Franklin County is a county in central Ohio that has a population of approximately 1.3 million residents. Its government seat and largest city is Columbus. Prostitution has been a problem in the county for decades, and more recently, numerous cases of sex trafficking have been investigated, and subsequently resulted in convictions. For example, in October […]
Danbury is a city of approximately 87,000 residents in eastern Connecticut, about an hour’s drive north of New York City. Police have received frequent complaints about prostitution in some areas of the city. To address prostitution, police have used tactics targeting the demand for commercial sex. The Danbury Police Department’s Special Investigations Division and the […]
Graves County is a rural area in Kentucky with a population of about 37,000. Prostitution in the county has been identified as problematic and has been connected to drug trafficking and sex crimes, such as rape. Police have fielded complaints about prostitution occurring in the county. In 2012, police decided to target consumer-level demand for […]
Worthington is a rural borough of less than 600 residents outside of the Pittsburgh metro area in Western Pennsylvania. Although reports of prostitution activity in the community appear limited, the Worthington Police Department has conducted at least one demand-reduction effort after receiving complaints from residents about suspected solicitation of prostitution. In late 2012, Worthington residents complained […]
Roseville is a suburb of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis–St. Paul, Minnesota, and has roughly 36,000 residents. The Roseville Police Department has routinely made prostitution arrests, as noted frequently in police crime blotters. Cases of sex trafficking have also been investigated in the city, such as a 2012 case involving a 17-year-old girl, for which […]
Mount Rainier is a suburb of Washington, DC, located in Prince George’s County, near Takoma Park and Hyattsville, Maryland. Its population is roughly 8,200. Prostitution is a well-documented problem in the city. Complaints about prostitution from business owners and residents have led to several efforts by the City Council and local police to address the […]
Tice is a small suburb of Fort Myers, Florida, with approximately 5,000 residents. It is situated in Lee County. Community complaints about prostitution in neighboring homes have driven law enforcement efforts to address prostitution in the town. The Lee County Sheriff’s Office conducted at least one reverse sting in Tice in October of 2012, resulting […]
Inwood is a census-designated place of approximately 7,000 residents, located near Winter Haven and Lakeland in Polk County, Florida. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office has conducted many street-level reverse stings in the area due in part to frequent complaints from residents, business owners, and public officials. Notably, in February 1989, PCSO deputies staged a sex […]
Hobart is a city of approximately 30,000 residents, located in the greater Chicago metropolitan area near Gary, Indiana. The Hobart Police Department conducted its first reverse sting in December 2011, after officers received tips and complaints of alleged prostitution activity in a home. After monitoring the home, police apprehended a man as he left, and […]
Northborough is a city of about 15,000 residents in central Massachusetts, near Worcester. Prostitution and sex trafficking in the city appear to be concentrated in hotels. For example, in 2015 a 28-year-old woman and her 32-year-old sister were arrested on prostitution charges after police said they agreed to have sex with an undercover police officer […]
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.
