Oregon City is a city in Northwestern Oregon of approximately 37,000 residents, located on the Willamette River near the southern limits of the Portland metropolitan area. Oregon City is the county seat of Clackamas County, OR. Prostitution and sex trafficking have been well-documented in the city and surrounding areas. This activity and its ancillary crimes have generated reports to police. In addition, a serial killer who specifically targeted prostituted women has operated in the city.

Public disclosure of identity and loss of employment are consequences of buying sex that have been employed in the city. For example, in April, 2021, the chair of Clackamas Community College Board of Education was arrested and charged with commercial sexual solicitation during a web-based reverse sting conducted by the Portland Police Bureau’s Human Trafficking Unit. As a result of his arrest, the sex buyer was placed on a leave of absence and in July, 2021, he was asked by the Board to resign, and submitted his letter of resignation the following day, effective immediately. The offender began his political career as a congressional staffer and went on to serve five terms in the Oregon Legislature, serving as both speaker and Democratic majority leader. As a legislator, the former House speaker was one of numerous sponsors of a bill criminalizing sex trafficking in 2007. In 2011, he also voted for HB 2714, that bill created the crime of commercial sexual solicitation, the crime for which he was arrested and cited. That measure created the crime of patronizing a prostitute — since renamed commercial sexual solicitation — punishable by up to one year imprisonment, a $6,250 fine, or both when the person being patronized is an adult. The former chair had been an elected board member for CCC since January 2015 and represented Zone 3, which serves Gladstone, Oak Grove, and Jennings Lodge areas.