This assessment explores the existence and characteristics of human trafficking—both sex and labor trafficking—in Ohio; its goals are to inform state and local policy aimed at preventing and responding to human trafficking and to guide practitioners who work with human-trafficking victims and who are responsible for responding to human-trafficking crimes.

Ohio has several characteristics that may be conducive to sex and labor trafficking. For example, it has several large urban centers, and much of the state’s rural counties are producers of agriculture, both of which encompass significant immigrant and transient populations. Ohio is also close to the Canadian...

One of the key goals of this research was to characterize the human-trafficking markets in Columbus and Toledo, Ohio. This chapter uses the results of the content analysis and interviews to do that. First, we discuss the existence and estimates of human trafficking in Ohio. Then, we describe some of the characteristics of the human-trafficking market. Whenever relevant, we present our analysis within the larger context of the literature on human trafficking. Finally, at the end of the chapter, we compare the two case study sites.

A wide range of estimates exists on the scope and magnitude of human trafficking...

Beyond identifying cases of human trafficking in the two case study sites, we wanted to understand how the justice system in those two sites responds to cases of human trafficking. This chapter discusses that response, focusing on such questions as how agencies become aware of human-trafficking cases and what factors facilitate or impede detection, investigation, and prosecution of human trafficking. Our analysis is based primarily on interviews with individuals in the justice system in the two case study sites, as well as on information from the content analysis.

Here, we examine the response, beginning first with a discussion of training...

Beyond understanding how the justice system responds to human trafficking in the two sites, we also wanted to understand how service providers and the communities in each site respond to it. This chapter discusses that response, seeking to describe victims’ critical needs so that policymakers and practitioners have a clearer understanding of how they might improve their assistance to trafficking victims. The analysis is based primarily on interviews with individuals working for service providers in the two case study sites but also relies on the content analysis. Here, we discuss the response, beginning first with a discussion of who the...

Our analysis focused on describing the human-trafficking market, as well as how the criminal justice and social service communities are reacting to human trafficking, in two case study sites in Ohio. Using an evidence-based approach, we focused on cases for which evidence existed to support their classification as human trafficking according to the TVPA definition. We base the discussion in this chapter on these concrete cases.

Given the relatively small number of cases we identified, policymakers and practitioners must carefully weigh their response to this crime relative to other priorities. As with all public safety (and other) investments, there is...