King County, Washington Statistics

The following statistics came from a presentation delivered in 2017 by Val Richey, Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for King County. This data was collected from 2011 – 2016, but it is still some of the best data that has been collected in Washington state about the problem of sex trafficking.  

  • 80% of prostitution is occurring online

  • There were 273 illegal massage parlors in Washington in 2014, today there are expected to be even more

  • Strip cubs are legal, but a lot of prostitution happens surrounding them

  • Apartment brothels are occurring more and more

  • 75% - 95% of survivors were sexually abused as children

  • Most survivors were recruited as minors, usually between the ages of 12 - 15 years old

  • 72% of survivors report past or current homelessness

  • Minors who have been exploited in King County are disproportionately people of color

  • The crime of sex trafficking disproportionately impacts poor, marginalized communities

  • In King County, 300 - 500 children a year receive services for child sex trafficking (Dr. Deborah Boyer, 2008). Similar numbers were found when Dr. Boyer updated her study in November 2019, showing that 300 - 400 children received services in King County each year for child sex trafficking, and 500 - 700 youth (aged 24 or less) received sex trafficking services in King County.

  • The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office had 89 minor cases for commercially sexually exploited children during the five years between 2011 and 2016

  • Child victims are the easiest to control and exploit by traffickers, and they are in demand with buyers

  • Adult victims are often homeless, poor, and many are drug addicted

  • For 50 years the approach was to arrest and prosecute people in prostitution who were disproportionately arrested more often than the buyers

  • 89% of people in prostitution want out of a life of prostitution (Melissa Farley et al, 2003)

  • 73% of sex trafficking survivors had been physically assaulted

  • 64% - 80% of survivors had been threatened with a weapon

  • 53 - 62% of survivors have been raped (nearly half of those 5x)

  • Sex buyers in King County are predominantly white men

  • 204 men in Seattle were arrested in 8 days when the Seattle Police Department set up a fake massage parlor for a bust