CLEVELAND — Ohio could become the second state in the U.S., after Florida, to create a registry of people convicted of buying sex.
HB 431 and SB 247, which are currently being considered by Ohio lawmakers, would make the names, photos, addresses and crimes of convicted offenders public if they buy sex or promote prostitution. If they don’t reoffend, their information would be taken off the registry after five years.
Attorney General Dave Yost said this could help reduce the demand for buying sex in Ohio.
“The question that I have is would you be doing that if your mama knew about it? With this johns registry, she’s gonna know,” Yost said.
Yost said human trafficking “happens in the shadows,” where people don’t see it, so he views this as a way to shine the light on what’s happening.
“I think public shaming is a deterrent,” said Sondra Miller, president and CEO of the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center. “I think we’ve seen that with the sex offender registry.”
The Cleveland Rape Crisis Center also houses the Project STAR (Sex Trafficking Advocacy & Recovery) program, offering a local, anonymous, 24/7 hotline for survivors of sex trafficking at 855-431-STAR (7827), as well as resources to help them get their lives back.
In talking with human trafficking victims, Miller said she hears that they want to be seen by the public and want their customers to be seen as well, putting some of the accountability for human trafficking on the johns or customers.
“Often what happens in situations of prostitution or human trafficking, there’s a lot of emphasis put on finding the pimps and prosecuting pimps, holding them accountable,” Miller said. “There’s increasing services available for victims who are involved in human trafficking. But the silent part of this are the customers and the johns, the people who are buying sexual activity.”
Miller said she believes silence allows sexual violence to continue.
“It isn’t until we start to peck away at the silence that we will start to see the prevalence of sexual assault and sexual abuse, human trafficking, start to decrease,” Miller said.
Miller said Ohio ranks fourth for states with the most calls to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, operated by Polaris. While that might not sound like a good thing, Miller said it means Ohioans are reporting these types of situations when they see them.
“Some people are horrified by that statistic,” Miller said. “My perspective is, I would never want to be 50th on the list of states that are calling the hotline.”
Miller said she does not think human trafficking is happening more frequently than it did a decade ago, but rather that law enforcement and people are more equipped to identify and report it when it does happen.
And while prostitution may start out as consensual sex work for some people, Miller said it’s not a choice for long. Others are coerced or forced into the life from the start. She’s grateful that lawmakers are considering the best way to deal with this problem and to save lives.
Yost said if the bill is signed into law, he believes his office could put it together in six or seven months.
According to the Attorney General’s office, funding would come from appropriations outlined in the bills, of $170,000 in FY 2020 and $20,000 in FY 2021 for the “one-time and on-going costs of establishing and maintaining” the proposed johns registry. The registry, Yost said, would be built and maintained with existing personnel from the AG’s office.
