Weirton is a city located in the northern panhandle of West Virginia and has a population of roughly 18,500. Prostitution and sex trafficking activity have been well-documented in the city and surrounding communities. This activity and the problems and ancillary crimes it generates results in complaints to law enforcement agencies from residents and businesses. The […]
Waynesville is a city in North Carolina of approximately 10,000 residents located between the Great Smokey and Blue Ridge mountains, about 20 miles west of Asheville. It is the county seat and largest city in Haywood County, and it is the largest city in North Carolina west of Asheville. Prostitution and sex trafficking have been well-documented […]
Waynesboro is a city located in Wayne County, Mississippi and has a population of under 5,000. The South Mississippi Narcotics Task Force, Waynesboro Police Department, and the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department have responded to “an overwhelming amount of complaints about prostitution activity at a local motel” by conducting undercover operations. In April, 2017, a man […]
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 […]
Wauwatosa is a suburban city abutting Milwaukee, Wisconsin, of roughly 48,000 residents, located in Milwaukee County, WI. Prostitution and sex trafficking have been identified as problems in the city, and the city has passed local ordinances to attempt to supplement state laws and provide local civil remedies. The first known local prostitution arrests in the […]
Wauseon is a city of approximately 8,000 residents. Located 30 miles west of Toledo, it is the county seat of Fulton County, Ohio. The city has conducted at least one reverse sting targeting consumer-level demand for commercial sex. In 2008, a two-day web-based reverse sting resulted in the arrest of 10 sex buyers. The operation […]
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 […]
Waterloo is a city of approximately 69,000 residents, located 50 miles north of Cedar Rapids in Black Hawk County, Iowa. Prostitution and sex trafficking activity have 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 […]
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 […]
Wasilla is a city of approximately 10,000 residents in Matanuska-Susitna Borough. It is located about 50 miles north of Anchorage, AK. Instances of prostitution and sex trafficking have been documented in Wasilla and surrounding areas in the Mat-Su Valley. Violence against prostituted persons, drugs, and cases of targeted homicide against individuals in the commercial sex […]
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.
