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from cleveland.com: The reality of human trafficking differs greatly from popular portrayals – Marie Magner


Posted January 17, 2025
9:16 am


CLEVELAND -- Depictions of human trafficking in popular media don’t tell the entire story. Each January is National Human Trafficking Prevention month, and it provides an opportunity to learn how to prevent the unlawful act of modern slavery, which involves the use of force, fraud, transporting, and/or coercing people. For instance – the 2008 movie “Taken,” featuring Liam Neeson, highlights his character’s daughter vacationing in Europe before she gets attacked, thrown into a windowless white van, and then chained to a radiator in a leaky basement until her father rescues her, guns blazing. This dramatic interpretation is not reality: Human trafficking is subtle and happens every day in our own communities.

The methodology of human trafficking does involve force, but it more commonly involves persuasion, whether verbal, emotional, or chemical. According to Polaris, operator of the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline and builder of the largest known dataset on human trafficking in North America, “most traffickers use psychological means such as, tricking, defrauding, manipulating or threatening victims into providing commercial sex or exploitative labor.” Polaris data from 2021 showed that the top methods for forcing, defrauding, or coercing victims into trafficking were emotional abuse (28%), economic abuse (26%), and threats (23%). Instead of warning our friends to look out for a zip-tie on their car in a parking lot, we could better prevent human trafficking by learning and teaching others to recognize and escape abusive situations.

We want to believe that the traffickers in these situations are monsters operating under the cover of darkness, but the truth is much scarier than that. “The top types of [traffickers] identified in 2021 were employers (43%), those with a familial relationship to the victim (26%), and intimate partners (22%)” according to Polaris.

Also, traffickers like to protect themselves and hide their misdeeds by pursuing careers that others are likely to respect and accept without question. For example, cleveland.com reported that Randolph Brown, a pastor at a Cleveland church, was arrested in 2020 as part of a human trafficking investigation. He ultimately pleaded guilty to two counts of compelling prostitution. An example like this highlights how the perpetrators of human trafficking can be in your own community, otherwise living an ordinary life.

Another trafficking misconception is that it happens somewhere else, somewhere dark and wholly separate from where we live and work. The statistics show that this is not the case, however. According to Polaris, in 2023, Ohio ranked as No. 7 in the list of identified cases by state. The reasons Ohio is one of the hardest-hit states are not surprising, such as our vast highway system, easy access to numerous neighboring states and Canada, and large rural areas. These features are exploited by traffickers to allow them to keep operating in our backyard.

It may seem bleak to acknowledge the insidious nature of human trafficking and the reality that it is happening all around us. But the good news is that, unlike Liam Neeson, you do not need to possess certain skills or an arsenal to protect your family and friends against this crime. All you need is the willingness to look closer even when it’s not polite, to question odd behavior even when it’s from a trusted source, and to speak up even when it’s easier to stay quiet. We are seeing these issues at Legal Aid, and encourage people to reach out for help. We are working in partnership with groups like the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, and stand ready to help survivors – during this awareness month and throughout the year.

Marie Magner is a staff attorney in the Family Law Practice Group at The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland.


Story can be read at cleveland.com: The reality of human trafficking differs greatly from popular portrayals: Marie Magner

 

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