors said he carried on a sexual relationship with an underage boy that spanned several years. The man had originally been indicted in May 2018, during the U.S. Department of Justice’s Operation “Broken Heart” in which 2,300 suspected online child sex offenders were arrested. The case originally started out in state court but was moved to the federal courts after the man was accused of driving the 13-year-old male victim across state lines.