COLUMBUS – For the eighth year in a row, Ohio has earned a “C” for its efforts to combat child sex trafficking from a group dedicated to fight the problem nationwide.
In its ninth annual ‘Protected Innocence Challenge’ state report cards, Shared Hope International cited Ohio laws requiring 16- and 17-year-olds to prove they were forced into committing illegal acts or face prosecution as one of the reasons why the state was one of only 15 to receive the “average” grade.
“Ohio is doing an ‘average’ job of protecting children from sex trafficking. That’s unacceptable,” state Sen. Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo) said in a statement released in response to the report.
Ohio has raised its grade level from a “D” in 2011, the year the first report was released
Fedor urged the House to pass the Protect Trafficking Minors Act, which was approved by the Senate in July and which closes the loophole by requiring juvenile courts apply the law the same way in cases where victims are 16 or 17 as in cases when they are under 16.
“This bill prioritizes rescuing trafficking victims over arresting them. Lawmakers must work harder to protect our children and improve our grade,” Fedor said.
The report also pointed to other shortcomings it believes exist in Ohio’s “commercial sexual exploitation of children” laws, which “do not prohibit a defense based on the willingness of the minor to engage in the commercial sex act” or include specific crimes of assisting, enabling, or financially benefitting from trafficking.
The state’s trafficking-in-persons law does say that someone who facilitates trafficking may be found guilty of compelling or promoting prostitution.
Ohio did not score well in how it punishes the johns who engage in sexual acts with those trafficked into prostitution. The trafficking law does not apply to those who engage in commercial sex acts with minors, though the buyers can be charged under the general solicitation statute in the sex trafficking law and that those who solicit sex with a minor face stiffer penalties than those who solicit sex from adults, the report said.
The state law against compelling prostitution also prohibits a defendant from claiming a “mistake of age defense” in cases involving a minor victim but the solicitation statute prohibits the defense only for victims aged 15 or who
The state also lacks laws address specifically addressing the promotion of sex tourism, the group said.