(ABC 6 News) – According to Olmsted County Attorney Mark Ostrem, the reason offenders who get arrested in sex trafficking operations, like last week’s, often get off with just probation has to do with state sentencing guidelines and a desire to change their behavior rather than simply jail them.

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In an interview with ABC 6 News, Ostrem said these types of sting operations are vital to keeping the public safe and showing potential offenders this type of activity is not acceptable.

However, the follow-up can have some feeling the entire effort is pointless.

Often, those arrested are charged with heavy crimes, like the felonies placed against last week’s suspects, but afterwards, those charges get significantly lessened, with many offenders placed on probation instead.

According to Ostrem, this is because many suspects are first time offenders, and he claims simply getting arrested can sometimes be enough to deter them from offending again.

“The initial comments these persons made, basically it was a life altering event to get arrested and so we have some interest in taking advantage of that level of remorse,” he said.

Repeat offenders, however, are less likely to receive the same treatment.

“It kinds of removes that purpose that we want to help the offender change because now we have an offender who demonstrated they didn’t,” Ostrem said. “To the extent that we are going to engage in any sort of plea negotiations, the leniency piece of it is gone.”

That doesn’t change the need to address these types of crimes.

As ABC 6 News reported previously, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, reports of online solicitation of minors grew over 300% between 2021 and 2023.

“The average age for someone who is drawn into trafficking as a victim is 12,” Ostrem said, “and that is something most people in the community don’t realize and so one of the things we want to specifically be cognizant of and proactive on is to do what we can to stop the trade of juveniles.”

Related: How Rochester stacks up as child exploitation grows nationwide

Ostrem also said much of the difficulty in holding people accountable for these crimes comes down to the actual legislation regarding maximum sentences.

Sex trafficking crimes rank low on what he described as a spectrum of crime severity and the appropriate punishments.

He explained fixing that requires a change at the state level.