Jonesboro is a city of approximately 4,500 residents and located about 20 miles south of Atlanta in Clayton County, Georgia. The city is known to have a substantial level of prostitution activity in a variety of venues, including massage parlor brothels, online advertisements, and encounters arranged for at local motels. Sex trafficking has also been documented in the community, including a 2014 case in which a couple was charged with trafficking a 16-year-old girl. Targeted attacks on prostituted women have also been documented.

Consumer-level demand provides the revenue stream for all prostitution and sex trafficking and has therefore been targeted by local law enforcement agencies as a strategy for prevention and response. The reverse sting is a demand reduction tactic that has been used in the city since at least 2007. In that year, as a result of community complaints, the Clayton County Police Department conducted a reverse sting that resulted in the arrests of 11 men. Although their names were not disclosed, the CCPD has released the names of sex buyers in more recent operations.

Some local arrests of sex buyers are the result of investigating allegations against real victims as opposed to the product of sting operations using police decoys. For example, in March, 2023, a sex buyer called police to complain that he had paid a woman for sex, but that she “disappeared” before they that occurred.  During the responding officer’s investigation, the woman in question admitted to taking the $40 on the promise to engage in sex acts, and then reneging. Officers were able to review surveillance video and find the prostituted woman, and corroborate the man’s allegation of prostitution, and his participation as a buyer. The man’s identity was disclosed in news reports.