web-stings

Waco, TX

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, VA

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 […]

Visalia, CA

Visalia is a city in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley of California, and has a population of roughly 143,000. Prostitution and sex trafficking have been identified by law enforcement as problems within the city.  Residents have complained to police about prostitution in certain neighborhoods, and in response to their numerous concerns, police have targeted consumer-level […]

Ventura, CA

Ventura is a coastal California city located north of Los Angeles, near Oxnard, and has a population of roughly 110,000.  The city is the cite of well documented problems with sex trafficking and prostitution.  The city is also one of the locations in which a serial rapist and murderer specifically targeted women engaged in prostitution: […]

Vallejo, CA

Vallejo is a city of approximately 121,000 residents, situated west of Sacramento in northern California’s Solano County, near Fairfield and Benicia. The city has been known for its robust commercial sex trade for decades.  A wide range of local problems and ancillary crimes associated with prostitution have been documented, such as kidnapping, murder, rape, sex […]

Vacaville, CA

Vacaville is a city located in Solano County in northern California, roughly halfway between Sacramento and San Francisco near Fairfield. It has a population of approximately 103,000. Prostitution and sex trafficking have been identified as problems in the city.  For example, in March 2016, a man was arrested in a prostitution sting and was charged […]

Utica, NY

Utica is a city of approximately 65,000 residents, located along the Mohawk River near Rome in Oneida County, New York. Prostitution and sex trafficking are well-documented problems in the city and its surrounding areas. In one 2003 case, a 16-year-old sex trafficking victim was murdered in Utica. In 2019, a sex buyer in Utica was […]

Uniontown, PA

Uniontown is a city in southwestern Pennsylvania’s Fayette County, about 40 miles south of Pittsburgh, and has a population of approximately 10,000. Prostitution has been identified as a substantial problem in the city, and residents have complained about unwanted solicitation and other negative effects of the local commercial sex market. Cases investigated have included one large-scale […]

Ulster County, NY

Ulster County is a part of the New York City metropolitan area and has a population of approximately 183,000. Some cities in the county that have addressed demand include the county seat of Kingston and Ulster. In an effort to respond to community complaints and reduce the demand for prostitution, police have conducted reverse stings. […]

Tuscaloosa, AL

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 […]