Ohio Trafficking in Persons Study Commission

Research and Analysis Sub-Committee

Report on the Prevalence of Human Trafficking in Ohio

To

Attorney General Richard Cordray

Research Committee Members

Celia Williamson, Sub-Committee Chairperson, Ph.D. University of Toledo

Sharvari Karandikar-Chheda, Ph.D. Ohio State University

Jeff Barrows, D.O., M.A. (Bioethics) Gracehaven

Trisha Smouse, Ohio State

Gene Kelly, Clark County Sherriff

Peter Swartz, Toledo Police Department

Nadia Lucchin, Not for Sale Campaign

Mark Ballard, Immigration Customs Enforcement

Craig Tame, United States Attorney Office, Northern District of Ohio

Graduate Research Assistants

Tasha Perdue, MSW Candidate

Mark Ohashi, MSW Candidate

Dorothy Sullivan, MSW Candidate

Carmenita Ross

Lindsay Gezinski, PhD Candidate

Attorney General’s Office

Todd Dieffenderfer

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 Table of Contents
Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………………….4
SECTION I: RESEARCH SUB-COMMITTEE’S PURPOSE, GOALS, OBJECTIVES
AND STRATEGY
Committee Purpose, Goals, and Objectives…………………………………………………7
Committee Strategy………………………………………………………………..……………7
SECTION II: THE CONTEXT FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN OHIO
Human Trafficking Defined……………………………………………………………………10
Understanding Human Trafficking in Ohio………………………………………………….11
Ohio as a Destination State for International Victims of Labor and Sex Trafficking……12
Ohio as an Origin State for Domestic Victims of Sex and Labor Trafficking…………….13
Factors Contributing to Human Trafficking in Ohio……………………………………...…14
The Progression of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking……………………………………….15
Network of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking………………………………………………...16
The Network of International Sex and Labor Trafficking ………………………………….16
SECTION III: NATIONAL ESTIMATES AND BARRIERS TO ESTIMATING THE
NUMBER OF U.S. VICTIMS
National Estimates…………………………………………………………………………….19
How many Foreign Born Persons are Trafficked into the U.S.?………………….19
How many Domestic Victims are Trafficked in the U.S.?………………………….19
Barriers to Estimating Human Trafficking in the U.S………………………………………21
Problems with Current Estimates of International Victims……………………….. 21
Problems with Current Estimates of Domestic Victims……………………………22
SECTION IV: A SNAPSHOT OF IDENTIFIED CASES IN OHIO
Identified Cases………………………………………………………………………………..25
Trafficking of International Victims…………………………………………………..25
Trafficking of Domestic Victims………………………………………………………26
SECTION V: ESTIMATIONS OF THE NUMBER OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING VICTIMS
IN OHIO
Research Strategy Overview…………………………………………………………………30
Estimations of those At-Risk and the Prevalence of Human Trafficking Among Foreign

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Born Victims in Ohio…………………………………………………………………………..30
Quantifying Pull Factors……………………………………………………………………....33
Estimation of those At-Risk and the Prevalence of Domestic Victims in Ohio………….38
Ohio Youth……………………………………………………………………………...38
Ohio Women……………………………………………………………………………43
SECTION VI: POINTS FOR FURTHER DELIBERATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Points for Further Deliberation……………………………………………………………….46
Recommendations…………………………………………………………………………….52

Tables
Table 1: Quantification of Pull Factors in Ohio…………………………………………….34
Table 2: Undocumented Persons At-Risk for Human Trafficking in Ohio………………35
Table 3: Demand for Sex and Labor Services in Ohio……………………………………36
Table 4: Undocumented Females who are At-Risk and Trafficked into the Sex & Labor
Market in Ohio……………………………………………………………………...37
Table 5: Undocumented Males who are At-Risk or Trafficked in Ohio………………….37
Table 6: Legal and Illegal Foreign Born Persons Trafficked in Ohio…………………….38
Table 7: Ohio Runaways At-Risk for Child Sex Trafficking Per Year……………………39
Table 8: Runaway Youth in Ohio who are At-Risk and Traded Sex…………………….40
Table 9: Homeless Ohio Youth At-Risk for Trafficking……………………………………40
Table 10: Sum of Those At-Risk Youth in Ohio…………………………………………….41
Table 11: Total Domestic Youth in Ohio Estimated to be At-Risk and Trafficked………43

Appendices
Appendix A: References……………………………………………………………………..54
Appendix B: Federal, State, and Local Resources………………………………………..58
Appendix C: Key Cases Identified through Newspaper Reports……………………….. 62
Appendix D: Newspaper References……………………………………………………….67
Appendix E: Sample Database Form……………………………………………………….69

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Executive Summary

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray tasked the Trafficking in Persons Research and
Analysis Sub-Committee to build a better understanding of the scope of the problem of
human trafficking in Ohio.

To achieve this goal, the sub-committee decided on the need for a short term effort to
gather relevant data expeditiously and also for a longer, more comprehensive study.
This report provides the findings from the short term study.

Law enforcement data and newspaper reports make clear that both sex trafficking and
labor trafficking exist in Ohio. It is also clear that victims are native born as well as from
foreign nations.

This report provides an overview of existing research and for the first time offers
estimates of the number of individuals who are being trafficked as well as the number
who are at risk of falling victim to this type of exploitation in Ohio.

By analyzing databases, documents, government and non-government reports and

studies, the sub-committee’s research team developed a new model designed to
provide estimates of those foreign born populations that are at-risk for human trafficking
and those that are trafficked in Ohio. The model identified and quantified those “pull”
factors that would draw traffickers and victims to Ohio. Pull factors included the
presence of existing markets for human trafficking, the demand for sexual and labor
services in Ohio and nearby states, and the presence of sizable populations of foreign
born persons in Ohio. The research team also included and quantified the government’s
Tier Ratings regarding the level of compliance of various countries with the Trafficking
Victims Protection Act.

Our model allows us to estimate that there are 3,437 foreign born persons in Ohio who
may be at-risk for both labor and/or sex trafficking, 783 of which are estimated to be
trafficked into the labor or sex trade in Ohio.

To identify the number of American youth, ages 12 to 17, who are at-risk for child sex
trafficking and have become victims in the sex trade, the research team identified risk
factors that included the number of runaways, throwaways, homeless youth, and those
at high risk because of other vulnerability factors.

Applying the methodology developed in other studies, the team estimated that of those
American born youth in Ohio, 2,879 are at-risk for sex trafficking, and another 1,078
youth have been trafficked into the sex trade over the course of a year.

Due to limitations in the data that are currently available, the team was unable to
provide estimates of the number of American born persons who may be trafficked into
the labor trade and also could not sufficiently identify the number of adult women who
may be trafficked into the sex trade.

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We identify four factors that may increase the risk to youth in Ohio. They are (1) Ohio’s
weak response to trafficking victims, (2) evidence that first responders to human
trafficking in Ohio are unaware and unprepared, (3) customers who purchase youth
remain protected, receiving minimal charges and rarely being prosecuted in Ohio in any
significant way, while traffickers suffer minimal consequences, and (4) high rates of
vulnerable youth in Ohio. We ask that the other Trafficking In Persons Study
Commission Sub-Committees consider these points as part of their deliberations. We
also recommend the need for better data collection.

The report is divided into six sections. Section I discusses the committee’s purpose,
goals, objectives, and strategies. Section II focuses on understanding human trafficking
in Ohio. Section III provides national estimates and a discussion of the barriers to
estimating trafficking victims in the United States. Section IV provides a snapshot of
identified cases in Ohio. In Section V we provide estimates of the number of human
trafficking victims in Ohio. Finally, in Section VI we provide recommendations and points
for further deliberation to the Trafficking in Persons Study Commission.

The Research and Analysis Sub-Committee plans to continue working and develop a
longer term study that would allow an even more detailed understanding of the victims
of human trafficking in Ohio.

Questions about this report should be directed to Celia Williamson, Ph.D., University of Toledo, Chair of
the Research Sub-Committee at [email protected].

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 Section I
Research Sub-Committee’s Purpose, Goals,
Objectives and Strategy

6
Purpose of the Committee

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray directed the Trafficking in Persons Research
and Analysis Sub-Committee to work to build a better understanding of the scope of the
problem of human trafficking in Ohio.

Committee Goals

The goals of the committee were to:

1. Obtain a better understanding of human trafficking in the U.S. and Ohio
2. Identify the number of victims in Ohio
3. Identify who they are
4. Identify their experiences

Committee Objectives

The committee chose to address its goals and objectives by developing two plans:
Plan A would involve gathering relevant data expeditiously so that the commission and
its other sub-committees would be able to move forward understanding the scope of the
problem in Ohio.

Plan B would be a longer and more involved research study that, with adequate funding
and resources, would be completed within a reasonable time frame. The University of
Toledo was successful in applying for federal funding. The project is set to begin
sometime in 2010.

This report covers the methodology and findings for Plan A.

Committee Strategy

The committee members, with the help of a research team, worked over a four month
period to accomplish our goal by reviewing existing studies and literature on the issue,
government and non-government reports, and speaking with researchers and
practitioners in the field.

The committee and research team agrees that, due to the very nature of human
trafficking, it is virtually impossible to determine the exact number of victims in Ohio at
any given time and with any degree of certainty. It is possible to discuss identified
cases in Ohio and to provide assumptions and estimations of suspected cases of
human trafficking in the state over the past five years. As such, we identified cases of
human trafficking in Ohio and provide an estimate of the prevalence as well as the
number of persons at-risk in Ohio.

In identifying cases of human trafficking the research team collected newspaper articles
from the eight most prominent newspapers in Ohio that identified human trafficking
cases within the past five years. Those papers included the Akron-Beacon Journal

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(Akron), The Cincinnati Enquirer (Cincinnati), The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) , The
Columbus Dispatch (Columbus), Dayton Daily News (Dayton), The Toledo Blade
(Toledo), Tribune Chronicle (Warren), and The Vindicator (Youngstown). In addition to
the newspaper articles, we gathered data from the Innocence Lost Initiative on human
trafficking in Ohio, Immigrations Customs Enforcement, and the experience of those in
Ohio who have worked with victims.

In order to identify the prevalence of human trafficking in Ohio, the research team
analyzed articles identified by the following key words: sweatshop, labor trafficking,
minor and prostitution, prostitution, brothel, and massage parlor. The team also
engaged in a literature search and investigation of government and non-governmental
reports and models used to ascertain prevalence of human trafficking in individual
states and across the U.S.

Lastly, the committee wanted to provide the commission with the number of persons “at-
risk” of becoming victims of human trafficking in Ohio. To identify those at-risk the
research team identified models used in other states or across the U.S. We identified
those high risk groups and at-risk groups to include in our count. We relied heavily on
the Estes and Weiner (2001) study to develop domestic trafficking estimations, and
used the Clawson, Layne, & Small (2006) study as a framework of how to create
estimations of human trafficking among foreign born populations.

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 Section II
The Context for Human Trafficking in Ohio

9
Human Trafficking Defined

Human Trafficking is the second largest illegal enterprise in the world, followed by illegal
drug sales (Polaris Project). The International Labor Organization, an agency of the
United Nations (2005), estimates that 12.3 million people around the world are involved
in forced labor, bonded labor, forced child labor and sexual servitude.

The U.S. has played a significant role as a consumer of sex trafficking and is currently
the world’s second largest destination country (following Germany) for women and
children trafficked into the sex industry (Mizus, Moody, Privado, & Douglas, 2003).

In a literature review of eight human trafficking reports, Logan (2009) outlined various
types of human trafficking in the United States. She reported that sex trafficking
encompassed prostitution or other forms of commercial sexual exploitation including
exotic dancing, pornography, sexual entertainment, sexual servitude, and servile
marriage, and labor trafficking encompassed factory labor or work in sweatshops,
restaurant labor, and agricultural work. Other forms anecdotally mentioned in these
reports included begging or trinket selling, food industry, hotel work, nail salon workers,
landscape and gardening laborers, casino servers, and magazine peddlers (Logan,
2009). More recently, some report the existence of labor trafficking in salons and the
use of victims as hair braiders.

In 2000, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) was passed by Congress to
address both the domestic and international victims of labor and sex trafficking on U.S.
soil. The purpose of the new law was to enhance the government’s capacity to provide
protection, prevention, and prosecution involving the crime of human trafficking.

Human trafficking is defined by the TVPA as (a) recruiting, harboring, transporting,

supplying, or obtaining a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or
coercion for the purpose of involuntary servitude or slavery; or (b) sex trafficking in
which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the
person induced to perform sex acts is under 18 years of age.

The term ‘‘commercial sex act’’ has been defined as any sex act where anything of
value is given to or received by any person. As interpreted by the government, this
means that a profiteer “pimp” or purchaser “john” or anyone else that receives
something in exchange for sex or who “harbored”, provided “transportation” or
“provision” may be subject to federal trafficking charges.

Under the TVPA foreign nationals trafficked into the U.S. for the purposes of sex or
labor, are viewed and treated as victims who are provided government support instead
of criminals to be arrested and deported. This is still not always the case in Ohio
(personal communication with Ohio practitioners).

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“Many foreign trafficking victims are ‘stateless’, meaning they, under international law,
are not citizens of any country. Although the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
recognizes that everyone has the right to a nationality, an estimated 12 million people
around the world are legally or de facto stateless today. This lack of legal standing in
any nation, leads stateless people often turn to human smugglers and traffickers to help
them escape discrimination or government persecution. They become victims again and
again as the problems of statelessness, refugee issues, and trafficking intersect” (U.S.
Department of State, 2009 p.31).

For international victims, it is important to note there is a difference between smuggling

and trafficking. In essence, smuggling is a crime against the state, meaning the person
is knowingly and willingly attempting to enter the country illegally. Human trafficking is a
crime against a person, where the person is being brought into the country by force,
fraud, or coercion (Davis, 2009 Polaris Project - personal communication).

Forty-two U.S. states have passed their own legislation against human trafficking. In a
study by Bouche and Wittmer (2009), those states that have passed the most
comprehensive legislation have shown evidence of bi-partisanship and had increased
numbers of female legislators involved.

Although not many human trafficking cases have been prosecuted under new state
laws, those 42 states with human trafficking laws have the potential to bring serious
charges against traffickers. In committing the crime of sex trafficking in Delaware,
Montana, New Mexico, or New York the offender may face up to 100 years, while in
states like California and Oregon an offender may face 8 to 10 years. In committing the
crime of labor trafficking, an offender may face up to 100 years in New Mexico,
Montana, and Oklahoma, while in states like Indiana, New York, and California an
offender may face 7 to 10 years (Bouche & Wittmer, 2009).

In Ohio, a specification exists that provides the capacity to enhance the charges against
those involved in human trafficking.

It is interesting to note that the TVPA has led to a shift in the language used to discuss
those who are involved with the trading, buying and selling of human beings in the
United States. Those who were previously called “juvenile prostitutes” are now known
as victims of “commercial sexual exploitation” or victims of “child sex trafficking”. Pimps
are now known under the federal law as “traffickers”. Unfortunately, the change in
language has not extended to those who consume these services.

Understanding Human Trafficking in Ohio

It is important to put into perspective the worldwide landscape of human trafficking and
Ohio’s place in it. Throughout the world there are origin countries primarily used to
recruit potential victims, destination countries where the demand, means, and
opportunity to purchase victims is greater, and bi-directional countries that serve as both
origin and destination regions (Farr, 2004). The U.S. is reported to be a destination

11
country, receiving both sex and labor trafficking victims (Polaris Project). Those born in
the U.S. who become victims of sex trafficking may be recruited from origin cities or
states and shipped to other destination cities and states where they are forced to work.

Ohio as a Destination State for International Victims of Labor and Sex Trafficking

Many factors may account for the existence of foreign born trafficking victims in Ohio,
some of which include the ease in which victims may be moved in and out of the state,
a growing pool of legal and illegal immigrant populations from which to draw victims or
hide victims, the number of markets open to foreign born persons, and potential gaps in
state laws to curb human trafficking. Other issues have been reported to include the
presence of uneducated and ill-prepared first responders, the demand from Ohio
consumers for particular services that may, in part, be provided by trafficking victims,
and individual characteristics that make potential victims vulnerable. Many of these
issues are discussed throughout the report, however, some of those most significant to
this section are highlighted below.

International trafficking into the United States often occurs along the Canadian and
Mexican borders to the United States (Davis, 2006). Ohio’s proximity to the Canadian
border makes it possible for victims to be moved through Michigan and be trafficked in
various venues throughout Ohio. Toronto’s international airport has been identified as
one of the arrival destinations for some victims who are trafficked in Canada while
others are moved through to the United States (Canadian Press, 2004; Estes & Weiner,
2005).

The number of foreign born populations in Ohio continues to increase. From 1990 to
2000, the foreign born population increased 30.7%. Thus far, from 2000 to 2007, the
population has increased another 23.6% (Migration Policy Institute, 2008). The growth
of minority and immigrant populations in Ohio recently makes it possible to hide victims
of international trafficking within these communities (Fedina et.al, 2008).

Ohio businesses employ migrant labor in many different sectors throughout the state.
Most of the migrant labor in Ohio and the United States is concentrated in poorly
regulated industries that demand cheap labor. Such industries include textiles
(sweatshops), agriculture, restaurants, construction and domestic work (Davis, 2006
p.9).

In 2006, immigrants without visas made up a large share of the national workforce in
farming (24%), housekeeping (17%), construction (14%), and food preparation (12%)
(PEW Hispanic Center, 2006). Currently there are 130 agricultural camps in Ohio
(Lucio, 2009).

Brothels fronting as legitimate businesses are present in Ohio (Wilson & Dalton, 2007,
p. 75). Asian brothels are known to law enforcement and are often replaced quickly by
other, similar establishments, most often spas, clinics, and massage parlors after
arrests are made (Wilson & Dalton, 2007, p. 76). The numbers of workers found in the

12
raids have spanned from two to nine and workers ranged in age from 36 to 57. The
victims in these cases are often reported to come from Asian countries, including
Thailand and South Korea, and have reportedly moved throughout the country, to and
from places such as Texas, New Jersey, California, Georgia, Kentucky, and Virginia
(Wilson & Dalton, 2007, p. 77).

Many in law enforcement consider these networks to be highly organized. One

investigator suggested that it functioned similarly to a drug operation. Another law
enforcement officer called the spas part of an organized crime ring that employs women
from other states and foreign countries as prostitutes. Officials also said that businesses
such as these appear to be organized and capable of rapidly moving people from
location to location. There are some in law enforcement who do view the Asian spas to
be more “mom and pop” than mafia (Wilson & Dalton, 2007, p.78).

State laws do play a role in the decision making of human trafficking organizations that
are sophisticated and networked. Those more sophisticated trafficking rings are aware
of the laws and potential risk of doing business in a particular U.S. state. In a quote from
Raymond and Hugh’s (2001) report, it is apparent that traffickers look for states with
more lenient laws.

In the Midwest, women are trafficked around the region, as well as to the East
and West Coast: from Minneapolis to Tampa, Memphis, New York, Chicago,
Seattle, Denver, St. Louis and Las Vegas. Law enforcement officials in this
region reported that large numbers of U.S. women are domestically trafficked to
other states, because Minnesota laws are stricter than in these states, and the
sex businesses move to more permissive regions (p.56).

Ohio has not passed a stand-alone law, but instead passed a specification in the law
that provides the capacity to enhance the charges against would be traffickers. After a
comprehensive look at all state anti-trafficking laws to date Bouche & Wittmer (2009)
argue that “any and all human trafficking legislation is a step in the right direction”,
however “it is important to recognize that there is a large variation in the
comprehensiveness of anti-trafficking legislation across the states.”

Ohio as an Origin State for Domestic Victims of Sex and Labor Trafficking

The issue of human trafficking in Ohio has found a place on the statewide public policy
agenda in large part due to a number of well documented cases that have occurred in
Toledo, Ohio.

Toledo is currently number four in the nation in terms of the number of arrests,
investigations, and rescue of domestic minor sex trafficking victims among U.S. cities
(Northwest Ohio Innocence Lost Task Force, 2009). The top three cities are Miami (city
population 404,048; county population 2,398,245), Portland (city population 537,081;
county population 714,567) and Las Vegas (city population 552,539; county population
1,865,746). Given that the city of Toledo’s population is 298,446 and Lucas County’s is

13
440,456, this area can be considered to lead the nation for the number of traffickers
produced and the number of victims recruited into the sex trade per capita (Based on
U.S. Census, 2008 estimates).

Why Toledo? Toledo is home to a higher level of law enforcement involvement and
general understanding among members of the community about the issue of human
trafficking then currently exists in other areas of Ohio. An Innocence Lost Task Force is
in place that has helped to focus federal, state and local law enforcement on this issue.
Extensive research has also been done and published in academic journals that has
gained the attention of the media.

Factors Contributing to Human Trafficking in Ohio

To best understand the factors that contribute to human trafficking in Ohio, we turn to
Estes and Weiner (2005) who completed an extensive literature review on those factors
contributing to the trafficking of children in the United States. We also used Logan
(2007) who assessed the contributing factors for international victims. A summary of
their work is represented below in a format designed by Estes and Weiner:

Domain Definition Contributing Factors for Contributing

Domestic Victims (Estes & Factors for
Weiner) International
Victims (Logan)
External Macro External forces ! Socio-economic ! Poverty
Environment and processes ! Societal attitudes toward youth ! Gender and age
that exist in the ! Social anomie among children
larger social & youth (i.e., a lack of
environment connectedness on the part of
over which youth with the larger society &
individuals can their place in it)
exercise only ! Poverty
minimal, if any ! Child victims of crime &
control, but violence
which ! Societal responses to crimes
nonetheless, committed against children
exert powerful including sex crimes
influences over ! Presence of preexisting adult
their lives prostitution markets
! Presence of groups advocating
child-adult sexual relationships
! Sexual behavior of unattached
and transient males e.g.
military, seasonal workers,
truckers, etc.
! Community knowledge &
attitudes concerning HIV/AIDS

14
 & other sexually transmitted
disease
External Micro External forces ! Socio-behavioral ! Being isolated
Environment and processes ! Family dysfunction ! Having language
that impact ! Parental drug and/or cultural
individuals dependency barriers
directly, but ! History of physical and/or
over which they sexual assault
can exert some ! Personal drug
measure of dependency
control ! School/other social
performance failures
! Gang membership
! Active recruitment into
prostitution by others
! Peers
! Parents or other family
members including
siblings
! Local pimps
! National/international
crime organizations
! Pimp Culture as Pop Culture*
Interpersonal Forces that ! Psychogenic ! Possessing an
Individual influence a ! Poor self esteem undocumented
Situation person’s sense ! Chronic depression status while in the
of mastery over ! External local of control U.S.
his/her own ! Seriously restricted future ! Lack of formal
personal orientation education
environment ! Substance abuse
and future
*We included the influence of “pimp culture as pop culture” i.e., acceptance of the pimp-ho lifestyle in music (Oscar winning song
“It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp”), television shows (“pimp my ride”), clothes, and language used by youth.

The Progression of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking

According to a University of Toledo study (2007) 77% of youth involved in prostitution

whose activities are not interrupted, progress into adult prostitution, with most being
involved in street based work and all of the associated personal and social ills
associated with it. Those involved in adult prostitution experience poor emotional and
mental health, substance abuse, frequent episodes of acute violence and chronic
trauma, and HIV and other health risks that are statistically significant from other women
offenders (Ventura, Williamson et al., 2007).

Some studies reveal that commercial sex is a frequent gateway crime for women who
later commit more serious criminal offenses. Over 70% of female inmates in United
States prisons were first arrested for engaging in commercial sexual acts. The End

15
Demand for Sex Trafficking Act in 2005 identified that for every 3 women in jail in the
United States today, 1 was arrested for prostitution, and 7 of every 10 women
imprisoned on felony convictions were initially arrested for prostitution (Library of
Congress, 109th Congress, 1st Session, H. R. 2012, 2005).

The Network of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking

The social network of organized prostitution within recruitment areas involves several
players connected to and economically benefiting from the commercial sexual
exploitation of children. This loosely connected system of players serves to keep the
underground network operating with little disruption from local law enforcement,
neighborhood watch, or social service agency interventions. The roles played by those
in the underground network include: connectors, recruiters, groomers, traffickers,
bottoms, watchers, wife in laws, tricks, bouncers and/or security guards. Each serves a
purpose in keeping trafficking in operation. Other than the trafficker, each knows little
about an entire enterprise, but acts sometimes independently, as a link in the overall
chain of child trafficking. Once a link is removed by law enforcement or through social
service intervention, it is quickly replaced with another player seeking to make money
from the potential available dollars within the trafficking enterprise (Williamson & Prior,
2009).

Traffickers recruit children into prostitution using many techniques. Grooming or “finesse
pimping” involves manipulating young girls into situations where they seemingly make
their own decisions to enter, sell sexual services, and give their money to a trafficker.
“Bait and Switch” techniques involve presenting attractive opportunities as bait in order
to gain the attention and build trust or hope in a victim, only to switch the situation for
the economic gain of the trafficker. Another form of recruitment is “guerilla pimping” in
which a trafficker approaches and forces the victim to work through the use of threat,
physical violence, and intimidation (Williamson & Prior, 2009 p.50).

The Network of International Sex and Labor Trafficking

Those involved in international trafficking may be very sophisticated organized crime

rings, mom and pop shops in villages, or a combination of both. Human trafficking
inevitably involves those in legitimate businesses and places of authority who are willing
to look the other way in exchange for specific benefits. Victims may know or not know
why they are being brought to the United States. Some come believing they will work
legitimate jobs, some pay to be smuggled into the country illegally and once in the U.S.
find themselves victims of human trafficking, and others know they will be involved in
trafficking but because of limited resources and the need to survive or support a family
agree to a temporary situation that turns into modern day slavery (Farr, 2004).

Foreign born victims of labor or sex trafficking who are undocumented are often
indebted to their traffickers and must pay their debt. They may be promised freedom
once their debt is paid, however, typically very little of their substandard wages, if any,
goes toward their debt. They are subjected to such physical harms as beatings, broken

16
bones, concussions, burns, stabbings, malnutrition, rotting teeth, alcohol and drug
abuse, torture, and both acute and chronic health conditions. Those exclusively
trafficked into the sex trade may suffer additional vaginal and anal tearing, rapes,
pregnancies, fertility problems, exposure to HIV/AIDS and other sexual transmitted
infections, and abortions. Psychological harms include dissociation, shame, grief,
depression, hopelessness, anxiety disorders, culture shock, self destructive behaviors
including suicide, and traumatic bonding with their trafficker(s) (U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services; Farr, 2004).

Not understanding the language, the culture, or the laws of the United States,
international victims are told by their traffickers that great harm will come to them, either
by the traffickers or by the United States, if they were to tell anyone about their plight.
Victims are moved regularly to decrease the chance that they will learn their own
whereabouts, build a relationship with someone who may be able to help them, or
become comfortable enough to escape.

Traffickers often hold on to any documents belonging to victims as another form of

insurance that the victim will not leave. Victims are taught to lie to authorities in an
attempt to avoid physical consequences from traffickers. Some have had past
experiences with corrupt law enforcement personnel in their country of origin and do not
trust the police.

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 Section III
National Estimates and Barriers to Estimating
the Number of U.S. Victims

18
National Estimates

How many foreign born persons are trafficked into the U.S.?

In 2001, the Trafficking in Persons report issued by U.S. Department of State indicated
that in 2000 there were between 45,000 and 50,000 individuals trafficked into the United
States. The 2002 report identified that 50,000 females were trafficked into the U.S. for
the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation, with no report on the number of adult
males who were trafficked into the country or the number of those trafficked into the
country as victims of labor trafficking. By 2003 the Department of State reported that
18,000 to 20,000 persons were trafficked into the U.S. during the previous year. In
2004, the number was again reduced to between 14,500 and 17,500 victims. Little
substantive explanation of how these estimates were generated has been provided
(Clawson, Layne, & Small, 2006 p. 3-4). To date, a large part of the methodology
remains elusive.

Clawson, Layne, and Small (2006) developed two methods for better understanding the
number of the trafficking victims penetrating U.S. borders. In applying their methods on
eight source countries entering the U.S. through the southwest border, they concluded
that 25,647 females are trafficked into the U.S. for sex and 46,849 males and females
are trafficked across the southwest border for labor, totaling 72,496. This does not
include other countries or other entry ways.

Some believe numbers of human trafficking victims in the U.S. have been inflated for
political reasons (Davies, 2009). Whether numbers are inflated or not, clearly arrest
rates of traffickers and the rescue of victims have not kept up with even the most
conservative estimates. In 2008, the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and
U.S. Attorney’s Offices initiated 183 investigations, charged 82 individuals, and obtained
77 convictions in 40 human trafficking cases (13 labor trafficking and 27 sex trafficking).
In 2008, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued 247 T-Visa’s and 171 T-
Visa’s to immediate family members. The U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services certified 286 foreign adults and issued eligibility letters to 31 foreign minors
(Trafficking in Persons Report, 2009, p. 57). Certified victims were from 40 countries,
with many from Mexico (66), Thailand (56), Philippines (46), Korea (12), and China (8).
The Polaris Project in Washington, DC reports that since the passing of the TVPA, the
U.S. government certified 131 minors and 1,248 adults from 77 different countries
(Polaris Project, Human Trafficking Statistics, 2009).

How many domestic victims of trafficking are in the U.S.?

Domestic trafficking in the U.S. encompasses trafficking for the purposes of labor and/or
sex. Issues of labor abuses involving U.S. citizens are normally identified as
employment violations. Most often these abuses, which come in the form of paying less
than minimum wage, overtime violations, being made to work “off the clock”, meal break
violations, workers compensation violations, pay stub disputes and illegal deductions,
and employer retaliation, among others, are handled by the Department of Labor, the

19
Employee Rights Center, or other advocacy oriented organizations. These abuses and
others may turn into human trafficking when one is not allowed to leave their place of
employment or not allowed to quit their job.

In 2007, The New York Times did a series on the issue of domestic labor trafficking
involving a group of “traveling magazine crews”. Youth employed in these crews cross
states selling magazines. The Times focused their story on a young man from
Miamisburg, Ohio who joined a crew of 20 to work, make money, and see the United
States. For six months he crossed 10 states, worked 10 to 14 hours a day, six days a
week, and slept three to a room in cheap motels (one always slept on the floor). He
survived most days on $10 or less per day. His earnings were never given to him, but
were instead put “on the books”. The Ohio man saw others beaten by the manager or
by those paid by the manager, and thought he would end up dead or disappear. He
finally convinced his “manager” to let him go because of excessive warrants for illegally
selling subscriptions across five states. He was finally dropped off 1000 miles from
home with $17 (Urbina, 2007).

During their investigation more than 50 other crew members discussed issues of
indebtedness, violence, and drug abuse, with physical consequences for missing daily
quotas or for attracting police attention. Magazine sellers also discussed being given
permission to read mail from home only after it was first opened by the company’s
central office. While some reported occasionally making several hundred dollars per
week, most reported receiving about $15 per week, with the rest going toward
expenses. Drug abuse was rampant, with some being supplied by managers. Work
began with a 7:00 AM sales meeting to rehearse selling pitches and crews typically
worked until 10:00 PM. In 1999, Darlene Adkins, Vice President of Public Policy for the
National Consumers League’s Child Labor Coalition was reported in the article to have
estimated that approximately 30,000 youth are involved in similar situations. In one
1987 congressional investigation of a company, of the 418 sellers, 413 left the company
owing money (Urbina, 2007).

Since the creation of the Human Trafficking Reporting System, over 1,200 victims have
been reported. Of those, “slightly more than half…were U.S. citizens. U.S. citizens
accounted for 63% of sex trafficking victims, compared to 4% of labor trafficking victims”
(Trafficking in Persons Report, 2009, p. 20). Generally studies lack the ability to identify
estimates of the number of U.S. citizens who are victims of labor trafficking. What is
known thus far is that victims of labor trafficking tend to be older, while victims of sex
trafficking tend to be younger (Irazola, Williamson, Chen, Garrett, & Clawson, 2008).

When it comes to child sex trafficking, also referred to as “domestic minor sex
trafficking” (DMST), the most quoted research is that of Estes and Weiner (2001) who
estimated that there were 325,575 children (including citizens, those brought into the
country from abroad, and those U.S. children crossing over to Canada and Mexico) who
were at-risk of commercial sexual exploitation. This number is typically estimated to be
326,000 in other reports. Estes and Weiner reduced the number by 25% to minimize the
issue of duplication of their count of high risk youth such as runaway and throwaway

20
youth. They estimated that 244,181 citizens and international youth in the U.S. were at-
risk of commercial sexual exploitation.

More recently, Ernie Allen of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
reported that 100,000 U.S. children were estimated to be trafficked into the sex trade
(2009). It is believed that his estimate may have come from a report from UNICEF,
State of the World’s Children published in 1997.

The Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

estimated that 38,600 of the 1.7 million runaways/throwaways were at-risk of sexual
exploitation or endangerment (2006). Those youth who engage in trading sex for
money, food, drugs, items, or a place to stay, fall victim to commercial sexual
exploitation known as “survival sex”.

Engaging in “survival sex” as a runaway is but one way youth are commercially sexually
exploited. Other avenues for commercial child exploitation include being involved in
pornography, being sold on the internet (Craigslist), modeling, stripping, and pimp
controlled prostitution on the streets, at truck stops, cat houses (houses set up for
prostitution), and conventions (Estes & Weiner, 2001; Williamson, 2009).

U.S. adults who are victims of sex trafficking are often arrested and charged with
prostitution, loitering, or solicitation. Little if any time is spent identifying if these adults
are victims of force, fraud, or coercion from traffickers (Schauer & Wheaton, 2006).

Barriers to Estimating Human Trafficking in the United States

Problems with Current Estimates of International Victims

Accurate numbers from the U.S. government on human trafficking worldwide remain
elusive and suspect. According to Schauer and Wheaton, six obvious explanations exist
for why it is so difficult to determine the number of trafficking victims in the U.S. and
around the world. The first barrier is the hidden nature of the activity and the fact that
only known cases in prohibiting statutes are prosecuted. Second, even though the crime
of trafficking does not require movement, victims are frequently mobile making
identification difficult. Third, precise definitions of trafficking are not followed. Smuggled
and trafficked individuals are often counted on the same lists. Some countries, not
wishing to lose aid from others countries, do not report trafficking. Fourth, government
corruption inhibits control and reporting of trafficking. Fifth, local police who lack training
on trafficking victim identification may arrest domestic victims and have international
victims deported. Finally, the U.S. excludes some countries from its Trafficking in
Persons Report because of U.S. interests and other political reasons (2006).

In 2005, the Department of State hosted a seminar to uncover the challenges to

conducting Trafficking in Persons research. In summary, experts that attended identified
the following problems: existing data is often too program specific and may duplicate
other findings; some existing estimates only include sexual exploitation of women and
children; there is still confusion over the issue of smuggling versus trafficking; trafficking

21
is underreported; inconsistent definitions of human trafficking exist; there is limited
access to traffickers; various countries or government agencies within the U.S. are
reluctant to share data, and finally there is a need for technical and financial assistance
for data collection and standardization (Clawson, Layne, & Small, 2006).

Finally in a 2006 release, The Government Accountability Office reported the following:

The accuracy of the estimates is in doubt because of methodological

weaknesses, gaps in data, and numerical discrepancies. For example, the U.S.
government’s estimate was developed by one person who did not document all
of his work, so the estimate may not be replicable, casting doubt on its reliability.
Moreover, the quality of existing country level data varies due to limited
availability, reliability, and comparability. There is also a considerable
discrepancy between the numbers of observed and estimated victims of human
trafficking. The U.S. government has not yet established an effective mechanism
for estimating the number of victims or for conducting ongoing analysis of
trafficking related data that resides within various government agencies (GAO,
2006, p.2).

Problems with Current Estimates of Domestic Victims

The Crimes Against Children Research Center released a report discussing the
limitations of recent and older studies that claim to determine the number of youth
involved in prostitution or the number of youth at-risk for involvement. The committee
reviewed these studies and agrees with the conclusions of their report. This section of
our report discusses those findings.

According to the Crimes Against Children Research Center, Estes and Weiner’s (2001)
estimates that 326,000 youth were at-risk for trafficking may be flawed by their
methodology. To determine this statistic Estes and Weiner compiled 14 elements (e.g.,
runaway youth, throwaway youth, children homes, unaccompanied minors entering the
U.S., female gang members etc.). Without any way of determining how many youth
from these groups are at-risk, and through an educated guess, they chose a percentage
that seemed reasonable to them, which was 35% of the national estimate of runaway
youth who were out of their homes for a week or longer. However, it is difficult to
determine the amount of duplication taking place in the last estimate, for example,
between runaways who are also female gang members or throwaways who are also
transgendered (Stransky & Finkelhol, 2008). Further, Estes and Weiner chose to
discuss their findings in terms of “at-risk” groups, because of the difficulty in determining
the actual number of trafficked youth. Of course Estes and Weiner discussed this and
presented their estimates with adequate explanation; but most often as their findings
are reported by others, it is reported as fact without explanation of those limitations they
so eloquently explain in their initial reports. Nonetheless, to date, Estes and Weiner
provide the most comprehensive estimates on domestic minor sex trafficking in the U.S.

The Crimes Against Children Research Center cites another large study called The
National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health which is comprised of a nationally

22
representative sample of 13,294 American youth in grades 8th through 12th who were in
school in 1996. Known as the AddHealth Survey, they asked youth if they had ever had
sex for drugs or money. Over half (67.9%) of males in the sample reported they had a
sex exchange (for drugs or money). However, from these findings it is unclear the
number of males engaging in prostitution by trading sex for money or drugs as a seller
or purchaser and the number who exchanged sex under consensual sexual
circumstances not characterized as prostitution. Because the survey found more boys
engaged in trading sex, the findings were suspect and not credible for a measure of
prostitution (Stransky & Finkelhor, 2008).

In light of both of the above examples many shortcomings and obvious flaws to
historical and current research on human trafficking in the U.S. exists. Our goal was to
extrapolate and provide as much useful information from studies on human trafficking to
be used for Ohio as possible. A key acknowledgement of our research team was to
recognize that if primary assumptions and estimates are faulty, additional estimates,
even though they follow a logical and well informed flow, will also be faulty. We
attempted to identify and avoid these whenever possible. In addition, we recognize that
the problem in Ohio, much like the U.S. is still emerging. The team provided the best
possible estimates providing current literature and existing data available.

23
 Section IV
A Snapshot of Identified Cases in Ohio

24
Identified Cases of Human Trafficking in Ohio

The research team defined identified cases of human trafficking as those that have
been confirmed by a federal or state criminal justice entity and/or those cases identified
through media reports.

The two most obvious databases in which to review data are the National Human
Trafficking Resource Center Hotline (NHTRC) and the Human Trafficking Reporting
System (HTRS). Between December 7, 2007 and December 31, 2009, Polaris Project
reported that the National Human Trafficking Resource Center had received 13,622
calls, of which 261 calls were from Ohio. The calls can be broken down into specific
categories: 111 calls were related to general information, 71 calls provided tips on
human trafficking, 22 calls were referral requests for various services, 17 calls were
inquiries about training or technical assistance, 25 calls referenced non-trafficking
related fields, e.g. labor exploitation or domestic violence, 4 calls required a crisis
response, and 11 calls were recorded as “linked” calls or “unable to determine”. 1

The Human Trafficking Reporting System (HTRS), tracks incidents of suspected human
trafficking. Because Ohio does not yet have a federally funded FBI Task Force, we are
not reported in the HTRS.

Below is a snapshot of human trafficking in Ohio, based on data from Immigration

Customs Enforcement, the Innocence Lost Task Force, and newspaper articles.
Additional examples appear in Appendix C.

Trafficking of International Victims in Ohio

Wilson & Dalton (2007) studied newspaper articles in the Toledo Blade and Columbus
Dispatch from January 1, 2003, to June 30, 2006. They found five labor trafficking cases
that included four cases of domestic servitude and one hotel exploitation in Columbus
(Wilson & Dalton, 2007). The victims in these cases were threatened by traffickers with
jail or deportation and some were beaten. While they don’t recount detailed information
on these cases, Wilson and Dalton highlight the labor trafficking of women.

Since that time, more cases of human trafficking have surfaced. Seven cases of labor
trafficking were identified in the time period ranging from 2007 to 2009. Cincinnati had
one case of labor trafficking in 2008 and one in 2009, Columbus had three cases of
labor trafficking in 2008 and one in 2009 and Cleveland had one case of labor trafficking
in 2009. A total of 11 potential international sex trafficking cases were identified in our
newspaper review. A majority of the identified international sex trafficking victims were
rescued from massage parlors and health spas. Immigration Customs Enforcement

The data provided here was generated based on limited criteria from calls received by the National Human Trafficking Resource
Center hotline. This is not a comprehensive report on the scale or scope of human trafficking within the state and these statistics
may be subject to change.

25
identified three cases of sex trafficking from 2007 to 2009 with one case in Cincinnati
and two cases in Columbus.

The case of Maria tells us about trafficking that spanned from Central America to Ohio
and the experience of a young woman who was hard at work and let her guard down for
a moment – a moment that would cost her several years of enslavement.
Maria*, a 20 year old girl from Central America, was working at a taco stand, where
she befriended a regular client. After several weeks, they began to date. He said he
loved her and wanted to be with her and asked her to move in with him. She did, and
from that moment on his demeanor changed. He started beating Maria and would not
let her leave or speak to anyone else. After a week, he started taking her to alleys
and sold her for money. Afterwards, he would order her back to the house where she
was watched continuously. That went on for four years. Her traffickers, along with
others, decided they would make more money in the U.S. So, Maria and two other
girls were trafficked into the U.S. from Mexico City, where they were met by a van to
transport them to New York. Once there, they were delivered to apartments in
Maryland, Washington, New York and Ohio to have sex with men. The traffickers
would keep the money, telling her it was for their housing and other expenses and
beat or threatened her and others when they did not do as they were told. When a
customer in Ohio learned of what was happening to Maria, he helped her escape to a
safe location, where she currently resides fearful of her captors and deportation from
authorities.
*Story provided by Central Ohio Rescue and Restore staff. Identifying characteristics have been changed to protect the victim.

Trafficking of Domestic Victims

According to the Northwest Ohio Innocence Lost Task Force, Toledo has identified 60
domestic child victims of sex trafficking since its inception in 2006. As a result, Ohio has
been involved in almost every national investigation into domestic minor sex trafficking
since the passing of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. Those include:
Operation Precious Cargo, and Operation Cross Country I, II, III, and IV.

Operation Precious Cargo occurred in December, 2005 in Harrisburg, PA. As a result of

this investigation 151 victims of prostitution were identified, at least 45 of which were
prostituted as children. Seventy-eight of 151 identified victims were from Toledo, the
youngest of whom was just 12 years old. Of the 18 traffickers indicted in the Precious
Cargo Case, all but one was from Toledo. Sixteen of the traffickers pleaded guilty and
received sentences of up to 25 years in prison. Two traffickers were found guilty at trial
and received 35 and 45 years in prison. In addition to the 18 traffickers indicted in the
Precious Cargo Case, at least six other Toledo based traffickers have been prosecuted
for the sex trafficking of women and children by other FBI Divisions.

All of the girls from the Precious Cargo Case were vulnerable for one reason or another.
This is the story of Julie, one of the girls who was only 12 years old at the time she was
trafficked.

26
 Julie* was walking down the street when a man in a car pulled up to talk to her and
convinced her to take a ride. She explains,

I really didn’t want to ‘cause I was scared but you know how an older person
just comes at you like that and you don’t know what to do…He just said we
were going to just sit there for a minute and you know a minute turned into
days. He was acting all nice and buying me whatever I wanted.

At the time she was approached by a trafficker, her home life was chaotic. She lived
in poverty with an alcoholic father. When he became intoxicated, yelling would
quickly progress to physical assaults. She felt stuck.

I did want to leave…because my dad, he’s always drinking and stuff like that
and till this day now, he still does it and back then he would slap me and stuff
so I didn’t want to stay, you know, but I didn’t want to leave cause that
lifestyle, at first I thought it was ok but after being out there and having to do
that…

At the time of her recruitment Julie was barely connected to school, with special
needs and not receiving sufficient grades, she continued to attend in hopes of
catching up with her classmates. Over time, and with much convincing from her
would be trafficker, Julie ended up hesitantly agreeing to get in the car. Over time he
convinced her to be driven to Harrisburg, PA. While there she was taken to a motel
to dress in sexier clothing and driven to a truck stop and was expected to sell
herself. She was walked over to various trucks, forced to get in and have sex with
truck drivers while her “watcher” waited.

[He took me] to where all the other girls are, ‘cause he got like five other girls
and we was at a motel. We stayed until it got dark like around five or six then
went out there and worked. I didn’t know it was going to be a truck stop, I
didn’t know what to think. I didn’t think I would have to walk up and down in
the cold and having nasty old truck drivers touch me and stuff. I didn’t feel
right…I gave the girl the money; the girl held my money after every date I
had.

At the end of three days, and with the help of a truck driver and an adult friend, also
recruited from Toledo into the sex trade, they were able to escape and call the
police.
With the help of the Innocence Lost Task Force, she was rescued and the traffickers
were prosecuted.
* Story provided by Williamson (2008) raw data. Identifying characteristics have been changed to protect the victim.

However, rescue out of the sex trafficking is not the end of the story, but the beginning
of a longer, more difficult road to recovery. After returning to school, Julie was ridiculed
by her classmates for being a “prostitute”. As a result, she refused to attend school,
quickly fell behind, and quit. Although child protective services were involved, the

27
reasons for her initial runaway episodes were not resolved. She was returned home and
continued to periodically runaway when the drinking and the yelling from her father
reached a point of frustration. By age 14, she began to smoke crack cocaine and
became a regular user. Having been trained by her trafficker, she knew how to work the
streets to obtain money to support her drug habit. She was arrested from time to time,
and was often depressed, feeling as though she was missing something bigger out of
life. After becoming involved in some local programs in Toledo, she reluctantly began
attending support groups and began to work on her GED. Her social worker visited her
two or three time a week. She moved away from her parents and moved in with a
relative. Over the next two years she continued to maintain sobriety for a few months
and would then slip back into crack cocaine use. Today she is 18 and continues to
struggle with sobriety.

Although the story above is a common one, being manipulated and finessed into human
trafficking is not always the case. Others have experienced what is known as “guerilla”
pimping. Katie explains her circumstance:

I was walking down the street and this guy…he just picked me up and started
beating me and just for no reason and he told me I was going to be his ho. And
just started basically abusing me and threatening me…. [he was in a] black
Yukon …he tried to talk to me at first but I told him how old I was and then he
rolled up around the corner and jumped out the car and just started hitting
me….He said if I didn’t do what he said he was going to hurt my little brothers
and sisters and my mom and I didn’t want that to happen so I did what he said
(Williamson, 2008).

Operation Cross Country has become the mechanism from which youth in these
circumstances can hope for a rescue and return to some semblance of their lives.
Operation Cross Country involves the cooperation and collaboration of federal, state,
county, and local law enforcement to investigate, arrest traffickers, and rescue youth
across U.S. cities who are trapped in the sex trade. Thus far, there have been four
Operation Cross Country investigations that have resulted in a total of 153 arrests and
recoveries of children.

Children Traffickers Customers Others Involved

Operation Cross
Country I 1 3 6 44
Operation Cross
Country II 2 12 7 31
Operation Cross
Country III 0 1 0 18
Operation Cross
Country IV 7 4 0 17

Total 10 20 13 110

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 Section V
Estimations of the Number of Human Trafficking
Victims in Ohio

29
Research Strategy Overview

From news reports and law enforcement data it is evident that cases of both sex
trafficking and labor trafficking are in Ohio. It is also clear that both international and
domestic victims are within Ohio’s borders. In order for Ohio to make more informed
decisions about human trafficking, it is necessary to better understand the number of
victims that may be here.

In preparation to estimate the prevalence of human trafficking in Ohio, several factors

were taken into consideration. First, because human trafficking in the U.S. has more
recently been recognized as a serious social problem, not much has been done to
determine, with the necessary rigor, the prevalence of human trafficking in the U.S. or in
any particular state.

Because of the relative newness of the research question, there are several missing
pieces among research and reports that could be used to more accurately determine
the prevalence of human trafficking. Because there is evidence of human trafficking in
Ohio, the research team felt it necessary to provide as much useful information as
possible in this report and then engage in a longer-term research study, the proposed
Plan B, which would confirm, deny, or enhance the findings in this preliminary report.

For this report, we decided we would use the best data available to date in order to
provide as much useful and relevant information as possible. However, when critical
pieces were missing in other data and reports, the research team attempted to make
assumptions that were based on logical conclusions. When necessary, the team aired
on the side of conservatism when responding to those missing factors.

Estimation of those At-risk and the Prevalence of Human Trafficking Among

Foreign Born Victims in Ohio

The research team worked to determine an estimation of the prevalence of those

suspected cases of human trafficking for labor and sexual purposes in Ohio for foreign
born victims. To accomplish this goal, the team identified foreign born persons in Ohio
as those with legal status including legal permanent residents, naturalized citizens (from
legal permanent residents), temporary legal residents, refugees and asylees. Those
unauthorized to be in the country are identified as illegal and undocumented.

In using the Current Population Survey of the U.S. Census Bureau, the Migration Policy
Institute (2008) reports there were 414,443 foreign born residents in Ohio in 2007.
Those include both legal and illegal immigrants.

Based on reports, data bases, newspaper articles, and research articles, the team
developed risk factors for foreign born victims that may be most prevalent in Ohio. The
framework for estimating the prevalence of human trafficking in Ohio was taken from
Clawson, Layne, and Small’s (2006) study entitled, Estimating Human Trafficking into
the United States: Development of a Methodology in which they studied eight human

30
trafficking source countries entering through the southwest border of the United States.
Clawson, Layne, and Small’s Source Zone Model identifies those “push” factors in
countries of origin that would create vulnerability to human trafficking including disparate
economic growth, a breakdown of economic systems, increase in war and armed
conflict, environmental degradation, natural disasters, and family violence. They also
used “country specific factors” to uncover the risk associated with the potential for
female trafficking identified through the Gini Index, Corruption Perception Index (CPI),
the Gender-Related Development Index (GDI), and the percent of the country that is
urban.

“The Gini index measures the extent to which the distribution of income (or
consumption) among individuals or households within a country deviates from a
perfectly equal distribution” (p. 21). The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) provides
information on the perceived level of organized crime by business people and through
the use of other assessments. The Gender-Related Development Index (GDI)
measures the level of achievement between the genders, inequality including life span,
life expectancy at birth, literacy rate, school enrollment, and standard of living measured
by earned income. Country-specific risk indices for males also included the percentage
of men who were unemployed in the country and the Consumer Price Index which was
used to understand the cost of living, inflation, and the effectiveness of government
policy. They also took into account each country’s Tier Rating according to the
Trafficking in Persons Reports issued through the U.S. Department of State. The
researchers then quantified those risk factors and determined the number of potential
victims and then the number of victims that were trafficked. They then developed a
Transit Model to assess the number of victims that are moved from their countries of
origin, through other countries, and into the United States, eliminating the number that
die in transit, escape, and are trafficked internally. They concluded that over 70,000
victims were trafficked through the southwest border into the States alone.

However, Clawson’s study stops there. What our research team wanted to know is once
trafficking victims are in the United States, entering from any border, why (and how
many victims) would traffickers then bring victims to Ohio or why (and how many
potential victims) would come to Ohio and then get caught up as trafficking victims while
they are here? To answer this question, we used Clawson’s work as a framework as we
sought to identify those “pull” factors that would draw traffickers and victims to Ohio
once they are in the United States, quantify those, and then extrapolate from this factor,
the number of undocumented foreign born persons that may be at-risk of being
trafficked into the labor and/or sex trade in Ohio. These factors have not yet been
empirically tested and are used in this preliminary study to provide a measure upon
which to ground our estimates. Further, we hypothesized that those at greater risk in
Ohio are between 12 and 54 years old. Thus our formula is presented below:

Total immigrant population – legal immigrants X pull factors –

population under 12 or over 54 = those at-risk

31
Three pull factors were developed and include: the presence of markets for human
trafficking, the demand for sexual and labor services in neighboring states that place
traffickers and victims in proximity of Ohio and the existence of sizable populations of
foreign born individuals.

1. The Presence of Markets for Human Trafficking

The presence of markets absorbing cheap labor, with few enforceable regulations in
Ohio is a reality. Ohio has a fairly moderate sized agricultural market, compared to other
states in the U.S. with corn and soybeans being its leading crops. Ohio currently has
130 migrant labor camps that employ numerous individuals, a majority of which are from
the Hispanic migrant labor pool. Because of this market, among others such as
restaurants, textile industry, landscaping, and small factories, Ohio attracts many
foreign born immigrant groups looking for work, both undocumented and documented.

Sexual markets to service both native born and foreign born men exist in Ohio and
include an abundance of strip clubs or gentlemen’s clubs. Presently Ohio ranks 5th
among the states with the largest number of strip clubs (Synder, 2007). Other sex
markets include massage parlors operating as fronts for prostitution and markets to
serve migrant men (See Operation Cross Country IV). The research team located at
least one massage parlor in every major city in Ohio and many in proximity to highways
for easy access to its clientele (e.g., truck drivers, businessmen, military men, and
others). Less is known about the existence of other sexual markets in Ohio such as
pornography making businesses, servile marriage and sexual servitude.

2. Demand for Sexual and Labor Services in Neighboring States

Estes and Weiner (2001) determined that foreign born children at-risk of being trafficked
into the U.S. most commonly entered from 41 different countries of origin. Because
Ohio was not included in the Estes and Weiner study, the team made some
assumptions based on the proximity of victims found in the United States to Ohio and
relied on what is known about the frequent movement of trafficking victims. We
identified the two nearest cities included in the Estes and Weiner study that were
closest to Ohio, which included Chicago and Detroit. It is most likely that if child
trafficking of international victims is occurring in Ohio, those most likely to be
transported to Ohio would be those that may have been trafficked for a time in Chicago
and Detroit. Based on this assumption, those trafficked youth reported by Estes and
Weiner (2001) to have gone through Detroit or Chicago were from the following
countries of origin: Burma, Korea, China, Somalia, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam,
Columbia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Canada, Mexico, Bosnia, Poland, Russian
Federation, and Byelorussia.

The most frequently reported borders used to enter the U.S. seem to be the southwest
and Canadian borders. In the case of Latinos, it is more likely that they are brought in
through the southwest border (Clawson et al., 2006) and travel upwards to Ohio.
However, in the case of other non-Hispanic victims who end up in Ohio, it is likely that

32
they are brought in via the Canadian border. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police
estimated that 600-800 persons are trafficked into Canada annually and that an
additional 1,500-2,200 persons are trafficked through Canada into the United States
(Canadian Press, 2004). Estes and Weiner (2001) believed that Korean victims were
most often being brought in via Toronto to Detroit and that Chinese victims were being
brought in to Chicago and New York via Toronto and Vancouver by boat, planes, and
vans.

Because of Ohio’s position in the country, it is not likely that Ohio is the original
destination for many traffickers. 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. 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.

3. The Presence of Sizable Populations of Foreign Born Individuals

Ohio has 11 million residents and is ranked seventh among U.S. states with the most
residents (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). From 1990 to 2000, Ohio’s Hispanic population
increased 54.4% and the Asian population increased 48.5% (U.S. Census, 2000; Davis
2006). Presently, almost half of the foreign-born residents in Ohio came from the
following 10 countries with the first three accounting for approximately a quarter (26.4%)
of all immigrants in Ohio. Those are Mexico (26,371 in 2000 and 43,178 in 2006), India
(21,474 in 2000 to 37,940 in 2006), and China (21,262 in 2000 to 27,761 in 2006)
followed by Germany, Canada, Philippines, Vietnam, Korea, England, and Italy
(Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), 2007).

While not accounted for in FAIR’s report, the Somali population in Ohio has also grown
to over 15,000. Currently, Franklin County is home to the second largest Somali
population in the United States, followed by Minneapolis (Community Research
Partners, 2009).

Although not a substantial population in Ohio, just over the border in southeastern
Michigan resides a sizable population of Eastern European immigrants who
experienced a massive influx of their population during the first half of the twentieth
century (Liu & Rogers). Although in recent years it has declined, the population of
Eastern Europeans in this area remains sizable.

Immigrant communities create optimal conditions to smuggle and traffic others (Davis,
2006 p.6). Traffickers can easily hide trafficking victims within larger immigrant
communities without them standing out and becoming noticeable. Therefore, larger
immigrant communities become a pull factor for trafficking of particular groups.

Quantifying Pull Factors

33
The team developed a model that quantified those “pull” factors discussed above for
those immigrant groups in Ohio who were undocumented. We separated
undocumented persons by gender and group (Hispanics, Asians, Blacks, and Whites).
We then used the following as a guide:

1. The potential for foreign born persons to be attracted to work in Ohio was based
on the presence and availability of markets, the history of those groups working
in particular markets, and the perceived demand. For example, the demand for
and history of Hispanic men to work in agricultural markets and the availability of
agricultural markets in Ohio is strong. If there was evidence of strong markets
available that attracted particular foreign born populations, the group received a
.05. If there were moderately strong evidence the group received a .04 and so
on.

2. In quantifying the presence of trafficking in neighboring states, particularly Detroit

and Chicago, if the team found strong evidence, identified as more than one
incident of trafficking of a particular group in the neighboring cities of Detroit and
Chicago, we rated this area a .03. If we found evidence, identified as at least one
incident, we rated this area a .02. If we found some evidence, news articles and
documents discussing trafficking of a particular group, we rated this area a .01,
and if we found no evidence of trafficking of a particular group, we rated it a 0.

3. We quantified the size of an immigrant community each separated by the number

of females and males present. If the community (both legal and illegal) had a
population in Ohio over 50,000, we rated it a .03. For a population size from
30,000 to 49,999, it was rated a .02. A community with a population from 10,000
to 29,999 received a .01, and smaller immigrant groups received a 0.

Related to the size of the immigrant community are the Tier Ratings assigned in the
Trafficking in Persons Report (2009). We included the U.S. Trafficking in Person Tier
Ratings for those countries rated to be in compliance with anti-human trafficking efforts
(Tier I), working on compliance (Tier II), and those rated as not in compliance (Tier III)
with trafficking protocols as a measure of those at-risk of being trafficked to the U.S. and
eventually Ohio. The significance of this line of reasoning is that even though Tier
Ratings are not believed to cause a direct pull into Ohio, those groups with less
favorable ratings are more likely to be trafficked into the U.S. and then into Ohio. Tier
Ratings were quantified according to their rating: A group who received a Tier I rating
from the U.S. received a .01 rating from the team. For a Tier II rating, they received a
.02 and so forth. In those cases where there were variations in ratings across groups
(e.g., Japan received a Tier II rating and North Korea received a Tier III rating), we
chose the more conservative rating to quantify the group identified as Asians.

All sums from ratings were then added together as percentages.

Table 1: Quantification of Pull Factors in Ohio

34
 *Group Pop Size Neighbor Attract to Work Tier Rate Sum Risk
States
UHF .02 .01 .03 .02 8%
UHM .02 .02 .05 .02 11%
UAF .03 .03 .02 .02 10%
UAM .03 0 .01 .02 6%
UBF .01 0 .01 .03 5%
UBM .01 0 0 .03 4%
*UWF .02 .03 .03 .03 11%
*UWM .02 0 0 .03 5%
*UHF = Undocumented Hispanic Female; UHM = Undocumented Hispanic Male; UAF = Undocumented Asian Female; UAM =
Undocumented Asian Male; UBF = Undocumented Black Female; UBM = Undocumented Black Male; UWF = Undocumented White
Female; UWM = Undocumented White Male; Under undocumented white females and males, we counted those communities of
Eastern Europeans in Ohio (Russians, Polish, etc.)

The number of illegals in Ohio total 115,000 (FAIR, 2007). It is reported that 50% of
trafficking victims are children and 50% are adults. Eighty percent are women and girls
and 20% are men and boys. Seventy percent of female victims are trafficked into the
sex trade, while 30% are trafficked for purposes of labor (Polaris Project – Human
Trafficking Statistics1). We weighted the number of undocumented persons in Ohio
accordingly and used these figures as a guide in our estimations. We then transformed
our sum of risk into a percentage factor and multiplied the number of weighted illegal
females and males by the percentage of risk to obtain the number in each group who
are at-risk for trafficking.

Table 2: Undocumented Persons At Risk for Human Trafficking in Ohio

Group # Illegal Males & Females Risk Number at-risk for Trafficking
in the High Risk Category Factor
Sum
UHF 7,141 .08 571
UHM 1,757 .11 193
UAF 14,235 .10 1,424
UAM 3.502 .06 210
UBF 4,405 .05 220
UBM 515 .04 21
UWF 7,178 .11 373
UWM 1,515 .05 10
Total 40,248 3,022
For example, the number of illegal females in Ohio is 57,960. The number of Asian illegal females in Ohio is estimated to be 17,794.
In using the government estimate that 80% of those trafficked in the U.S. are women and girls - our number of potential
undocumented Asian females (14,235) are included in our pool of potential persons at-risk. We multiplied 14,235 by 10%.

Once the number of those who were at-risk was established, the team worked toward
developing an estimation of the number of those who may be trafficked. This was
accomplished by estimating the perceived level of demand for sexual services and the
demand for labor services. If the demand for sexual services was perceived to be high
1 Polaris Project’s statistics come from various U.S. government reports

35
for a particular group, the team rated this section a 3. If the team perceived the market
had a moderate draw for international persons then the rating was a 2 and so forth.
Ratings were based on the perceived markets available and the demand for these
services (e.g., strip clubs, massage parlors, migrant camps, etc.) and in the case of
sexual services, blogs written about the groups said to be delivering sexual services in
these venues in Ohio. It was also based on the nationalities of those arrested or
rescued from massage parlors, strip clubs, and other venues where trafficking may be
occurring.

For example, the demand for Asian women or girls to work in massage parlors is
assessed to be high, and to a lesser extent to work in ethnic restaurants and buffets. In
addition the demand for trafficking victims drops from high to moderate when the
demand for a service is being met by another group, especially when the group meeting
the need is being exploited but not trafficked. An example of such would be the demand
for Russian and other Eastern European women to work in strip clubs and gentlemen’s
clubs. Although a desirable commodity, since other women are willing to work these
jobs, the demand for Eastern European women drops from high to moderate. This is
also the case for Hispanic men who may be trafficked into the labor field. Because there
are Mexican men willing to work in substandard conditions and may even be exploited,
the market to traffic Mexican men in these markets becomes moderate instead of high.

Low to non-existent demand for a group in a particular market means there was no
perceived demand or that these markets are being served almost exclusively by others.
For instance, men who desire to have sex with boys may find these opportunities
among those not being trafficked or they may travel abroad to indulge their desires in
less restrictive environments, therefore we rated this demand as low or a 1 on our scale
of 1 to 3 (3 meaning high demand and 1 meaning low demand). While the demand for
foreign born boys in sexual markets in Ohio may be low, the demand for foreign born
men in sexual markets in Ohio may be non-existent, thus we rated it a 0. These ratings
were then added together and turned into percentages to determine those who were
estimated to be trafficked.

Table 3: Demand for Sex and Labor Services in Ohio

Groups Demand Sex Demand Labor Percentage Trafficked

UHF 1 1 .20
UHM 0 3 .30
UAF 2 1 .30
UAM 0 1 .10
UBF 1 1 .20
UBM 0 1 .10
UWF 2 0 .20
UWM 0 0 0
*UHF = Undocumented Hispanic Female; UHM = Undocumented Hispanic Male; UAF = Undocumented Asian Female; UAM =
Undocumented Asian Male; UBF = Undocumented Black Female; UBM = Undocumented Black Male; UWF = Undocumented White
Female; UWM = Undocumented White Male

36
The following are two tables of those estimations of at-risk and trafficked females and
males based on our model.

Table 4: Undocumented Females who are At-Risk & Trafficked into the Sex or
Labor Market in Ohio

Group # at-risk Percent Number of Those Trafficked for Sex &

Trafficked Trafficked Labor
Hispanic 571 20% 114 80 Sex and/or
34 Labor
Asian 1424 30% 427 299 Sex and/or
128 Labor
Black 220 20% 44 37 Sex and/or
16 Labor
White 373 20% 75 101 Sex and/or 43
Labor
Total 2,588 660 517 Sex and/or 218
Labor

Males are almost exclusively trafficked for labor purposes. As it stands, about 96% of
undocumented males in the U.S. are in the labor force (Passel et al., 2004). The table
below is our estimate of those males trafficked in Ohio.

Table 5: Undocumented Males who are At-Risk and Trafficked in Ohio

Group Number at-risk Percent Number of Those

Trafficked Trafficked
Hispanic 193 .30 58

Asian 210 .10 21

Black 21 .10 2

White 10 .0 0

Total 434 81

The sum of legal foreign born populations in Ohio was multiplied by a factor of .0025%.
One quarter of one percent was chosen to mirror Estes and Weiner (2001) who
reported that .25% of the general population (in their case youth) were at-risk for human
trafficking. In 2007, there were 83,672 legal foreign born females in Ohio and 82,346
legal foreign born males. In using Estes and Weiner’s estimate, 209 females and 206
males are at-risk for human trafficking. In weighing the particular risk factors involved in
being a foreign born resident in an unfamiliar country against the protective factors

37
involved that include some formal supports in being legal, we speculate that less than
10% may have had a trafficking experience.

Table 6: Legal and Illegal Foreign Born Persons Trafficked in Ohio

Foreign Born in Ohio At-Risk for Trafficking Trafficked

Illegal Foreign Born 3,022 741
Legal Foreign Born 415 42

Total 3,437 783

Estimation of those At-Risk and the Prevalence of Domestic Victims in Ohio

Ohio Youth

The team relied heavily on the Estes and Weiner (2001) study on the commercial
sexual exploitation of children in the United States. In this study, Estes and Weiner
embarked on a three year project that began in January, 1999 to better understand the
nature, extent, and underlying causes of commercial sexual exploitation of children.
They partnered with governmental and nongovernmental groups, three universities, two
international child advocacy organizations, and a professional association that works
directly with trafficked youth and their families. They worked with 800 law enforcement
and human service professionals across 17 American cities.

Over 200 child victims participated as informants and participants in the study. Estes
and Weiner obtained data through interview and survey of more than 1000 key
informants including those runaway and throwaway street youth (n=124), sexually
exploited youth in the care of social services and law enforcement agencies (n-86),
representatives from federal law enforcement (n=164), representatives from state,
county, and local law enforcement (n=146), public human service agency
representatives (n=93), representatives from local private human service agencies
(n=196), representatives from international nongovernmental organizations (n=51), and
representatives from the Tri-National Research Team and Advisory Board (n=60).
Supplementary data was obtained through questionnaires completed by state and
national organizations working with sexually exploited youth and their families (n=288).

Estes and Weiner then analyzed the data to find the number of those at risk for child
sex trafficking, to identify forms of commercial sexual exploitation, the factors that
contributed to commercial sexual exploitation of children, risks to these youth, and the
impact of sexual exploitation, among other findings. They categorized at-risk youth as
runaways, throw aways, and homeless youth. They also included female gang
*Throughout this report, we use youth, adolescent, and child to mean those between the ages of 12 and 17. We also use the terms
commercial sexual exploitation, child sex trafficking, or domestic minor sex trafficking interchangeably to mean youth who traded
sex for money, items, drugs, food, or a place to stay.

38
members, transgendered youth, the general population of youth, and foreign born youth
in the U.S. They then estimated that 35% of these youth were at-risk of commercial
sexual exploitation. These estimates were then reduced by 25% to account for the
overlap between groups.

Our measures included a focus on runaways and homeless youth in Ohio and the
general population of high risk and vulnerable youth in Ohio.

According to the Ohio’s Missing Children Clearing House (OMCCH), in 2009, there
were 20,205 endangered runaways (OMCCH personal communication). In 2008, there
were 11,498 endangered runaways. In 2007, the number was 11,573. In 2006 over
25,000 youth ran away from home. In 2005 there were 10,801 runaway youth. We
modified Estes and Weiner’s (2005) estimate that 35% of runaways gone for a week or
longer were at-risk for commercial sexual exploitation, by using the findings based on
the qualitative Toledo study of trafficked youth who reported they were gone for two
weeks or longer before being approached by a trafficker or recruiter (Williamson, 2008).
Thus our first estimate is depicted below in Table 7.

Table 7: Ohio Runaways At-Risk for Child Sex Trafficking Per Year

Year Total Youth Gone for Two Percentage At Total Runaway

Runaways Weeks or Longer Risk Youth At-risk
2009 20,205 3,056 35% 1,070
2008 11,498 2,749 35% 962
2007 11,573 3,609 35% 1,263
2006 25,163 4,244 35% 1,485
2005 10,801 3,340 35% 1,169

Runaways and throwaways are categorized by the Clearing House as “Endangered

Runaways”. In order to be categorized as an endangered runaway, a child must have
left home without permission and stay away overnight. In a report by the New York
Times, “nearly a third of the children who flee or are kicked out of their homes each year
engage in sex for food, drugs or a place to stay, according to a variety of studies
published in academic and public health journals” (Urbina, 2009). A more conservative
report by Greene et al. (1997) places that estimate around 9.5% of a nationally
representative sample of runaway and homeless youth who had access to some
shelter. Greene also reported that 27.5% who were not sheltered traded sex. Since
sheltered runaway youth may have periods of time in Ohio when they lose their shelter
or may not be able to find a bed, this experience can fluctuate. A 2001 study completed
on youth homelessness within Midwestern states in the U.S. (Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa,
and Kansas) reported that of the 455 adolescent respondents found and surveyed, 20%
sold sexual favors for food or a place to stay (Whitbeck, 2002), almost the average of
the combination of Greene’s study on sheltered and street youth. Since we could not
determine the number of runaway youth who were sheltered or living without shelter, we
used the Midwestern study of 20% as our estimate. In using this estimate, we find the
following:

39
 Table 8: Runaway Youth in Ohio who are At-Risk & Traded Sex

Year Number Runaways in Number Those who Traded Sex

Ohio Gone for 20%
2wks or
Longer
2009 20,205 3,056 611
2008 11,498 2,749 550
2007 11,573 3,609 722
2006 25,163 4,244 849
2005 10,801 3,340 669

The team questioned the difference between those youth who are homeless and those
who were runaways or throwaways. While a high risk runaway episode was determined
by our team to be two weeks or more, for the period of time the youth is gone, they are
technically homeless or may be captured in surveys and categorized as homeless. The
term “unaccompanied youth” in research reports often applies to those youth in
homeless situations who are not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian.
Although there may be a significant difference in the dynamics of someone who is a
runaway, throwaway, or categorized in a survey as homeless, the outcome is sheltered
or unsheltered homelessness. One difference is that in a runaway situation someone
has likely made a report and that report has been captured and counted in the Clearing
House, whereas under various circumstances when one is homeless a report may or
may have been made by a parent or guardian.

The National Center for Family Homelessness (2009) estimates that 3,046 Ohio youth
and their families each year are homeless. Another 1,157 youth who were not with their
family or guardian were homeless. Estes and Weiner estimated that 30% of homeless,
but sheltered youth, and 70% of homeless street youth traded sex. Since the team
could not determine through reports the number who were street youth and those who
were sheltered, we adopted the conservative estimate of 30% to determine the number
of at-risk homeless youth. In using this estimate, it is possible that approximately 914
accompanied homeless youth and 347 unaccompanied youth sold or traded sex for
money, food, items, or a place to stay.

Table 9: Homeless Ohio Youth At-Risk for Trafficking

Homeless Youth Number of Youth Number of Youth at-risk for

Sex Trafficking
Accompanied Youth 3,046 914
Unaccompanied Youth 1,157 347

Not only do youth engage in “survival sex” while homeless or a runaway, but the social
networks that youth are involved in may also influence whether they will trade sex or
not. Interestingly, “those who had friends who traded sex were approximately five times

40
more likely to have ever traded sex themselves compared to those with no friends who
had traded sex” (Tyler, 2009, p. 290).

Thus far, the estimates for at-risk Ohio youth are not complete because they do not
include those youth living in their homes or the homes of others and who are at-risk of
human trafficking because of other high risk factors that make them vulnerable,
including being involved with child protective services. some of who are most certainly
already involved with child protective services. In Toledo, 77% of the trafficked youth
had been involved with child welfare at some point in their lives and 52% had been
involved in the foster care program. For the most part, these youth fluctuated between
home, the juvenile justice system, and the child welfare system (Williamson, 2009a). A
literature review completed by Estes and Weiner (2005) identified at-risk youth who
were vulnerable to human trafficking as those who had experienced family dysfunction
(Cauce et.al., 2003; Ferrara, 2001), have had prior histories of abuse (Tyler et.al., 2000,
2001a.b), have had a history of serious depression (Cauce et al, 2000), runaway
(Whitbeck , 2000; Lukman, 2009) experienced substance abuse or recurrent mental
illness in the family (Cauce et al, 2000), represented a sexual minority (Raleigh-Duroff,
2004), experienced income poverty (Cauce et al., 2003; Yen, 2008), lacked educational
opportunities or were desperate for employment (Yen, 2008), lived in families where the
promotion of prostitution by parents or other family members occurred (USDOJ, 2003),
were involved in criminal or other deviant behavior including female gang membership
(Moore & Hagedorn, 2001; Whitbeck, 2001), lived in communities where the presence
of pre-existing prostitution markets existed and neighborhoods where large numbers of
street youth gather (Estes & Weiner, 2005), lived in areas where the presence of large
numbers of sexually unattached and transient males including military personnel,
truckers, conventioneers, and tourists existed (Estes & Weiner, 2005), and/or lived in
communities where there was evidence of organized crime networks (United
Nations,1999).

Because of these and other factors, Estes and Weiner (2001) suggested that one
quarter of one percent of all American youth were at-risk for commercial sexual
exploitation. Using this assumption there are 675,922 youth, between the ages of 12
and 17, residing in Ohio in 2008. Adopting their formula, there would be an additional
1,690 youth who are also at-risk for child sex trafficking.

675,922 X .0025 = 1,690

To respond to the duplication that is apparent when attempting to estimate the

prevalence from various groups in which there may be overlap, we relied on Estes and
Weiner’s (2001) model of those at-risk for child trafficking in the United States. When
reporting on those populations that may overlap, we reduced our finding by 25% in an
attempt to avoid the majority of the duplication possible. As such, our findings are
illustrated in Table 10.

Table 10: Sum of Those At-Risk Youth in Ohio

41
 Youth Populations Duplicated Number of Estimate of the
At-risk Youth by Unduplicated # of
Population At-Risk Youth in
Ohio
At Risk Youth who are 1,070 803
Runaways
At Risk Youth who are 1,261 945
Homeless
At Risk Youth who are Otherwise 1,690 1,268
Vulnerable

Total 4,021 3,016

In determining the number of youth, ages 12 to 17, who may be involved in the
commercial sex trade, we relied on two measures: the rescue of children in Toledo
through the Innocence Lost Task force and a qualitative study completed on trafficked
youth in Toledo.

Toledo received a task force in 2006 known as the Northwest Ohio Innocence Lost Task
Force. The task force was funded through the FBI in conjunction with the Department of
Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and the National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children and is made up of Toledo Police, the Sheriff’s Department, and
the FBI to investigate domestic minor sex trafficking, to rescue victims, and to prosecute
traffickers. Since that time, the task force has identified 60 minor victims of sex
trafficking, of which 75% or 45, were from Lucas County. This represents approximately
15 victims per year from Lucas County.

According to the latest census figures (2008), Lucas County had an estimated 49,929
residents between the ages of 12 and 17. Of those, approximately half were girls. Thus
we estimate that 15 girls per 24,965 female residents between the ages of 12 and 17
are successfully recruited into the sex trade from Ohio each year. As of July 1, 2008
Ohio had a population of 675,922 residents between the ages of 12 and 17 or 337,961
girls.

In a University of Toledo study on trafficked youth in Lucas County, youth reported

knowing an average of 5 additional youth that were not known to law enforcement, but
who were engaging in the sex trade. Because of the underground social networks,
many girls involved know each other by their street names or nick names. In actuality,
they may be unaware of which girls are engaging the Innocence Lost Task Force and
not engaging the Task Force. But because other communities in Ohio do not have a
focused Innocence Lost Task Force, the team decided the estimates provided by the
victims may be an accurate measure for other communities throughout Ohio. Therefore,
in using this as a measure for Ohio, we find that there may be over 1,000 girls per year
in Ohio that are involved in the sex trade.

337,961 / 24,965 x 15 = 203

42
 203 x 5 = 1,015

Known trafficked girls from Toledo who were rescued by the Innocence Lost Task Force
had been involved as runaways, some had been homeless for a time, and a majority of
others had been involved with the juvenile court and child protection, so they are
representative of our at-risk estimates.

The market to purchase sex with boys is active. “At least 95% of all commercial sex
engaged in by boys is provided to adult males. Approximately half of the adult male
sexual exploiters of boys are married men, many with children of their own” (Estes &
Weiner, 2001 p.59). According to research, boys between the ages of 12 and 17, who
are at high risk for child sex trafficking are those who are gay, transgendered, or
questioning. It is estimated that between 3% to 5% of U.S. citizens identify as lesbian,
gay, or bi-sexual or approximately 10,000+ youth in Ohio (Ray, 2006). While it is difficult
to determine the number of gay, transgendered and questioning youth embedded
among those at high risk because they are runaways/throwaways, homeless, or
involved with a child welfare or juvenile justice institution, we know that these youth are
at-risk and become victims of child sex trafficking. For those from the LBGT youth
community who are runaways or homeless, prostitution is the principal means for
survival (Raleigh-Duroff, 2004). Therefore, the team determined that 3% to 5% of the
number of boys gone for two weeks or more are gay, bi-sexual, or transgendered and
represent a minimum of those trafficked boys in Ohio.

Boys gone for 2wks = 1,551 X .03 = 47 or 1,551 X .05 = 78

Average 47 + 78 = 125/2 = 63

In adopting these estimates as a measure of those who have been trafficked, we find
that approximately 1 in 3 vulnerable girls between the ages of 12 and 17 who are at
high risk due to extended runaway episodes, periodic homelessness, and/or
involvement with child protection or the juvenile court will become involved as a victim of
child sex trafficking in Ohio. Those boys at high risk under the same circumstances and
who identify as gay, bi-sexual, or transgendered are at higher risk for trading sex than
girls, but are fewer in number in Ohio.

Table 11: Total Domestic Youth in Ohio Estimated to be At-Risk & Trafficked

Ohio Youth Ages 12 to 17 Estimate of the Total Estimated to be Trafficked

At-Risk Ohio Youth
Population
675,922 Total 3,016 1,078

Ohio Women

The committee was not able to adequately identify the number of adult women in Ohio
that may be victims of sex trafficking. Adult women who are victims of sex trafficking are
often arrested for prostitution, solicitation, and/or loitering. It is difficult to discern from

43
this data and others, who is being controlled by traffickers and who is not. This is partly
because there is no public consciousness about adult women who may be victims of
human trafficking. It is akin to a public blindness about this form of modern day slavery
as it relates to adult women who are citizens of the U.S. However, whether under the
immediate and direct control of a trafficker as an adult or not, the residual effects of
being commercially sexually exploited while under the age of 18 impacts young
adulthood and creates a continued vulnerability, often accompanied by substance
abuse to medicate earlier traumas, and the continued need to meet basic survival
needs. These women are then prostituted by drugs, in which the trafficker is replaced by
the drug dealer as the primary exploiter. Factors such as poverty, employment barriers,
a lack of formal and healthy informal support systems, and internal shame and external
stigma hold women in these underground markets. Women involved as victims of adult
sex trafficking also suffer from poor mental, emotional, and physical health outcomes,
are subjected to increased HIV/AIDS and other STI’s, and experience frequent,
heinous, and pervasive violence (Williamson, 2001). To date, both a public
consciousness and the estimates needed remain elusive, but are critical to the health of
women in Ohio.

44
 Section VI
Points for Further Deliberation
and
Recommendations

45
Points for Further Deliberation

In analyzing and interpreting the reasons child sex trafficking may be a factor in Ohio,
the research team offered to the sub-committee members the following four statements.
The Research and Analysis Sub-Committee asks that other sub-committees review and
consider these points as part of their deliberations.

1. Ohio’s response to child sex trafficking is weak.

There are three conventional institutions that will intersect with trafficked youth who are
involved in the underground economy practices of sex trafficking. Those are the criminal
justice system, the social service system, and the health care system. Each system’s
response, it could be argued, has been either ineffective or insufficient.

Human trafficking is a worldwide business, which consists of supply (victims), demand

(customers), and distribution (traffickers). While the primary responsibility of the criminal
justice system in Ohio is to sanction those who violate the law, when it comes to victims
of sex trafficking, the criminal justice system has focused largely on supply and regularly
treats victims as criminals. Ohio is quick to label youth involved in prostitution as
delinquents and to incarcerate them, rarely looking further into those adults who were
involved in their manipulation or force (Wilson & Dalton, 2007). Response to the
demand (customers) and distribution (traffickers) components of human trafficking
remain weak and inconsistent, with a large share of the arrests being female sellers
(Prostitution Education Network), despite the fact that customers logically outnumber
sellers (as one woman in prostitution has more than one customer).

The system that has been largely responsible for the care of child victims of sex
trafficking has been the juvenile justice system. There are three main reasons why this
system presents an inappropriate fit. First the obvious must be stated; that the juvenile
justice system is not the appropriate place for traumatized victims of the crime of human
trafficking. It is not appropriate to arrest and incarcerate any victim of a crime and
therefore we should not be incarcerating these victims. Second, the juvenile justice
system operates under the dual paradigm of social welfare and social control. Because
these are largely vulnerable children with histories of abuse, neglect, and the added
trauma of human trafficking, they should be placed in the hands of the child welfare
system whose dual mission is to protect and provide for abused children. The dynamics
of these children’s histories may dictate that juvenile court be involved, but the primary
agency charged with their care and welfare should be the child welfare system. Third,
because domestic minor victims of sex trafficking in Ohio and the U.S. are
disproportionately girls of color and sexual minorities (Estes & Weiner 2001; Williamson,
2009), current practices of arrest, incarceration, and submission to the demand of the
juvenile justice system could be viewed as institutionally racist, sexist, and
discriminatory.

46
While the child welfare system seems like a better fit for trafficked youth, the Ohio
Revised Code currently does not provide clear enough language that would be
conducive to the comprehensive care of child sex trafficking victims. Ohio may consider
reviewing the mandates of other states. For example, Michigan’s child abuse law is
clearer and expressly includes the term sexual exploitation, currently absent in Ohio’s
mandate.

Through our practice experience and literature review of the needs of trafficked youth,
we find that other social service institutions that engage trafficked youth may be
ineffective if they offer a generalized menu of services to a population with unique
needs ranging from trauma treatment to comprehensive, long term residential or case
management care.

The need for comprehensive, long term support for trafficked youth should include the
operation of safe houses in Ohio, staffed with those properly trained to provide care
and/or the use of therapeutically, trauma trained foster homes. In revisiting the idea that
child trafficking is a business, the human trafficker is providing for those vulnerable Ohio
youth 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with ways to make money, eat, live, and survive.

Because of overburdened social workers with large agency caseloads, the typical social
service agency provides services to youth approximately 2 to 4 hours a week. While our
best response has been to have victims work with a formal system for a couple of hours
a week, the underground system’s response has been 24 hour a day support. While we
circle the wagons to garner support, our competition has outpaced us with nuclear
capabilities. Our alternative response to incarcerating victims in juvenile detention is not
therapeutically constructive, and in fact could be emotionally damaging.

Because of their histories, many vulnerable and trafficked youth may have engaged
social services and criminal justice systems in the past. These experiences may or may
not have been positive ones. More than likely, these youth have opinions about law
enforcement and child welfare. However, health care settings are the third conventional
institution that may encounter trafficked youth. Health care settings represent neutral
territory, meaning youth may not have biased opinions about this institution, which
represents a window of opportunity to identify and help victims. Health care
professionals may be among those that are also largely unaware of human trafficking
and how to identify it. In turn, child trafficking victims are taught to lie about their
circumstance and despite suspicions, professionals may not ask many questions.
These victims are typically patched up and sent back into their underground and
dangerous lives. Those educated emergency room and clinic staff most likely to be
effective first responders, can and sometimes do report their suspicions by making a
call to child protection or the police if they suspect that they have a trafficking victim.
However, both systems deem these calls as a low priority. While police may take as
much as two to three hours to respond, child welfare may take two to three days to
respond. Of course the victim is often gone from the clinic or emergency room visit
within one to two hours. In one police call featured on a Primetime special and the
Entertainment Channel special about child sex trafficking in Toledo, it took Toledo

47
Police 90 minutes to respond to a child sex trafficking victim held by force in a Toledo
home and after four repeated calls from neighbors who heard screaming and witnessed
fighting.

The issue of runaway and throw away youth is another area where Ohio may be failing
vulnerable and trafficked youth. When youth have “runaway” or been “thrown away”,
they are usually labeled an “Endangered Runaway” in Ohio. Police are then involved in
passive enforcement, meaning they will respond should they come across a suspicious
youth during their daily work. Those few funded social service outreach programs will
search for homeless and runaway youth, often in their own community, while trafficked
youth are moved around the country. Other than the National Runaway Hotline where
youth call in, there is no coordinated effort among homeless and runaway youth
outreach programs to locate youth in other cities. If found, these youth have been taught
by their traffickers to inform anyone in authority that they are 18 to fend off any attempt
to call child protection. Moreover some of those, characterized by parents or authorities
as runaways, may not be runaways at all. In these cases youth are “missing” because
they have been taken by a trafficker. Other times what begins as a runaway experience
may turn into a trafficking experience. Presently, Ohio’s Missing Children’s Clearing
House is not required to report missing children to the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children.

Ohio’s trafficking in persons specification is a step in the right direction but we see a
continued need to craft more comprehensive legislation that provides services for
victims and training and education for law enforcement, among other professionals.

2. Ohio’s first responders to human trafficking remain unaware and unprepared and
services are insufficient.

Researchers confirm that community members, social service providers, law

enforcement personnel, medical personnel, and other first responders who may come
into contact with victims of trafficking often fail to accurately identify them because most
of these individuals are unaware of the issue and definition of trafficking, in particular
domestic trafficking (Clawson & Goldblatt Grace, 2007). In a series of community wide
Prostitution Roundtable meetings held in Toledo, Ohio in 2006, 66.7% of criminal
justice, social service, and health care staff initially reported their knowledge of human
trafficking to be between a 1 and 3 on a scale of 0 (not knowing much) to 5 (knowing a
lot).

Similarly, findings from a 2009 survey conducted by the Rescue and Restore Coalition
in Columbus in coordination with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office identified the need
for law enforcement training in Ohio. Findings from the survey of 950 law enforcement
agencies in the State of Ohio yielded 106 responses. Law enforcement agencies
expressed a need for training, indicating they are both unaware of the problem in their
communities and how to recognize signs of a victim of sex or labor trafficking or a
human trafficking business or entity. Additionally, law enforcement said that they do not
understand the effects of human trafficking, nor do they know how to link victims with

48
social service providers. Furthermore, the study revealed they did not understand
criminal justice system procedures pertaining to human trafficking, and are unfamiliar
with both Ohio and Federal laws.

In a study sponsored by the Underground Railroad in Cincinnati, 37% of a sample of

137 professionals from the areas of law enforcement, law, social services, health care
and others knew with any certainty that protocols existed at their specific organizations
for assisting trafficking victims. Eight percent were unsure and 45% reported that no
protocols existed within their organizations. Of those with protocols, one-fourth indicated
that their protocols were to provide generalized services. Sixty-three percent of those
with protocols said the main protocol would be to refer the case to someone else
(2009).

They further report:

Approximately 91% of interviewees have heard of cases and 41% believe that
they or their organizations have encountered victims of trafficking. Most of the
interviewees believe that their organizations have the capacity to serve victims
but also believe that the main barrier in identifying or assisting victims is a lack of
awareness and training (p. 7).

3. Customers who purchase youth remain protected, receiving minimal charges and
are rarely being prosecuted in Ohio in any significant way, while traffickers suffer
minimal consequences.

Nationwide, “in 2002, only 34% of prostitution arrests were of male consumers. The
other 66% were of women and children” (Shared Hope International, 2006).

In Ohio over the past five years, there were 11,144 prostitution-related charges. The
majority of charges were for soliciting, which totaled 8,898 applied to 4,384 persons. Of
those, 2,969 were female and 1,414 were male. It is unclear how many males were
arrested for attempting to prostitute themselves and the number who were attempting to
purchase sex. In Chicago, researchers determined that women involved in prostitution
there completed an average of 10 sex acts per week or 10 times the opportunity for
male customers to be arrested for every one woman involved (Levitt & Venkatesh,
2007). Yet despite these facts, arrest rates do not reflect what should be an
overwhelming number of male customers arrested.

Traffickers may typically be arrested for charges of compelling prostitution, promoting

prostitution, procuring, or attempting to engage in these crimes or being complicit in the
act of a related crime. In Ohio, from 2005 to 2009, 122 persons were charged with
compelling prostitution (89 men and 33 women), 237 were charged with promoting
prostitution (134 men and 103 women), 72 were charged with procuring (37 men and 35
women), 6 were charged with attempting to engage in one of these crimes (5 men and 1
woman), and 3 were charged for being complicit (1 man and 2 women).

49
 4. High rates of vulnerability for Ohio youth

According to the National Center on Family Homelessness State Report Card (2009),
Ohio is ranked 20th among the 50 states for child homelessness1, but is ranked 42 out
of 50 states for children’s vulnerability to homelessness, which in turn contributes to a
higher vulnerability to child sex trafficking. Risk for child homelessness is measured by
the generosity of state benefits, household structure, housing market forces, extreme
poverty, and structural factors contributing to homelessness. Ohio is the only state in
the Midwest that is included among those top 10 states at high risk.

Those domestic populations who are most vulnerable to human trafficking are the poor.
In 2008, 1.5 million Ohioans lived below the poverty level. This is the highest rate since
1994. Since 2002, the population in Ohio grew a total of 1.2% while the number of those
who are poor grew to over 40% (Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies,
2010). “Poverty limits access to resources and information, which limits other
opportunities such as education or employment” (Davis, 2006, p.7). The Children’s
Defense Fund (2008) reports that over 20,000 Ohioans are homeless each year.
“Oftentimes, people living in these substandard situations feel they have no choice but
to risk their safety in order to survive. Some may resort to survival sex to gain access to
food, shelter, protection and other necessities while others may resort to criminal
activities (e.g., theft or selling drugs). Because of their precarious situation, traffickers
can easily manipulate those desperate to escape poverty with promises of better jobs
and lifestyles” (Davis, 2006, p.7).

Many girls recruited into prostitution often come from dysfunctional families, have been
sexually abused, live in poverty, and are runaways, throwaways or homeless (Davis
2006). According to a study with youth involved as sex trafficking victims in Toledo, 91%
were victims of abuse with the majority suffering from neglect, followed by physical
abuse, and then sexual abuse. Fifty-seven percent had been raped by someone outside
of their family; 29% were raped by someone inside their family, and 14% were raped by
both. Many of them lived in poverty (Williamson, 2009). A few trafficked Toledo youth
discussed their experience with reference to poverty, neglect, and abuse

“We were starving. We had no money, no lights, no gas. One box heater for the
whole family. He didn’t want to waste drug money on Christmas presents or
birthday presents. He took our toys away when I was 8. He sold them and
brought drugs. I started prostituting at age 11”.

“Mom knew about the abuse, but didn’t want to say anything because she
wanted to keep her husband” – 17 year old

Traffickers often prey on troubled minors because of the ease of isolating them from
family and friends, manipulating and modeling their worldviews, and exploiting their
dependency on an adult. The women and children are dehumanized and turned into
marketable commodities where they often feel that is their place in life (Davis, 2006
p.8).

50
 1. Rankings are based on the extent of child homelessness, child well being, risk for child homelessness, and state policy
and planning efforts.

In 2007, one trafficked girl in Toledo who testified in a case outside of the State of Ohio,
returned home to find little support, no safe haven, and no escape from the internal
depression and external stigma she found. With a baby left to care for, she ended her
life at 17 years old (Second Chance – personal communication).

In summary, we offer the following suggestions to the other Trafficking In Persons Study
Commission Sub-Committees for their consideration:

1. Change the focus, stop arresting and incarcerating child victims of sex trafficking
who are by definition victims of the crime of human trafficking. Create awareness
campaigns around this issue and create provisions in the law that prohibit this
practice of re-traumatizing child victims by arrest and incarceration and create
alternative mechanisms to care for victims.

2. Work with legislators to expand the mandate of child welfare agencies throughout
Ohio to include the care for commercially sexually exploited youth and to create
safe houses for youth.

3. Conduct training that includes information on reporting child sex trafficking of

domestic minors as child abuse and emphasize mandated reporters’
responsibility to report it.

4. Work with legislators to pass a state anti-human trafficking law that expands the
specification into a law that includes provisions for protection, prevention, and
prosecution and that attends to the overall issue including supply (victims),
demand (customers), and distribution (traffickers).

5. Work to strengthen the oversight of those markets that are open to receiving
foreign born workers and who have been traditionally exploitative (e.g., massage
parlors, agricultural markets, etc.).

6. Train health departments/health inspectors around the state on human trafficking

and to report suspicious behavior.

7. Work to make the target of prostitution enforcement customers thereby reducing

the possibility of arresting sex trafficking victims.

8. Appoint an ongoing committee that can work to coordinate activities in Ohio of

Immigration Customs Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, state
and local law enforcement, child welfare, and the juvenile justice system and
others as appropriate.

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Recommendations

In order to provide a more accurate picture of the extent of the human trafficking
problem in Ohio, we ask the Trafficking In Persons Study Commission make a
recommendation supporting the need for better data collection. In particular we
recommend:

a. That the Coalition on Homeless and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO) be asked to

incorporate the following questions in their surveys of homeless youth:
a. “have you traded sex for a place to stay, money, or other items”
b. “have you ever had a pimp/boyfriend or anyone that takes a part of the
money you make”
c. “do you currently have a pimp/boyfriend or anyone that takes a part of
the money you make”.

b. That a standard method is used by law enforcement and service providers to

capture information regarding human trafficking victims and a central location
to store the data is determined. Appendix F provides a sample database
form.

c. Ohio should work to have questions inserted into the Youth Behavior
Surveillance Survey to better understand trafficking in Ohio and the nation.

d. Advocate for Ohio to be included in the national Human Trafficking Reporting

System’s database so that it is possible to better understand the incidence of
human trafficking in Ohio.

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Appendices

53
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2010 from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/fact_sex.pdf
United States Department of Health and Human Services.
Whitbeck, L., Hoyt, D., Johnson, K., Berdahl, T., and Whiteford, S. (2002). Midwest Longitudinal Study of
Homeless Adolescents. Baseline Report for all Participating Agencies. Lincoln, NE: University of
Nebraska, Department of Sociology. Retrieved December 14, 2009 from
http://www.netnebraska.org/extras/statewide/pers/media/annual_overall_2002.pdf
Williamson, C. (2008). Unpublished raw data. University of Toledo.
Williamson, C.(2009). Child sex trafficking in Lucas county: Preliminary findings from interviews with
victims. Retrieved December 13, 2009 from http://secondchancetoledo.org/LucasCounty.htm
Williamson, C. & Folaran, G. (2001). Violence, risk, and survival strategies of street prostitution. Violence
Against Women. 23(5), 463-475.
Williamson, C. & Prior, M. (2009). Domestic minor sex trafficking: A network of underground players in teh
midwest. 2(1), 46
Wilson, J.M. & Dalton, E. (2007). Human trafficking in Ohio: Markets, responses, and considerations.
Rand Corporation. Retrieved October 29, 2009 from
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2007/RAND_MG689.pdf
Yen, I. (2008). Of vice and men: A new approach to eradicating sex trafficking by reducing male demand
through educational programs and abolitionist legislation. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology,
98, 653-686.

57
 Appendix B: Federal, State, and Local Resources

FEDERAL RESOURCES

! U.S. Department of State, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons

http://www.state.gov/g/tip

! U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Campaign to Rescue and

Restore Victims of Human Trafficking
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/index.html

! U.S. Department of Justice

http://www.usdoj.gov/whatwedo/whatwedo_ctip.html
http://www.ovc.gov/help/tip.htm
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/ceos/trafficking.html

! Federal Bureau of Investigation, Investigative Programs, Crimes Against Children

http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/cac/crimesmain.htm

! National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

http://www.ncmec.org

! Polaris Project
http:// www.polarisproject.org

! United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html

! United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on
Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc-sale.htm

STATE RESOURCES

Ohio Human Trafficking Study Commission

Attorney General’s Office
30 E. Broad St. 17th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215

LOCAL RESOURCES

Gracehaven
Columbus

Gracehaven is building resources to provide a comprehensive, residential treatment

program for trafficked youth.

58
 Contact:
Dr. Jeff Barrows
937-210-1503
[email protected]

Central Ohio Rescue and Restore

Columbus

! Coordinated by The Salvation Army Central Ohio

! Comprised of over 55 member organizations from a wide cross section of the
community:
! Social services providers
! Law enforcement (FBI, ICE, CPD)
! Faith community
! Medical providers
! State Refugee Coordinator
! Ohio Attorney General Office
! Ohio Department of Public Safety
! Ohio Department of Job and Family Services

! Services to Victims of Human Trafficking - 24/7 Hotline 888-881-5465

! Public Awareness
! Annual Unlocking the Chains Conference
! Speakers Bureau: Trained over 2,000 people on human trafficking to date
! Outreach materials
! Public awareness events
! Legislation
! Law Enforcement

Contact:
Michelle Hannan,
Director of Professional and Community Services
The Salvation Army
966 E. Main St
Columbus OH 43205
614-437-2149
[email protected]

Trisha Smouse
Anti-Human Trafficking Program Manager
The Salvation Army
966 E Main St
Columbus, OH 43205
614-358-2614
[email protected]

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End Slavery Cincinnati
Cincinnati

! Coordinated by the YWCA

! Provides services to victims of human trafficking

Contact:
Jessica Donahue-Dioh
513-361-2146,
[email protected]

The Prostitution Intervention Collaborative Taskforce

Dayton, Ohio

Coordinated by the Montgomery County Criminal Justice Council

! Operates the John’s School

! Has trained over 35 agencies on the issue of human trafficking.

Contact:
Joanne Hale
937-225-4920
[email protected]

Lucas County Human Trafficking Coalition

Toledo, Ohio

! Shares information and resources about human trafficking

! Identifies practices, procedures and protocols for effective work with victims of
trafficking in Toledo/Lucas County
! Coordinates efforts of multiple disciplines in working with victims of human
trafficking and domestic minor sex trafficking.

Contact:
Celia Williamson, PhD
419-530-4084
[email protected]

Second Chance
Toledo, Ohio

! The only prostitution and trafficking-specific program in Toledo, Ohio that follows
the Social Work Code of Ethics and offers quality and comprehensive
programming in partnership with professionals and survivors.

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 ! Design of the Second Chance program was based on over 500 hours of
interviews conducted with survivors/victims from the Toledo community.
! Offers comprehensive services to women victimized by prostitution, girls at risk of
being victims of sex trafficking and girls who have been victimized by sex
trafficking.
! Develops individualized service plans for each woman or youth involved in
programming. Plans are modeled on treatment and recovery practices that
support women and youth in healing from trauma, learning and developing a
strong sense of self, and challenging and engaging women and youth to develop
healthy and authentic relationships.

Services:
! Intensive Case Management
! Advocacy
! Information and Referral Services
! Harm-Reduction, Education, and Prevention
! Trauma Treatment through Individual Counseling
! Psychosocial Groups, Educational Groups, and Prostitutes Anonymous (PA)
for Adult Women
! Support groups for victims of Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children
(CSEC)

Contact:
Mary Schmidbauer
419-244-6050
[email protected]

Collaborative Initiative to End Human Trafficking

Cleveland, Ohio

! Provides education and training on the topic of human trafficking.

Contact:
Karen Walsh
440-356-2254
[email protected]

Human Trafficking Task Force

Salvation Army
Cleveland, Ohio

Contact:
Karen Walsh or Douglas McGuire
440-356-2254

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 Appendix C: Key Cases Identified Through Newspaper Reports
Reported Cases

International Sex Trafficking

2005

In 2005 two Korean women were found to be in charge of managing massage parlors
that provided customers with sexual favors. Although it was claimed that the women
working at the parlors were not held against their will, the women were not paid unless
they provided sexual favors to the customers. Typically customers to Asian massage
parlors are middle-class white professionals (The Columbus Dispatch, July 3, 2005; The
Associated Press, July 15, 2005).

2006

Another woman met an American man through a pen pal service and married him in her
country. She accompanied him to the United States thinking that he was looking for a
wife to start a family. Instead he took her to a hotel, drugged her and raped and beat her
(Cincinnati Enquirer, October 21, 2006).

2007

Although massage parlors are areas where international victims are sex trafficked,
trafficking of international victims is not limited to these areas. In 2007, police made a
traffic stop near Cleveland. During the stop they discovered a 23-year-old woman from
Mexico who was a victim of sex trafficking. She crossed the border after meeting people
who agreed to reunite her with her family. However, instead of being taken to her family,
she was forced into prostitution. She was pregnant when found and had to relate her
experiences through a translator (Plain Dealer, March 30, 2007).

2008

A massage parlor was raided in Geauga County in 2008 and officials were attempting to
determine if human trafficking was a factor. One of the four women arrested was in
charge of daily operations while the other three women lived in house and never left the
building. The three women utilized an interpreter and discussed previous work in a
restaurant in New York (Plain Dealer, August 31, 2008).

International Labor Trafficking

2007

The Russian mob was convicted in 2007 for contracting with a hotel chain for maid
services that involved 40 victims of labor trafficking (Central Ohio Rescue and Restore).

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2008

In 2008 two Mexican women were offered a franchise in a Hispanic restaurant in

Columbus. When they arrived they were informed that they would need to work off their
debt and pay for the franchise by working in the restaurant. The trafficker provided
housing that was also deducted from the pay (Central Ohio Rescue and Restore).

2009

A domestic sexual servitude situation occurred in May 2009 where a Hispanic woman
was married to her trafficker and was forced to care for his disabled daughter as well
(Central Ohio Rescue and Restore).

Finally, in late 2009 in Columbus, several women were promised a teaching job but
were told that they would need to work in a bakery while the school was being built. The
school was never built and the women were held against their will while working in the
bakery for $30 a month (Central Ohio Rescue and Restore).

Innocence Lost Information

2006

Operation Cross County I resulted in 389 arrests across 16 cities rescuing 29 children.
In Toledo there were 54 total arrests and recoveries. Of those, 1 child, 3 traffickers, 6
customers, and 44 other adults involved came from Toledo (Innocence Lost Task
Force).

2008

Operation Cross Country II resulted in 765 arrests across 26 cities rescuing of 47

children. In Toledo there were a total of 52 arrests and recoveries, 2 children were
rescued, 12 traffickers 7 customers, and 31 adults involved (Innocence Lost Task
Force).

2009

Operation Cross Country III involved 92 local, state, and federal agencies, 630 law
enforcement personnel, across 29 cities resulting in 619 arrests. Toledo had a total of
19 arrests (18 adults involved in the network and 1 trafficker) and no child recoveries
(Innocence Lost Task Force).

During Operation Cross Country IV, which occurred in October of 2009, 52 children
across 36 cities involving 30 FBI divisions were rescued and 700 others, including 60
pimps were charged. In Northwest Ohio’s Fulton County 7 child victims were rescued, 5
of these child victims were being trafficked in Northwest Ohio’s Fulton County. Four
traffickers were arrested, and 17 other adults were arrested for their involvement . The

63
youngest from Ohio was 10 years old. There were three U.S. traffickers involved, one
male 30 years old and two females who were 32 and 33 years old. In addition, seven
customers from Northwest Ohio were involved including Mexican men, ages 20 to 61,
who worked at migrant camps. During this investigation it was noted that one mother
was involved in pimping out a 15 year old and her 13 year old daughter (Toledo Blade,
November 1, 2009).

Domestic Sex Trafficking

2002

In 2002 David Sherman, an adult entertainment industry manager for the Déjà Vu’s in
Ohio and who had been in the business for 14 years testified at the Ohio Statehouse
about rampant drug abuse in strip clubs, tax evasion, prostitution, under aged dancers,
and payoffs or “preferred treatment” of city employees such as zoning inspectors,
police, fire, and building inspectors. He testified to the existence of after hour parties,
drug dealing in the clubs and money laundering. Club managers, such as him, lobbied
legislators in order to keep these businesses running the way they were and to prevent
certain proposed legislation from passing. He reported that they paid off hundreds of
political figures and authorities in Ohio. Most importantly Mr. Sherman detailed how girls
and women in Ohio were recruited and commercially sexually exploited (Ohio Senate
Judiciary on Civil Justice, 2002 on S.B. 251).

2006

In 2006, in the Toledo Blade reported on a girl from Adrian trafficked by a former
Toledoan. The 13 year old left for Toledo with her 19 year old boyfriend on November 9,
2001 to celebrate her birthday by going to the theatre. The couple ended up spending a
few days visiting various homes meeting the boyfriend’s relatives. That’s where she met
Clarence Brown, who beat her, raped her, and forced her into prostitution. After the
attempted rape with a knife by a trucker who didn’t have any money, the woman that
trained and prepared the girl for prostitution was beaten. For the next six days the Ohio
girl was forced to trade sex for money. She was finally rescued by a female trucker
when she got in her cab and asked her to drive away.

Another 13 year old was offered candy and money for engaging in sexual activity with
five men in Licking County. The charges ranged from unlawful sexual conduct with a
minor to compelling prostitution (Columbus Dispatch, April 19, 2006).

Two sixteen year old girls were flown from Ohio to Florida and forced into prostitution.
One of the girls was one of seven children raised by a single mother and was taking
medication for a mood disorder. It was reported that she likely looked to her trafficker for
support and perhaps as a father figure (Plain Dealer, November 22, 2006).

2007

64
In another case a girl was thirteen when she began prostituting for a Wood county man.
Her aunt would accompany her and clean his residence while the girl provided sexual
favors to the man (Toledo Blade, May 15, 2007).

While trafficking can occur locally victims are often taken across state lines. In 2007 a
sixteen-year-old from Toledo was trafficked out of state to areas including Washington,
D.C. and Dearborn, Michigan to prostitute at fraternity conventions. Adult women were
also prostituted in this trafficking network (Toledo Blade, July 3, 2007).

A Garfield Heights woman used a thirteen-year-old in a scheme to rob individuals in a

teen prostitution ring. An undercover officer visited the apartment and the thirteen-year-
old solicited sex from him. When questioned she described a scheme where she would
take customers into a back bedroom for sexual activity while the adults would rob them.
The two adults involved claimed that they were babysitters and did not know that she
was prostituting (Plain Dealer, July 10, 2007).

2008

A 43 year old College Hill man was convicted in 2006 of sexual conduct with a fifteen
year old minor and of prostituting her to other men. He told the men that the girl was 19
and collected money in August and September 2006 for her to have sex with the men
(The Cincinnati Enquirer, July 26, 2008).

In another case a South Linden man was charged with transporting seven Columbus
women across state lines to engage in prostitution. Although the women were between
the ages of 18 and 35 the trafficker claimed he could supply girls as young as six for
sexual activity. The case was not considered human trafficking, even though it had
some elements (The Columbus Dispatch, September 6, 2008).

Family members also traffic youth. One 2008 case from Montgomery County involved a
mother trying to sell her seventeen-year-old daughter in a hotel room. The mother and a
41 year old man worked together to prostitute the girl. The man was sentenced to a
year in prison and the mother received the maximum penalty of 18 months (Dayton
Daily News, October 21, 2008).

Two teen sisters who were runaways from Texas were befriended by a female in the
hotel they were staying in Miamisburg in 2008. Their vulnerability was preyed upon and
they were recruited into performing sexual acts, giving massages and nude
photography (Dayton Daily News, October 30, 2008).

2009

Trafficking can also involve individuals in positions of power. A former leader of an Ohio
state office was found to be promoting prostitution of a 17-year-old girl. He used on-line
resources to post pictures of her and traded information on other women (Columbus
Dispatch, January 15, 2009).

65
Another case in 2009 with roots in Chillicothe Ohio involved four suspected traffickers
charged with prostituting one 18-year-old woman and 16-year-old girl in Millerville,
Maryland. The 18-year-old was beaten and her car was disabled. Both were forced to
have sex with customers (Columbus Dispatch, Oct 2, 2009).

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 Appendix D: Newspaper References
2005
Cervantes, Alice. (2005, July 3). Brothel arrests; Asian spas only work some women have known.
Columbus Dispatch.
Associated Press. (2005, July 15). Woman sought in high-dollar prostitution case. State and Local Wire.
Toledo Blade Staff. (2005, October 27). Toledo man sentenced to 40 years for role in U.S. case. Toledo
Blade.
McFeatters, Ann & Reiter, Mark. (2005, December 17). 31 accused of running child sex ring; Many of the
young girls ‘herded’ around the country are from Toledo. Toledo Blade.
Toledo Blade Staff. (2005, December 16). 3 accused of using girls as prostitutes. Toledo Blade.
2006
Erb, Robin & De Boer, Roberta. (2006, February 26). Girl endured brutal journey through world of
prostitution; Ex-Toledoan faces justice for enslaving Adrian teen. Toledo Blade.
Hassett, Kelly. (2006, April 19). Man gets 24 years in sex-abuse case. The Columbus Dispatch.
Goodman, Rebecca. (2006, October 21). Alliance helps abused women, child immigrants. The Cincinnati
Enquirer
Associated Press. (2006, October 26). Man sentenced in Pensacola to 40 year for prostitution ring. State
and Local Wire.
Guevara, Damian. (2006, November 22). Pimps promised love but delivered pain; Fugitive arrested in
Florida after girl escapes. Plain Dealer. .
2007
Fields, Reginald. (2007, March 30). Proposed laws target human trafficking; But prosecutors fear clash
with statutes already on books. Plain Dealer.
Erb, Robin. (2007, May 4). Area man charged in prostitution crackdown; Indictment alleges he trafficked
women. Toledo Blade.
Erb, Robin. (2007, May 15). Man paid for sex, girl tells court. Toledo Blade.
Erb, Robin. (2007, July 3). Prostitution ring tied to fraternity; Toledoan offered ‘escort service’. Toledo
Blade.
Staff Reports. (2007, July 10). Sentencing in teen sex ring. Plain Dealer.
2008
Tharp, Bridget. (2008, June 26). 21 youths rescued in 16-city sweep; 1 child victim found in Toledo.
Toledo Blade.
Courts. (2008, July 26). Man convicted on sex counts. The Cincinnati Enquirer.
Martin, Maggi. (2008, August 31). Spa in Chester Twp. under investigation; 4 women arrested. Plain
Dealer.
Price, Rita. (2008, September 6). Local pair sold young prostitutes, feds say. The Columbus Dispatch.
Grieco, Lou. (2008, October 21). Mom to do time in prostitution case; A judge sentences her to 18 months
for trying to ‘whore out’ her daughter. Dayton Daily News.
Warren, Valryn. (2008, October 30). Nude photos, massage lead to indictments; A man and a woman
face charges involving a teenage girl at a Butler Twp. motel. Dayton Daily News.
2009
Decker, Theodore. (2009, January 15). Sex sting nabs ex-official- Former leader of state office facing 7
prostitution-related counts. The Columbus Dispatch.

67
Barrett, Devlin. (2009, February 23). FBI, police rescue child prostitutes in Ohio, US. State and Local
Wire.
Blade Staff. (2009, February 24). Weekend prostitution sweep nets 19 in NW Ohio. Toledo Blade.
Genson, Loren. (2009, May 16). Details of alleged prostitute ring are revealed. Chillicothe Gazette.
Gazette Staff. (2009, September 30). 3 residents face prostitution conspiracy charges. Chillocothe
Gazette.
Ludlow, Randy. (2009, October 2). Maryland sex-trafficking case lead to Chillicothe. The Columbus
Dispatch.
Toledo Blade Staff. (2009, October 27). Sex-trade sting yields arrests. Toledo Blade.
Romaker, Janet. (2009, November 1). Recent sex-trade sting comes as a shock to rural N.W. Ohio;
Toledo mother is accused of pimping girl, 13. Toledo Blade.

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 Appendix E: Sample Database Form

Date of Referral:____________ How was victim identified? Self-disclosed Location found

Referral Source:____________ Affiliated with known pimp/prostitute Reported interstate trafficking
Other ______________

DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
Victim Perpetrator Juvenile? if checked, skip to
next section
Initials:__________ Alias/Street Name:_____________
DOB:___________ Sex:M F Transgender
Sex:M F Transgender Age:_________
Age:__________ Race: White Hisp/Latino
Race: White Hisp/Latino Am Indian/Alaska Nat Asian Am Indian/Alaska
Nat Asian Nat Hawaiian/Pac Isl Other/Mixed
Nat Hawaiian/Pac Isl Other African Am/Black
African Am/Black Home City:____________
Home City:____________ Criminal History: Drug Offense Violent Off
(check all that apply) Sexual Assault DV
Gang Affiliation? Yes No UNK
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ADDITIONAL VICTIM INFORMATION
Status (prior to referral): Runaway CHINS Homeless Other_______

Trauma history: None Physical Abuse Other___________________

(check all that apply) Sexual Abuse Psych/Emotional Abuse

Criminal History: Status Offense Drug Offense Violent Offense Other ______

Time on Street:__________ Last grade completed: _________ School District:_____________________

Last medical appointment: _______________ Does Victim have children? Yes No UNK
Is Victim using drugs? Yes No UNK Is Victim affiliated with a gang? Yes No UNK
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DETAILS OF EXPLOITATION
Location of recruitment: (city or area) ____________________
Method of Recruitment: Internet Phone chat line Approached in public place
Approached at Residential facility, specify______________ Other _______________

Recruited by whom? Female friend Male friend/boyfriend Stranger

Family member Gang Other___________________
Location of exploitation:
City/Area______________________ Type Street/car Home/residence Escort Service
Hotel/Motel Other________________
Has Victim been trafficked across state lines? Yes No UNK
Victim arrested? Yes No UNK Was exploitation gang related? Yes
No UNK
! If yes, what were the charges? _________________
Does victim currently have an attorney or legal advocate? Yes No UNK
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CASE STATUS
Legal Custody of Victim: DSS Parents Other________________

Current Placement DSS shelter DYS facility DSS Foster home DYS Foster Home Res/Group home
Of Victim: Parents Homeless Informal arrangement, specify____________ Other__________

Estimated time at current placement: ______ (days)

Last date Victim attended school:___/_____ (mm/yyyy) Has Perp been arrested? Yes No UNK
SAIN Interview? Yes No UNK Where is Perp living?__________________
51A filed (regarding exploitation)? Yes No UNK ! If No, why?___________________

Check all agencies/groups involved in case:

DSS School Counseling Police
DYS Probation DMH Medical
DA’s Office Other Serv Provider______________ Other________________

To your knowledge, is a police/criminal investigation underway? Yes No UNK

69