Winona is a city of approximately 26,000 residents, located in Winona County in southeast Minnesota. Prostitution activity has 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. Consumer level […]
Wilmington is the largest city in Delaware, with a population of roughly 73,000. Prostitution and sex trafficking activity have been documented to occur in the city for decades. A recent example includes operations conducted cases from February, 2022: two illicit massage establishments in Wilmington were shut down during an investigation by the new DOJ Human […]
West Palm Beach is a city of approximately 117,000 residents, located in Palm Beach County in southeastern Florida. Prostitution and sex trafficking have been persistent local problems for decades and a wide range of crimes associated with the local sex trade have been well documented. For example, sex buyers have been set up by prostituted […]
Wayne County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Michigan with a population of roughly 1.8 million residents. Its county seat and largest city is Detroit, MI. Wayne County encompasses the city of Detroit and its surrounding suburbs and unincorporated areas. The area’s economy has been troubled for many years, and crime […]
Waukegan is a city of approximately 89,000 residents, located in the northern suburbs of Chicago in Lake County, Illinois. Law enforcement and city residents report that prostitution has been a persistent problem in the area for decades. Consumer level demand provides the revenue stream for all prostitution and sex trafficking, and has therefore been targeted by […]
Waterbury is a city in western Connecticut, located in New Haven County, and has a population of approximately 114,000 residents. Prostitution and sex trafficking are well-known problems in the city, and activity appears to occur primarily indoors in hotels or apartments, and is arranged online. Prostitution activity generates numerous complaints to police by residents and […]
Washtenaw County is located in southeastern Michigan, west of suburban Detroit. It has a population of approximately 368,000, much of it centered in the county seat of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. Through 2020, law enforcement agencies within the county had conducted reverse stings to address problems associated with prostitution and sex trafficking, resulting in arrests […]
Washington, DC is the capital city and federal district of the United States. It is located on the east bank of the Potomac River and shares a border with Virginia and Maryland. It has a population of approximately 713,000 residents and is one of the most visited cities in the U.S. Like most large cities, […]
Warren is a city of approximately 134,000 residents, located in Macomb County in eastern Michigan. It is the largest suburb in the Detroit metropolitan area. Prostitution has been identified by police and residents as a serious problem in the city, and Warren has been identified by federal and local law enforcement as being part of regional […]
Waco is a city of about 138,000 residents in McLennan County in central Texas, located along an interstate highway (Rt. 35) that links the Dallas/Fort Worth area with Austin, and is home to Baylor University. The city has long recognized that substantial prostitution activity occurs locally, and generates a wide range of other crimes and […]
Demand Forum is powered by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) and directed by Dr. Michael Shively, NCOSE's Senior Advisor on Research and Data Analysis. It was originally developed by Dr. Shively and Abt Associates with grant support from the National Institute of Justice. In January 2020 the website transferred to NCOSE. In January 2021, work began on a new grant from NIJ (#2020-75-CX-0011) to update and expand the content presented on Demand Forum.
