Human trafficking event targets men

Several hundred people crowded into the Statehouse atrium Thursday for the fifth annual event on Ohios role in human trafficking, but the number of men were islands in a sea of women.

Still, Rep. Teresa Fedor (D., Toledo) was encouraged by the fact that there were more than last year.

Theyre part of the solution, she said. We know that the average age of someone first buying commercial sex is 23. We know that the average age of someone whos really into using is middle-aged. In order to really curb this crime, we really have to have the demand decreased. It just cant be done through law.

House Bill 130, sponsored by Ms. Fedor, passed the Ohio House in June and is expected to get its first hearing next week in the Senate. Among other things, it would toughen penalties for johns who pay for sex with minors, regardless of whether they knew they were underage.

We need to stir men up, said Nick Lembo, a pastor and board member of the Defenders USA, a Washington state-based organization that has rallied at truck stops and plans to picket at the 2015 Super Bowl in Phoenix to educate men to the fact that they are the primary fuel of this fire.

We are systemic to the issue, but we are also systemic to the answer, he said.

Defenders USA noted that johns arrested for soliciting minors often plea-bargain their cases down to minor offenses, serve little or no jail time, and are not required to register as sex offenders.

You can have the best laws in the world against trafficking, but if its only a law on the shelf, it isnt going to do much, said Vern Smith, the Defenders USA founder.

The conference coincided with the unveiling of a new public awareness program by Gov. John Kasichs administration to alert Ohioans that modern-day slavery is occurring in their midst. A poster, mandated under a 2012 law, features a close-up of a young girls face, one that has appeared on other states posters, and the words Sold for SexMake it Stop.

It will appear on billboards, toll booths, and buses and in turnpike service plazas, libraries, soup kitchens, and media.

Visit link:
Human trafficking event targets men