Portsmouth is a city of about 95,000 residents, located in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, near Norfolk, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach and Newport News. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Prostitution activity has been reported in the area for decades. For example, in July, 2021, five people were in custody […]
Portsmouth is a city of approximately 21,000 residents on the Atlantic coast of New Hampshire. Most prostitution and sex trafficking activity in the city appears to be centered in hotels and other indoor venues, and is arranged through online solicitation. Community complaints play a role in police responding to prostitution in the city, and efforts […]
Portland is a city of roughly 650,000 residents situated in Northwestern Oregon, across the Columbia River from the city of Vancouver, WA. Portland is the population center of Multnomah County and the area has a long history of serious and visible problems associated with prostitution and sex trafficking. For example, in January 2013, a 43-year-old […]
Portsmouth is a city of approximately 18,000 residents situated along the northern banks of the Ohio River in Scioto County, about 30 miles northwest of Ashland, Kentucky. Commercial sex, including the sex trafficking of minors, has been reported in the community for several decades. Portsmouth has also documented at least one case of prostitution-related homicide; […]
Portland is the largest city in Maine with a population of about 67,000, and is located on the state’s southeast Atlantic coast. For decades, police have been aware of prostitution occurring in the city and residents have complained to police about it. Many local cases of sex trafficking of adults and children have been […]
Port Salerno is a census-designated place of approximately 10,000 residents located south of Port St. Lucie and Fort Pierce in Martin County, Florida. As in the nearby Jupiter and Hobe Sound, Port Salerno residents and local law enforcement have reported problems with street prostitution and sex trafficking in the community for years. Multiple cases of targeted […]
Port St. Lucie is located on the southeastern Atlantic coast of Florida, and has a population of approximately 218,000. Prostitution and sex trafficking have been well-documented problems in the city and the region for decades, and community complaints to police are common. Prostitution related violence, including homicide, has also occurred. Consumer level demand provides the revenue […]
Port Arthur is a city of roughly 56,000 residents, located on the Texas Gulf near Beaumont in Jefferson County, Texas. Prostitution has a long history in the community, and generates a wide range of complaints from residents. Cases of child sex trafficking and prostitution-related homicide have also been documented. Although local law enforcement continues to […]
Pompano Beach is a city of approximately 111,000 residents located north of Fort Lauderdale in Broward County, Florida. Like many cities in the county, Pompano has struggled with chronic street prostitution along its three major highways– Interstate 95, U.S. Route 1, and Florida State Road 811– since at least the late 1980s. It was also one of […]
Pontiac is located in the metro Detroit area and has a population of roughly 67,000. Prostitution has been identified as a problem in the city for decades, and generates complaints to police. In a recent example, in describing a recent prostitution sting, the Oakland County Sheriff said they chose to target the high-prostitution and drug area based […]
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.
