Lee Enterprises Public Service Team did a first-of-its-kind analysis of states’ efforts to protect women who are subject to sex trafficking at illicit massage parlors.
A Lee Enterprises investigation found most states fail to protect vulnerable women and few law enforcement agencies punish the owners of the businesses, let alone go after their support networks.
Trafficking cases can be complex, leading some jurisdictions to take shortcuts by arresting or disciplining the women for prostitution, which experts say is punishing the victims without solving the problem.
For years YunXi Wang felt helpless, shuffling from one illicit massage parlor to another, coerced into providing massages with so-called "happy endings."
One detective used an approach that experts now consider a model for tackling the exploitation of immigrant women trapped in the human trafficking trade.
FBI data from local police departments show that only 7% of human trafficking offenses led to arrests from 2021 to 2023 — 1,344 arrests for 19,225 reported offenses.
A Lee Enterprises investigation found most states fail to protect vulnerable women and few law enforcement agencies punish the owners of the businesses, let alone go after their support networks.
Their aim, which mirrored their work in intelligence, was to gather data on this secret world and then convince authorities to hold the owners of the businesses accountable.
