Ohio law enforcement identified more than 200 potential human trafficking victims last year, 60 of them younger than 18, and successfully prosecuted 33 traffickers, a new report showed.
The Attorney General's Human Trafficking Commission's 2015 report released Monday reflects an increasing number of investigations, victims and arrests for something that wasn't even a crime in Ohio 10 years ago. The numbers rose from 2014 when 181 victims were identified, 98 traffickers arrested and 17 convicted.
Attorney General Mike DeWine said the rising numbers show law enforcement is learning about the crime. "I think there's more going on that is substantiated by these statistics.
"Human trafficking is in front of us, but many times we don't recognize that or understand that," DeWine said at a commission meeting.
The vast majority of the 203 cases in 2015 involved young, white, female sex trafficking victims, although three men were identified. The report said three victims were 12 and younger; four were 13; 23 were 14 and 15 years old; and 30 were 16 to 17 years old. The oldest person trafficked was more than 60 years old. There 79 white trafficking victims, 45 black victims, 46 victims listed as Asian; and 33 in which race was not identified.
The report showed 102 human trafficking investigations took place last year, resulting in 104 arrests and 33 criminal convictions. The numbers do not correlate with the number of victims identified because of timing issues.
More: www.dispatch.com
1 (888) 373-7888
National Human Trafficking Resource Center
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Website: traffickingresourcecenter.org
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