Charleroi is a borough of about 4,000 residents, located south of Pittsburgh in Washington County, Pennsylvania. Despite the borough’s small population size, prostitution and sex trafficking activity has been documented. Among the more serious crimes associated with the local commercial sex market is child sex trafficking.

In effort to combat prostitution and sex trafficking activity, police have conducted investigations into sex buyers and sex traffickers in the borough. For example, in April 2014, a 15-year-old girl called Charleroi Regional Police to report that a man she had been communicating with through Facebook offered her $500 for sex. The girl showed police numerous texts and Facebook messages allegedly sent to her by the man who stated “he wanted to have sex with the girl in exchange for money.” In response to her report, police conducted a web-based reverse sting, communicating with the sex buyer online and arranging a time to meet at a predetermined location where surveillance would be set up to document the arrest. The sex buyer was arrested by police while he was on his way to sexually exploit what he believed was the teenage girl. The man was arraigned in District Court on felony charges of promoting/encouraging prostitution, criminal use of a communication facility, unlawful contact with a minor-prostitution and corruption of minors. The man’s identity was provided to the media in press releases and subsequent news reports.