Ohio sex trafficking brought into open (Dispatch.com)
Thursday, February 11, 2010 3:11 AM
By Alan Johnson
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Original Article
More than 1,000 children younger than 18 were sex-trafficking victims in Ohio during the past year, according to the first statewide report on the subject by the Ohio Trafficking in Persons Study Commission.
Runaways were particularly at risk: One in three who have been gone from home for two weeks or longer are at serious risk of being trafficked for sex, the Report on the Prevalence of Human Trafficking in Ohio concluded.
The findings released yesterday by Attorney General Richard Cordray showed that in addition to the youth victims, an estimated 783 foreign-born people were trafficked for sex or forced labor in Ohio in the past year; another 3,437 were at risk.
Although most of the youth victims were girls, boys also were trafficked, the report said, noting that 95 percent of the commercial sex trade with boys involves adult males.
The numbers might be surprising to people who don’t know what trafficking is or that it’s a problem in Ohio. Several commission members said the victim estimate is conservative and in all likelihood low.
“As a researcher, I would rather have two years to work on this,” said Celia Williamson, a University of Toledo professor and trafficking expert who oversaw the study. “But we don’t have two years. There are victims out there right now in modern-day slavery.”
Teresa Flores, a commission member from suburban Columbus who was trafficked as a teenager, said the estimates definitely are low because they don’t include non-foreign women 18 to 24 years old, an age group that Flores said is frequently victimized.
Still, she said quantifying the problem for the first time “is what we need to communicate to the public that something needs to be done.”
Cordray appointed the high-powered panel based on the recommendation of the state’s human-trafficking law, which took effect last year. The commission includes representatives from the FBI, state and local law enforcement and five state agencies, two state lawmakers, a Cleveland juvenile court judge and trafficking survivors from Columbus and Toledo.
A Dispatch examination of sex trafficking published last year before the commission’s creation confirmed that it is a growing, vastly underreported problem affecting both inner cities and affluent suburbs.
In compiling the report, the committee reviewed law-enforcement records, reports from victim-advocacy groups, immigration and other government agencies, other studies and news stories from eight major Ohio newspapers, including The Dispatch.
Michelle Hannan, head of the Central Ohio Rescue and Restore Coalition, said the group dealt with 35 trafficking victims in the past 18 months.
The Ohio report pinpointed the Toledo area as the fourth-highest metropolitan area — and top urban area per capita — for human trafficking cases. Only Miami; Portland, Ore.; and Las Vegas had more.
Among the commission’s preliminary findings: Ohio’s human-trafficking law is “weak” because it is not a stand-alone statute, merely adding human trafficking as a specification on top of other charges.
Disagreement raged within the commission between advocates who want a stand-alone law and the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, which favors amending current laws rather than creating a new one.
Cordray said he asked for a truce so the commission can agree on necessary changes, whether they become part of a new law or are incorporated into existing laws.
The study committee said Ohio’s first-responders remain “unaware and unprepared” to deal with trafficking cases; customers who purchase youths for sex “remain protected, receiving minimal charges and are rarely prosecuted”; and the state has a shortage of “safe houses” for trafficked youth.
