Truths about sex trafficking in Ohio – WTOL

COLUMBUS, Ohio — From 2007 to 2021, The National Human Trafficking Hotline recorded 6,113 victims of human trafficking in Ohio.

WTOL 11 had the chance to attend the Human Trafficking Summit in Columbus, where hundreds of people came to share stories, advocate, host workshops and spread awareness.

At the summit, WTOL 11 was able to sit down with Mandie Knight, the operations manager of Sanctuary Night in Columbus. She's also a survivor of human trafficking.

“I never thought in a million years that that's who I would be or what I would be doing when it happened,” Knight said.

It started when Knight was only a teen.

“I was trafficked a couple of different ways,” Knight said. “When I first started it was sort of a business relationship between myself my best friend from high school and her new boyfriend. He made it seem like we were a team and the sex work was our part of the teamwork.”

Knight says she didn't see any of the money. It was years later that Knight decided to get out of the “team” and started in sex work.

“I experienced a lot of abuse. Sexual abuse, physical abuse,” she said. “My jaw was broken, I've been stabbed, I was raped a few times.”

Knight made the move to the other side of Columbus and met a guy.

“It's like the fairytale movie where you see a woman and a man lock eyes and you just know they're going to fall in love, that's how I would describe my experience with this man,” she said. “I believed he was my boyfriend, I thought we were in love, and what I've learned through my recovery process is that he was actually a trafficker.”

Enduring years of physical and emotional abuse.

“Today I'm grateful for him because I truly believe if he hadn't made my experience in that lifestyle so miserable and terrifying, I might not have made it out,” Knight said.

Looking back, she could see how easy it was for her to fall into that life because she says she was vulnerable.

“I had needs that I couldn't get met and these traffickers found a way to meet my needs and then use it against me,” Knight said.

A life stemming from trauma and drug addiction, then unfolding through friendships and relationships. A story contrary to how many think trafficking works.

While getting abducted and thrown into a car does happen, it's not common.

“Concerned parents who think ‘I'm not going to allow my children into these public spaces' out of fear they're be kidnapped into trafficking, however, the reality is that that accounts for 3-5% of trafficking cases,” Courtney Schmackers, executive director of the non-profit organization She Has A Name, said.

The real threat is happening online and on social media.

“It's making it easier to recruit victims, it's making it easier to have those transactions happen. It's easier for people to buy sex as well. It's so much more accessible than it was a generation ago,” Schmackers said.

While the Glass City in particular is a hub for port, train and highway systems, Schmackers says Toledo is just as much of a hot spot for trafficking as Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland.

“Ohio's in this unique ecosystem of being 500 miles from two-thirds of the United States and North America, really,” Schmackers said. “So it's a matter of opportunity. It's not just that Toledo is the worst, but it's that it's easy to move someone in and out without notice or detection.”

Except going undetected isn't always the case. Sting operations are being done across the state to try and catch those buying sex.

“I think the stereotype for solicitors is that it's often like people of means who are exploiting that they have wealth or access to be able to purchase sex and get away with it, when our reality has shown us that it's kind of regardless of demographics – that socioeconomic or racial or where you live geographic data – and really applies to anyone,” Schmackers said.

She added that people commonly create a “victim and villain” storyline that puts buyers of sex as people that need to be arrested and shamed. Through She Has A Name, Schmackers says there are also effects of trauma in solicitors.

“There's also vulnerabilities that have been exploited somewhere in their life that leads them to a place where they think that the only way they can seek community, or entertainment, or friendships or a relationship is to purchase sex,” Schmackers said.

She suggests that there is a lot of work to do in the community when it comes to talking to kids about what healthy relationships look like.

Schmackers says there could be someone getting trafficked that doesn't know it yet.

“They say ‘this is my job and this is how I earn a living,'” Schmackers said. “But when we start to peel back the layers of their story, coercion is a part of that, 100% consent wasn't really part of their story. It was maybe just their best option among worse options, which doesn't make it a good option.”

It's been seven years since Knight escaped and she believes recovery is a lifelong journey.

Knight says now she is able to help vulnerable women that are and have been trafficked.

Not only that, but she's also helping others understand how men and women can end up in the position she was in.

“I just think people need to ask themselves ‘what happened to this person to lead them to where they're at?' instead of the judgmental thoughts that go through people's minds of ‘I can't believe they're doing that' or ‘how could you do that?'” Knight said. “No, (instead ask) ‘What happened to you? Why, why did you end up here?'”

If you know someone or suspect someone is being trafficked, you're encouraged to call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.