On November 3, Dr. Robert Zewe, Jr., a Pennsylvania physician, appeared in court and waived his preliminary hearing on the pending felony and misdemeanor charges against him in Ohio, advancing the case to a Columbiana County grand jury. Zewe has been charged with compelling prostitution, a third-degree felony; possession of criminal tools, a fifth-degree felony; and engaging in prostitution, a misdemeanor.
Ohio’s Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force arrested Zewe last month for attempting to buy sex from a minor. Zewe was arrested after undercover agents of the Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force discovered Zewe allegedly traveled to Youngstown, Ohio to have sex with a minor. Zewe allegedly agreed to pay for sex with a mother and her underage daughter.
The Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force is led by the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office and operates under the Ohio Attorney General’s Organized Crime Investigations Commission, which carried out the sting. Zewe was charged under Ohio Revised Code 2907.21, any person compelling another to engage in sexual activity for hire, inducing, procuring, encouraging, soliciting, requesting, or otherwise facilitating a minor to engage in sexual activity for hire, whether or not the offender knows the age of the minor, is a felony of the third degree.
The CSE Institute commends the operations carried out by the Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force to prosecute commercial sexual exploitation by targeting sex buyers who drive the demand of the sex trade. Still, we encourage the use of Ohio’s human trafficking statute in addition to the other charges, especially considering the clear power dynamic between a physician and a minor in this case. We encourage the utilization of Ohio Revised Code Section 2905.32 to address the full scope of trafficking conduct. Under both state and federal law, soliciting sex from a person under eighteen years old is sex trafficking because children cannot consent to be bought or sold for sex.
To eradicate commercial sexual exploitation, it is imperative that we appropriately prosecute the commercial sexual exploitation of young, vulnerable individuals. Children cannot consent to being bought or sold for sexual acts. From a two-year study on human trafficking incidents in the United States, published statistics show that 94% of sex trafficking victims were females, primarily women of color. 30% of women in the sex trade were initially bought for sex before the age of 18. In an Ohio survey, among 112 children in the sex trade who were interviewed, 12% were sold before the age of 12.
Gender, race, and class inequality is deeply rooted in the commercial sex trade where it is estimated that 99% of sex buyers are men. In Pennsylvania, 74% of sex buyers are white men, predominantly middle-aged. Although perpetrators of exploitation can be found across all income brackets, data collected in the United States has found that high-frequency buyers are more likely to earn a salary of over $100K annually. Compared to those they purchase for sex, sex buyers are under-prosecuted and mostly met with impunity. Preventing the exploitation of vulnerable groups necessitates both the investigation of these crimes as well as the prosecution of their perpetrators.
In this case, Zewe’s position as a physician exemplifies how sex buyers often use positions of power, wealth, and influence to exploit vulnerable individuals. Men in positions of power must be held accountable rather than allowed to act with impunity. At the CSE Institute, we have observed lawyers, doctors, teachers, bosses, and landlords alike who have used their power, wealth, disposable income, and status to buy sex and exploit others. We remain committed to exposing these injustices and ensuring survivors’ voices are heard.
The CSE Institute will continue to provide updates on this matter.
All views expressed herein are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law or of Villanova University.