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Attorney General Mike DeWine
Human Trafficking
Report Highlights Identifying At-Risk Youth
(COLUMBUS, Ohio)—Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine today announced a
year-long effort by his office had identified 146 youth at risk of
being trafficked in 2017 and provided that information to 13 local law
enforcement agencies in the state. The announcement was coordinated
with the release of the Ohio Attorney General's Human Trafficking
Commission Annual Report and was made at today's meeting of the Ohio
Attorney General's Human Trafficking Commission.
"I'm proud of the work we do to protect and serve the victims of this
heinous crime. By using our resources and working together, we're able
to approach this issue from many perspectives," said Attorney General
DeWine. "We will continue to build on this progress in 2018 as we fight
the criminals who seek to exploit our children and others for their own
illicit gain."
The initiative, introduced last year by Attorney General DeWine, uses
data from the Ohio Missing Children Clearinghouse to identify
vulnerable children. The Attorney General's Office Bureau of Criminal
Investigations (BCI) Missing Persons Unit identified frequent runaways
using the clearinghouse, a central repository for statistics and
information about missing children in Ohio. Runaways have an increased
risk of being trafficked.
BCI agents also held several training sessions in 2017 to educate law
enforcement about high-risk youth and frequent runaways. Officers
learned how to look further into each runaway's case to identify risk
factors for trafficking.
The commission, in its 2017 Human Trafficking Commission Annual Report,
reported 208 potential victims of human trafficking were identified in
Ohio, with female victims comprising more than 90 percent of that
number. While ages for victims ranged from younger than 13 to 85 or
older, most victims were between 21 and 29 years old.
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