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Dayton
Daily News...
New
law
hits sex traffickers with tougher penalties
By
Cornelius Frolik
Thursday,
June 28, 2012
Gov. John
Kasich on Wednesday signed into law legislation that provides more
resources
and protections to victims of human trafficking and stiffens penalties
facing
criminal offenders.
At a
ceremony in Toledo, which is one of the top recruiting cities for young
sex-trafficking victims, Kasich praised state lawmakers for their
bipartisan
support of legislation that will help combat the troubling activity of
modern
slavery.
“In regard
to this horrible, horrible crime, we are throwing the book at the
abusers — not
just the traffickers, but those who profit from the trafficking and
those who
are somehow in the chain of trafficking,” Kasich said. “We are no
longer
looking the other way.”
The law—
which took effect immediately because it contained an emergency
provision —
makes trafficking a first-degree felony that carries a mandatory 10- to
15-year
prison sentence, and it requires convicted pimps and traffickers to
register as
sex offenders.
The law
also increases penalties for people who have sex with juvenile
trafficking
victims, and it gives victims the ability to sue their captors in civil
court.
Additionally,
the law also helps victims by allowing adults to expunge crimes from
their
records that were connected to their enslavement, and it helps young
victims by
establishing a diversion program that can wipe away criminal charges.
Law
enforcement now can seize assets belonging to traffickers to pay for
victim
services.
More than
800 victims of trafficking have been rescued in Ohio since 2008, and
that
number is bound to grow because of improving awareness of the crime and
better
methods of identifying and helping victims and prosecuting offenders,
said Rep.
Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo, the lead sponsor of the legislation.
“We will
probably double or triple that within a year,” she said. “It’s our duty
and
responsibility to rescue them.”
An
estimated 1,080 children in Ohio become victims of human trafficking
each year,
and about 3,020 more children are at-risk of becoming victims,
according to the
Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force.
Some of the
biggest hurdles preventing more victims of trafficking from coming
forward and
alerting law enforcement of criminal activity include fear of
prosecution and
fear of retaliation from captors.
The Dayton
Daily News on May 19 reported that some suspects in sex trafficking
cases were
avoiding prosecution because their alleged victims were unwilling to
testify
against them, often because the woman were too afraid.
But the new
law also increases penalties of traffickers who threaten or intimidate
victims
who cooperate with authorities.
Officials
said cooperation from victims is only half the battle. They said they
need
members of the public to learn to spot signs of trafficking in order to
report
suspicious activity. Law enforcement officers, service providers and
first
responders also need training to recognize evidence of the crime.
“Law
enforcement can’t solve the human trafficking problem alone, which is
why
teaching the public about the problem is so crucial,” said Ohio
Attorney
General Mike DeWine.
The Ohio
Human Trafficking Task Force on Wednesday provided Kasich with a report
containing 26 recommendations about how the state can better serve and
treat
victims and coordinate law enforcement efforts. The task force noted
that the
public’s lack of knowledge of trafficking is a major concern.
Recommendations
from the task force include revising federal block grant funding to
make local
organizations eligible for funds for anti-trafficking services and
treatment;
developing a standard screening process for state agencies who interact
with
victims who need services; and creating a statewide public awareness
campaign
on human trafficking.
Officials
said awareness of human trafficking appears to be improving.
The number
of calls to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center’s hotline
from Ohio
increased to 297 in 2011 from 234 in 2010. Calls originating in the
Miami
Valley increased by 43 percent to 23 in 2011, and the center received
18 calls
originating from this region between January 1 and March 31 of this
year.
Fedor said
the new law encourages restaurants, hotels, massage parlors, rest
stops, strip
clubs and other establishments to hang posters that provide information
for
victims and potential witnesses of trafficking, including the phone
number for
the human trafficking hotline.
Fedor said
she is pleased that Ohio now has one of the most comprehensive human
trafficking laws in the nation, but it only provides the tools to fight
the
activity — it is up to law enforcement, service providers and the
public to use
them.
“In my
opinion, the work is just beginning,” she said.
Read this
and other articles at the Dayton Daily News
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