La Crosse is a city of approximately 52,000 residents in western Wisconsin, near the Minnesota border and about midway between Madison, Wisconsin and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Prostitution has been a documented problem in this city since the mid 1800s. For example, between 1951 and 1956, there was a federal campaign against organized interstate prostitution – much of […]
Zanesville is a city of about 25,000 residents located along Interstate 70 just east of Columbus in the state of Ohio. Police have fielded continuous complaints about prostitution from residents and businesses, and sex trafficking is known to occur in the city. In 2007, dental records identified the skeletal remains of a 21-year-old Zanesville resident who […]
Youngstown is a city of approximately 60,000 residents, located southeast of Cleveland in Mahoning County, Ohio. Prostitution and sex trafficking are well-documented problems in the city; several prostituted women have also been murdered in the community and in surrounding areas. Among the more serious issues associated with the commercial sex market in the city is […]
Winter Haven is a city of approximately 53,000 residents in Polk County in central Florida. The city has well-documented problems with prostitution, as well as cases of sex trafficking rings involving minors (i.e., domestic minor sex trafficking). A Winter Haven police officer was decertified for “Perjury, Prostitution, Sex on Duty.” It was served by the […]
Wichita is the largest city in Kansas, with a population of approximately 390,000 residents. Situated in Sedgwick County at the junction of Interstate 35 and U.S. Route 54, the city has struggled since at least the late 1970s with numerous problems associated with commercial sex occurring along major roadways. The south and north corridors of […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
Virginia Beach is an independent city in the southwest, coastal region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, near Norfolk, and has a population of approximately 450,000. Cases of sex trafficking and prostitution have occurred in the city have been documented for decades, as have incidents of assault of prostituted persons, kidnapping for prostitution, and HIV positive […]
Tuscaloosa is a city of approximately 100,000 residents, located in west-central Alabama’s Tuscaloosa County. Prostitution and sex trafficking have been well documented problems in the city for decades. For example, in May, 2022, the West Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force reported that two teenage victims of sex trafficking have been returned to their families after […]
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.
