Our understanding of human trafficking — its prevalence, its inner workings, its effects on victims — has evolved in recent years. For example, many now recognize that human traffickers often coerce their victims to commit crimes that can haunt them long after they escape the clutches of their captors.

A pair of similar bills now moving through the Ohio state House and state Senate that would allow victims to have their court records expunged are aimed at helping trafficking victims begin life anew.

Click here to read more Blade editorials

But the bills now under consideration are too narrow. Lawmakers should listen to advocates pushing them to broaden their approach.

One problem is that these bills would not apply to victims who are trafficked for their labor. Not all human traffickers want to sell their victims for sex. Many exploit vulnerable immigrants and others to work in sweatshops and farm fields. Like the trafficked sex worker, these victims also are often coerced to commit crimes such as filing false workers-compensation claims or carrying forged identification and other documents .

The law is also too narrow in terms of which crimes courts may consider expunging from a person’s record. The bills only address solicitation, prostitution, and loitering with the intent to solicit. Lawmakers should add other crimes, including disorderly conduct, to the list.

Actually, the General Assembly could leave it up to judges to use their discretion regarding which crimes were coerced and appropriate to expunge.

Starting a new life after escaping from human trafficking is difficult. A criminal record that haunts a victim can unfairly prevent that survivor from getting a job or getting into school.

Celia Williamson, director of the University of Toledo’s Human Trafficking and Social Justice Institute, has urged state lawmakers to amend their bills before voting on them .

Likewise, lawyers from Advocating Opportunity, the northwest Ohio agency that provides legal and educational programs to human trafficking victims, have lobbied legislators to expand the scope of the bills.

The state House and Senate should amend their bills to apply to all trafficking victims, including those trafficked for their labor, and they should give judges the discretion to sort out motivation and coercion. But extending a compassionate hand to those who have been, after all, enslaved, and often then compelled to commit crimes, is a goal most Ohioans will see as beyond argument.

First Published June 16, 2017, 4:00 a.m.