Human Trafficking Happening 'In Our Own Back Yards'

Ohio legislators are working to curb human trafficking by drafting new laws against the illegal practice.

But political leaders want your help to fight a criminal trade some are calling the fastest-growing criminal enterprise in the world.

That was just part of the message Ohio State Reps. Kathleen Clyde and Teresa Fedor passed on to about 35 people who attended a town hall meeting about human trafficking Monday night at the .

"Trafficking is the fastest-growing criminal enterprise in the world," Fedor told those who attended Monday. "We’re going to need your help because this is a whole new paradigm shift for communities.”

Fedor helped craft legislation passed in March 2011, Ohio S.B. 235, that made the exploitation of men, women and children for commercial sex or labor purposes a stand-alone offense for the first time in the state. Prior to the new law, authorities struggled to arrest and prosecute offenders, Fedor said.

The discussion Monday centered mostly on crimes related to sex trafficking and child sex trafficking. Of Ohio born-residents, an estimated 1,078 youths per year have been sexually exploited, according to a 2009 study published by the Trafficking in Persons Study Commission.

The average age of sex exploitation is 13 years old, Fedor said.

She said victims enter into sex trafficking and prostitution either through need, such as homelessness, or are forced by pimps through abuse, coercion, isolation and other tactics.

"Here’s the message to you: they don’t want to be prostitutes," Fedor told the crowd of about 35, most of whom were women. "Eighty-eight percent want to leave prostitution."

Fedor and Clyde encouraged the crowd Monday to be alert to signs of possible human trafficking by explaining how pimps recruit and possible victim identifiers. Both legislators are co-sponsoring House Bill 262, which would establish safe harbor for exploited children who are victims of human trafficking.

The crime is one that does not discriminate between races or suburban and urban areas, Fedor said. She told one story about a sex trafficking ring that originated in Chillicothe, OH, and took child victims to a military base in North Carolina. Almost all of Ohio's 88 counties have had a human trafficking case, she said.

"The more we … understand the scope of the problem, we’re beginning to see trafficking is happening in our communities," she said.

Protecting the victims, and not just prosecuting them, is critical in developing charges against the pimps and others who organize the trafficking rings, Fedor said. She encouraged those who attended Monday to contact their state political leaders and ask for their support for the proposed new legislation.

"You’re all advocates. You’re modern-day abolitionists," Fedor said. "It’s your responsibility to share this information with your neighbors."