I'm in Ohio as well, although I'm about 3 hours NE of Cbus. I'd just like to add to what SleuthRN posted upthread (GREAT post SleuthRN!) and share some information from a link I came across recently. It's a blog entry by a journalist who was an intern in the statehouse a few years back. It was posted shortly after a report was prepared for our previous AG confirming that Human Trafficking exists in Ohio, both Sex Trafficking and Labor Trafficking.
Some snippets from the article:
Definition of trafficking
(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.
Here's why Ohio has such a problem with Human Trafficking:
Four major problems that are keeping our youth at risk in Ohio are:
Ohio's weak response to trafficking victims.
Evidence that first responders to human trafficking in Ohio are unaware and unprepared.
Customers who purchase youth remain protected, receiving minimal charges and rarely are prosecuted in any significant way and traffickers receive only minimal consequences as well.
High rates of vulnerable youth in Ohio.
Most people think that those who are trafficked are trafficked OUT of the US. Also not true. Many are trafficked INTO the US.
the United States 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.
Some of the sex trade involves the following:
prostitution
exotic dancing which includes stripping
*advertiser censored*
sexual servitude
message parlors
servile marriage
The article can be found here
http://lisadpreston.hubpages.com/hub/Human-trafficking-in-Ohio
I recently started learning more about Human Trafficking in relation to a missing child. And during my research I've found out that not only are there many components to it, but it is a massive social network made up of several players with several roles. It's also not confined to certain areas, and is a problem all over the US. I recently read somewhere that in many areas of the US the sex trade is replacing the drug trade among criminals because they've realized they can only sell a bag of drugs once, but a person can be sold several times a day.
Certain people are more vulnerable to being trafficked than others. Those are runaways, the homeless, and drug users. Among teen boys you can add gay to the list. Those that are trafficked can be groomed online by someone, it may be their dope dealer, for runaways it may be a pimp. Unfortunately, prostitution is very common among runaways as a way to make money, and drug users as a way to pay for their fix. Contrary to popular belief, they're not just snatched off the streets in most cases.
By the way, there is NO state in the US that doesn't have a problem with Human Trafficking. Not one. You may not hear about it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Washington DC alone has a huge problem with trafficking considering it's size.
Human Trafficking is a $32 billion industry worldwide, and it is happening throughout the world in every country and across the United States in every major city and small town. According to the Department of State, 2 million women and children are victims of human trafficking every year. In the United States, 300 thousand children are forced into child prostitution and child *advertiser censored* each year. In Washington DC alone, trafficking innocent children is a $100 million industry.
http://www.innocentsatrisk.org/
In 2013 the 7 worst states for Human Trafficking were South Dakota, New Hampshire, Delaware, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and North Dakota.
http://www.takepart.com/photos/human-trafficking-by-state-2013
In 2013, the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) hotline received multiple reports of human trafficking cases in all 50 states and D.C.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (pdf) estimates that there are 100,000 youths under the age of 18 in the commercial sex trade in the U.S. In 2012, 1 out of 8 endangered runaways reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children were likely child sex trafficking victims.
http://www.polarisproject.org/take-action/365-days
