Lilburn is a small city of just over 15,000 residents, located in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, in Gwinnett County, Georgia, near Norcross and Lawrenceville. Cases of prostitution and the sex trafficking of minors, as well as cases of minors being exploited for money in adult-oriented businesses (e.g., strip clubs), are well-documented in the community and have generated complaints to both law enforcement and city officials.

At least one incident of prostitution-related violence has also been noted; in 2007, a sex buyer from Lilburn was shot in the arm “by a man he believed to be the pimp of a woman he had solicited for [commercial] sex”. This occurred after the pimp pulled the woman in question out of the sex buyer’s vehicle at a Norcross apartment complex. The sex buyer was shot after attempting to break up the pimp and prostituted woman.

In November 2006, Gwinnett Daily Post journalists reported that the Gwinnett Village Community Improvement District– a region spanning sections of Norcross and Lilburn– was home to “nearly half” of Gwinnett County’s reported prostitution- and sex-related crimes, despite the fact that the “area takes up less than 4 percent of the county [geographically] and has [only] 12 percent of its population.”

To our knowledge, Lilburn has served as the staging ground for at least one reverse sting targeting the underlying demand for prostitution. In May 2005, the Gwinnett Daily Post reported the arrest of four sex buyers at a Lilburn motel. Each of the men had allegedly solicited commercial sex acts from an undercover officer posing as a woman offering prostitution. Although media outlets carried the names, ages, and hometowns of each of the arrestees, they did not disclose which local law enforcement agency (i.e., Gwinnett County Police Department or Lilburn Police Department) had led the operation.