State rises in anti-trafficking fight

With recently passed laws, Ohio ranks as a top state in preventing and ending the human sex and labor trade.

Polaris Project, an organization fighting human trafficking in the U.S., gave Ohio 9 out of 12 total points, ranking the state in the top tier.

“After eight long years of building the effective advocacy efforts, it’s great to see the outcome of Ohio receiving the top-tier ranking,” said state Rep. Teresa Fedor, DToledo, who has led the push for several of Ohio’s bills on human trafficking. “It’s been an incredibly complex issue to address throughout the eight years.”

The ranking is a sign of Ohio’s expended laws to prevent human trafficking. When Polaris Project first began ranking states in 2011, Ohio garnered only four of 12 possible points.

The U.S. has seen national increases in legislation against human trafficking, with 39 states qualifying for the top-tier category, up by seven states from 2013.

Polaris Project ranks states based on 10 categories of anti-human trafficking legislation, from a basic statute declaring human sex and labor trafficking a crime to laws removing prostitution charges for victims of human

An organization fighting human trafficking gave Ohio 9 out of 12 total points, ranking it in the top tier.

trafficking.

This year, Gov. John Kasich signed into law the End Demand Act, which boosts paying for sex with a minor from a first-degree misdemeanor to a third- or fifth-degree felony.

Fedor said the state’s next step should be to treat purchasing sex with a 15- to 17-year-old as the same-level felony as purchasing sex with a younger child.

“That’s the issue that I’m going to pay particular attention to as we train law enforcement and rescue our children,” Fedor said. “We have to prove that we have to equally protect every minor under age 18.”

According to the report, Ohio could improve its human-trafficking laws, and its score in the annual report, by creating a task force devoted to human trafficking, decreasing the burden of proof on minors and allowing victims to shed their convictions for prostitution.

But between Ohio’s creation of the Human Trafficking Commission in a 2009 law and its expungement standards for victims of human trafficking, Fedor said she believes Ohio should be able to pass all of Polaris Project’s categories.

Danielle Keeton-Olsen is a fellow with the Scripps Howard Statehouse Bureau.