Kankakee is a city of approximately 26,000 residents that serves as the county seat of Kankakee County, Illinois. Prostitution and sex trafficking activity have been well-documented in the city and surrounding communities, and in unincorporated areas of the county.  This activity and the problems and ancillary crimes it generates results in complaints to law enforcement agencies from residents and businesses. Among the more serious problems associated with commercial sex in the area include sex trafficking.  In 2014, for example, one prostituted woman pleading to a Kankakee County judge for help after being arrested, revealing that her pimp had beaten her into submission repeatedly and she feared disobeying him. The case was one of the first the Kankakee-Iroquois Human Trafficking Task Force got involved in since being formed in late 2012. Prostitution related homicide has also occurred in the area.  For example, in 1983 officials in Kankakee County were investigating the case of a man, who’d been arrested for male prostitution, who was found stabbed to death.  His body was found in October 1982 in a rural area on the Illinois-Indiana state line.

To combat prostitution and sex trafficking and its related crimes in the area, local law enforcement agencies have targeted consumer-level demand for commercial sex, which provides the revenue stream driving all commercial sex and trafficking. In June, 2008, Kankakee police arrested eight people in a prostitution sting, including four women offering prostitution, and four male sex buyers. All had their identities included in news reports. In August, 2012, five men were arrested for attempting to solicit an undercover Kankakee police officer for paid sex. Kankakee police had made arrests for prostitution during the prior month, which prompted the reverse sting. The names, ages, and addresses of the arrested sex buyers were included in press releases, as well as the locations where they were arrested.