• Prices significantly below market-level (e.g. $40 for a one hour massage in a city where $80 is the norm)

• Women report that they need a large tip (e.g. for expenses, food, family), sometimes even expressing distress if they do not receive a tip

• Women typically serving customers excessive hours, or even being on call at all times

• Women appear to be living in the business or women living in trafficker-controlled secondary site (e.g. apartment, house)

• Serves primarily or only male clientele

• Locked front door, customers can only enter if buzzed in, or enter through back or side doors that are more discreet

• Windows are covered so passersby cannot see into the establishment

• Regular rotation of women; new women coming in every several weeks

• Advertising on commercial sex websites like Rubmaps.com, Backpage.com, or aampmaps.com

Collective Liberty subject matter experts conducted 3 years field building around systems change work to eliminate massage parlor trafficking from the USA. Since founding Collective Liberty we have continued to track the progress of our work, and seen over 10% of the nation’s massage trafficking venues CLOSED as a result.

While at Polaris, Rochelle Keyhan, Collective Liberty, CEO and lead author of this report, and her team of subject matter experts, including founding board members of Collective Liberty, Veronica Buckley, and Meghan Carton created this report documenting their work disrupting massage parlor trafficking networks in the United States.

Full report is available upon request: info@collectiveliberty.org

To learn more check out our CEO on the podcast on Crimes Against Women. In this first episode, she sheds light on labor and sex trafficking in massage parlors in the U.S