Trafficking happening here

Human trafficking is happening in Ashtabula County.

No one wants to believe that. In fact, many people will not believe it because human trafficking often doesn’t look the way people imagine it or the way it’s portrayed in movies with children or young women kidnapped, forced into slavery and kept in chains. That’s not to say some trafficking doesn’t take this route, but most traffickers don’t want to call attention to themselves or expend so much energy keeping their victims from escaping . ...

Ohio ranks fourth in the country for sex trafficking, but those statistics are misleading. One of the biggest reasons Ohio ranks so highly is because task forces were developed to deal with the problem. Those agencies were able to spend the time and develop the cases — and relationships — needed to have successful human trafficking busts, which make the numbers look higher. But trafficking is happening everywhere across the country, and pretending it’s not isn’t helping anyone.

That’s why it was outstanding that experts on human trafficking offered an important and informative seminar in Ashtabula County last month for counselors, social workers, law enforcement personnel and medical professionals to make people aware of the risk factors and signs of human trafficking . ...

Understanding how human trafficking takes root in a community and what it really looks like is a small step forward. At the very least, that knowledge can help people better accept and believe it when a victim does come forward.

Read the full editorial from the Ashtabula Star Beacon at bit.ly/2pqZMEL