Cabarrus County is located in the south-central part of North Carolina. The population is approximately 231,000. The county seat is Concord, and the county is part of the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC Metropolitan Statistical Area. Cases of prostitution and sex trafficking have been reported, including sex trafficking of minors. Local residents have complained about solicitation of prostitution occurring in several neighborhoods. In at least once incident, a man was arrested and charged with raping three women he identified and “targeted near Cabarrus Avenue and Kerr Street, an area where [police] had made prostitution arrests in the past.”

In 2007, the day after he was charged with soliciting a prostitute, a former lawmaker resigned as president of the Christian Action League of North Carolina. The 74-year-old man was charged with six counts of misdemeanor aiding and abetting prostitution by renting a hotel room and paying for sexual acts, according to warrants. A retired Baptist minister, he had served four terms in the state House and was a member of the Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners.

In May 2014, Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) deputies responded to complaints from residents in a Harrisburg neighborhood. The opened a seven-month undercover investigation on a home, and found it to be a prostitution business. The undercover detective handling the case told local news he watched the house and spotted the signal for sex buyers to enter. “There would be a string of pink lights on… as like a beacon so when they pulled into the neighborhood they could find which house to go to.” Deputies charged the woman running the business with prostitution but they said her actions did not stop. Deputies again arrested her. Because the homeowner wasn’t home when the alleged prostitution took place, deputies did not charge him.

In February 2022, the CCSO arrested three people in connection with human sex trafficking of a minor in the Concord Mills area. Charges included human trafficking, promoting prostitution of a minor and misdemeanor flee and elude. Deputies say the office’s VICE/Narcotics Unit, along with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) conducted an undercover investigation for sex trafficking in the county and were able to find the fifteen-year old listed on an escort website. They located her along with the three traffickers.