Article published February 10, 2010
State panel ranks Toledo fourth in nation for sex trafficking arrests, investigations
By JIM PROVANCE
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU CHIEF

COLUMBUS — Ohio's location and prevalence of agricultural farms, strip clubs, and massage parlors make it a haven for the trafficking of human beings for sex and labor, but the state remains ill-prepared to recognize the signs, a state task force said Wednesday.

The panel also noted that metropolitan Toledo ranks fourth in the nation behind Miami, Portland, and Las Vegas when it comes to raw numbers of arrests, investigations, and rescue of children involved in sex trafficking. Considering Toledo's and Lucas County's smaller population compared to the other cities, the report indicates Toledo must be considered the per capita leader of the nation.

"Because of Ohio's position in the country, it is not likely that Ohio is the original destination for many traffickers," the report reads. "It is more likely that Ohio is one of the states where victims are sold while they are being moved around.

"Once the market demand is established, it is then likely that Ohio becomes the direct destination route from a country of origin into Ohio," it adds. "Therefore, the existence of human trafficking in neighboring states becomes a pull factor for those victims to also be sold in various venues in Ohio."

Toledo received unwelcome national attention when a 2005 federal investigation into a child prostitution ring in Harrisburg, Pa. revealed that nine area girls had been sold as slaves and that at least 12 of the 31 people charged had ties to the city.

In 2006, The Blade printed a series, " Lost Youth: Teenage Sex Trade," which brought to light the previously little-known fact of teenage prostitution and Toledo's emergence as a major recruitment center at the hands of pimps.

A research subcommittee of the Ohio Trafficking in Persons Study Commission estimated that 2,879 American-born youths born in Ohio are at risk for sex trafficking and that 1,078 more have been actually been involved in modern-day slavery over the course of a year.

The report extrapolates from national studies and refers frequently to newspaper stories, including a series of articles in The Blade. The subcommittee also estimated that 3,437 foreign-born people in Ohio may be at risk for trafficking for labor or the commercial sex trade, 783 of whom are estimated to have been actually trafficked.

Determining the scope of the problem that it faces was the first step of the northwest Ohio-heavy state task force headed by Attorney General Richard Cordray. The task force was created at the suggestion of a state law that, for the first time, specifically recognized human trafficking, albeit not as a specific crime.

As discussions continue, the subcommittee made several recommendations to improve the inexact data surrounding trafficking. It suggested that questions about prostitution be included in surveys about Ohio youth behavior and the homeless, that law enforcement and social service providers create a standard method for gathering and sharing data, and urge the national human-trafficking reporting system to include Ohio in its database.

The report suggests that one of the reasons that the Toledo area appears to be a leader in trafficking of women and girls for the sex trade is because its experience has made it more likely to recognize and respond to the signs. The area is home to the Northwest Ohio Innocence Lost Task Force on the issue.

The report suggests Ohio may be more attractive statewide as a destination and market for traffickers because of its overall "weak'' response to victims, the ill-preparedness of first responders, minimal prosecution of the customers of prostitutes, and high rates of youths considered vulnerable because of their home lives and other circumstances.

The state's close proximity to the Canadian border, its high legal and illegal immigrant population, its 130 farm labor camps, and the presence of strip clubs, brothels, and massage parlors also converge to make the state attractive as a market for trafficked sex and labor, the report states.

Forty-two states and the federal government have passed laws against human trafficking, but Ohio's 2-year-old law is considered among the weakest. Ohio's law has not created a stand-alone crime, but rather a specification that can elevate punishment for related felonies like child pornography or promoting prostitution if they are done as part of a broader scheme involving human-trafficking.

Ohio's law also applies only to the sex trade and not to the practice as it applies to forced labor, whether picking crops in the field or making beds and carrying for children in homes.

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