151 Human Trafficking Victims Identified In Ohio In 2016

A new report says there were less victims of human trafficking in Ohio last year than in 2015. The 2016 Human Trafficking Commission Annual Report, released on Monday, says there were 151 human trafficking victims identified by law enforcement last year; that's down from 203 in 2015.

The majority of the victims were women. The report says that 117 of the 151 victims were female, 17 were male and 17 did not have a gender identity. The vast majority of the victims were also under the age of 30, with only 30 eclipsing that age. In 2015, 196 of the 203 of the victims were female. Only three were male, and four had no gender identity.

Police actually identified more human traffickers last year than in 2015. There were 170 possible human traffickers identified in 2016, including 160 sex traffickers and 10 labor traffickers. The majority of the traffickers were male, 127. There were 28 female traffickers identified, and 15 traffickers did not identify with a gender.

In 2015, law enforcement identified 130 traffickers, only one of whom was not engaged in sex trafficking.

In conjunction with the release of these statistics, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine held a press conference discussing two initiatives to further combat human trafficking. First, DeWine wants to curtail the use of children in human trafficking schemes. To do that, he's asked the Bureau of Criminal Investigation to offer specific services to law enforcement bureaus statewide.

"Human traffickers look for a very specific type of person to victimize, and oftentimes they set their sights on children who are young and have a history of running away from home," said DeWine in a statement. "In an effort to prevent the victimization of these children, I have asked my office's Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation to begin regularly analyzing the Ohio Missing Children Clearinghouse in order to proactively identify kids who may be vulnerable to traffickers."

The Clearinghouse stores data and other information on missing children statewide.

There were 64 victims of human trafficking in 2016 that were age 20 or younger. Thirty-six were 17 or younger.

DeWine says that BCI will be regularly examining Clearinghouse to look for any sign that a child may have been abducted by, or gotten involved with, a human trafficking operation. If there is a signal that the child may be in a specific area, local law enforcement will be alerted.

In the report on 2016's trafficking numbers, law enforcement found that 22 victims got embroiled in trafficking after running away from home. Another 22 cases were due to poverty, the report says. The most cited reason for getting caught in the trafficking trade was dependency on alcohol or drugs.

DeWine is also looking to help victims of trafficking that have been recovered. He announced a grant of $128,148 to Amethyst Inc., which will provide housing for central Ohio human trafficking victims.

"Safe, stable housing is critically important for these victims because, without it, they may feel like they have no other options but to go back to their traffickers," said DeWine. "Thanks to this grant, these women will not have to worry about where they will sleep at night, and they can fully concentrate on improving their lives."

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