Youngstown Daily Legal News

Bill would increase human trafficking penalties

TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News
Published: January 28, 2014

On the heels of the Kasich administration unveiling a new human trafficking awareness campaign, a House bill crafted to take a comprehensive approach to combating the modern-day form of slavery gained movement in the Senate.

House Bill 130, known as the End Demand Act, is sponsored by Rep. Teresa Fedor and would establish standards concerning criminal penalties, parental rights and sexual activity advertisements.

The proposed legislation was unanimously passed by the House in June and had its first hearing before the Senate Criminal Justice committee Tuesday.

Fedor, D-Toledo, said Ohio has taken “great steps” to fight human trafficking and referenced the Jan. 9 launch of the governor’s public awareness campaign, Human Trafficking — Ohio’s Tragic Reality.

“Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for commercial exploitation,” she said. “Simply, it is the unlawful business made up of supply (victims), demand (buyers) and distributors (traffickers).”

Fedor described human trafficking as one of the fastest growing criminal enterprises worldwide.

“Each year, an estimated 1,078 Ohio children become victims of human trafficking and 3,016 are at-risk,” she said. “Ohio has become a hub for human trafficking due to its close proximity to Canada as well as the east coast, large immigrant communities and more colleges and universities than any other state.”

Fedor said HB 130 is rooted in preventing and reducing the demand for purchasing sex.

“As Ohio law stands now it is unlikely that buyers will be charged, prosecuted or jailed,” she said.

Among its provisions, HB 130 provides that if the victim of trafficking is a minor or an individual with a developmental disability, the state does not need to prove that the victim’s will was overcome by force, fear, duress or intimidation.

The bill also would make victims of trafficking eligible for intervention in lieu of conviction and expand the statute of limitations for prosecuting human trafficking from six years to 20.

The measure also would increase the penalty for solicitation of a minor for commercial sex from a misdemeanor to a third-degree felony. The offender must then register as a sex offender.

The bill also would ban individuals from knowingly purchasing or otherwise obtaining advertising space for an advertisement for sexual activity for hire that includes a depiction of a minor. A violation would be a third-degree felony.

“Selling our women and girls is big business,” Fedor said.

“Human trafficking in the U.S. is a $9.8 billion industry where both girls and boys can be victims. One out of five girls and one out of 10 boys will be sexually victimized by the time they reach adulthood.”

Fedor said buyers come from all ages, occupations and ethnicities.

A bill summary of HB 130 states that the measure would prohibit placement of a child who is in the temporary custody of a public children services agency or private child placing agency with a parent if the parent has been convicted of promoting prostitution, compelling prostitution or trafficking in persons or a substantially equivalent offense under a law of Ohio, any other state, or the United States, or of a conspiracy or attempt to commit or complicity in committing any of those offenses, and the victim was the child, the child’s sibling or another child who lived in the parent’s household at the time of the offense.

The proposal also provides that a PCSA or PCPA does not have to make reasonable efforts to prevent removal of a child from a home, eliminate continued removal or make it possible for the child to return home if a parent has been convicted of human trafficking.

The bill would generally prohibit law enforcement agencies and their employees from disclosing information in routine factual reports that is highly likely to identify an alleged delinquent child or arrestee who is also an abused child unless the name or other identifying information is redacted.

HB 130 also would authorize a court to allow a victim of trafficking in persons to testify at a preliminary hearing via closed-circuit television from a room other than the room in which the hearing is being conducted.

“This provision would ensure that, in certain circumstances, a victim could safely testify at preliminary examination hearing without having to be in contact with their trafficker directly,” Fedor said.

In addition, the bill would ban a person who is not licensed by the state or a political subdivision from advertising the practice of massage or relaxation massage or any other massage technique or method.

“Everyday that goes by, I know there are great atrocities happening too close to home,” Fedor said. “And I know we are better than this.”

[Back]