Monson is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, with a population of about 9,000. It is part of the Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area, in the south-central region of the state. Multiple cases of prostitution and sex trafficking have been documented in the community, and have included the trafficking of children, the production of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM, often referred to in criminal codes as “child pornography”), and drug offenses. For example, in June, 2012, a Monson resident was arrested for prostitution in nearby Springfield. In March, 2015, an investigation was conducted about a Craigslist ad allegedly offering sexual services in Monson. An undercover officer working with the Eastern Hampden County Drug Task Force answered the ad and met with a 22-year-old woman who had placed the ads, and found that a number of Monson residents as well as individuals from outside the local area met with her in response to the ads. she was arrested after meeting with an undercover officer at her residence and negotiated sexual conduct for a fee. At the time of the arrest, the young woman’s parents were home and there was heroin in the house. The woman was charged with engaging in sexual conduct for a fee and possession of heroin.

Among the responses to such local problems have been the use of demand reduction tactics.  For example, in July, 2017, two people were arrested for human trafficking of a minor. The Hampden County District Attorney’s Office said a 39-year-old woman living on Palmer Road in Monson was arranging for a child in her early teens to engage in sexual acts for a fee with a 71-year-old male resident of Ware. The woman facilitated a number of meetings between the child and the adult by establishing contact and providing transportation, and would collect a portion of the proceeds that the child was receiving. She was arrested on charges including human trafficking, inducing a minor for prostitution, deriving support from child prostitution, exhibiting a child in a sexual act, and distributing material depicting a child in a sexual act (CSAM, often referred to in legal codes as “child pornography”). The man was also arrested and charged with statutory rape and abuse of a child, post/exhibit a child in the nude, and possession of child pornography.