By Benjamin Davis / The Jambar
Among the courses available to students at Youngstown State University is a sociology course on human trafficking. Held Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., the course provides students with a comprehensive introduction to human trafficking.
Taught by Susan Laird, professor of sociology and anthropology, students from all disciplines are able to register for the course in the fall and spring semesters.
“It runs once a semester, fall and spring, and it fills every time. And I get students from every discipline on campus, which I think is exciting,” Laird said. “I cover victims, buyers, traffickers, the laws, law enforcement. It is a thorough introduction to human trafficking.”
Laird said the main idea behind the class is to raise awareness on campus about human trafficking.
“The idea behind the course was to get students and other folks on campus aware of human trafficking, particularly in the state of Ohio, but across the country,” Laird said. “I believe that knowledge is power. And when I got involved in the anti-human trafficking movement, one of the things that I was surprised at was how few people understood what trafficking was.”
Laird said that one misconception is that some people think human trafficking is a form of prostitution and that those involved are doing it willingly. This is not the case. Trafficking is not consensual and involves victims being coerced.
“Most people think that trafficking is just a slightly different form of prostitution. And most people think that people that are involved as victims of human trafficking, sex or labor, that they do this willingly,” Laird said. “What they don’t understand is that human trafficking involves force, fraud and coercion.”
Ohio has had an issue with human trafficking, as the state ranks fifth in the U.S. for human trafficking cases. According to Laird, northeastern Ohio specifically ranks fourth in the whole state.
“Ohio ranks … fifth in the country for human trafficking. It has been fifth since I started in 2014 in anti-human trafficking,” Laird said. “We are fourth in the state for activity.”
Part of this has to do with poverty in the area, which Laird said can be a primary factor in human trafficking.
“We live in an area where there’s a lot of poverty [and] a lot of lower education. That seems to drive this kind of trade as well,” Laird said.
Laird said the most common perpetrators in human trafficking are family members of a victim, which is usually motivated by some kind of material benefit.
“Family’s the number one traffickers,” Laird said. “It’s usually parents. A lot of times it’s for money. A lot of times it’s for drugs, sometimes for rent [and] utilities.”
Because of this issue, local law enforcement has established a special task force for human trafficking. Laird said the Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force encompasses the Mahoning Valley and pulls in officers from its local communities.
“Just in our Mahoning Valley, they encompass 26 different law enforcement entities from all these communities,” Laird said. “Then they get a tip about something, they pull officers from that community to go in and investigate, arrest, rescue, et cetera.”
The best way to combat human trafficking is awareness, which Laird said can be raised with the right education.
“Awareness is the number one prevention tool. You can’t identify something if you don’t know what to look for,” Laird said.
Students interested in the human trafficking course can register for fall 2026. Anyone interested in learning more about human trafficking prevention or support resources can visit the Polaris Project website.
