Bucks County has a population of approximately 646,000, is located in southeastern Pennsylvania, and contains the communities of Bensalem Township  and Quakertown.  Prostitution and child sex trafficking are well-documented problems within the county, with activity frequently concentrated in and around the township’s many hotels and motels along the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Since 2012, local law enforcement have reported at least three distinct cases of “forced prostitution of minors” (i.e., child sex trafficking) in the township. Prostitution-related child endangerment and violence have also been documented, with cases of small children found present during local prostitution stings, and at least one individual was convicted of torturing and murdering a woman involved in prostitution (brought from nearby Philadelphia‘s Kensington Avenue) and an exotic dancer in Bensalem.

Consumer-level demand provides the revenue stream for all prostitution and sex trafficking, and has therefore been targeted by local law enforcement agencies in their strategy for prevention and response. To combat the array of problems stemming from commercial sex, the Bucks County Sheriff’s Office as well as municipal police have arrested sex buyers and publicly disclosed their identities within the county.  For example, in July, 2005, Quakertown police raided a massage parlor and charged two women with prostitution, a third with promoting prostitution and three men with soliciting prostitution. In May 2012, officers from the Bensalem Township Police Department, acting on reports of a missing teenage girl, arrested a Philadelphia police officer in a local motel. He was charged with solicitation, aggravated indecent assault without consent, and unlawful sexual contact with a minor. His name and a photo were released to the media. In December 2016, two men were arrested during a prostitution sting in Bensalem.  A woman was arrested in a hotel room for prostitution, and upon further investigation also arrested two men, whose roles as either facilitators or sex buyers were unclear in news reports.