This Ghislaine Maxwell moment demands more than outrage
It requires legal fixes that hold exploiters accountable and widespread education so the public can recognize grooming and exploitation and prevent it.
By Rachel Foster
The Epstein Files.
Three words on everyone’s mind and social media feeds. For victims of Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and their accomplices, this isn’t a partisan “gotcha” moment or a chance to rack up views. This past month has entailed a painful reliving of violent, predatory crimes that upended their lives. Reports of a possible release or pardon for Maxwell have left victims oscillating between rage and distress, terrified that she may evade consequences and be unleashed into the community.
Epstein and Maxwell stand out, even among sex traffickers, for the brazenness of their crimes. Tellingly, Epstein displayed a first edition of “Lolita” in his office. And yet, in other ways, their crimes were typical for sex traffickers. This isn’t just a salacious story about one monstrous man or the predatory woman who helped him. It is part of a much more general problem in our society, one that so often flies under the radar because its perpetrators are less famous. This moment demands more than outrage. It requires legal fixes that hold exploiters accountable, and it requires widespread education so the public can recognize grooming and exploitation and prevent it.
Very simply, sexual trafficking exists because there is a demand for commercial sex. Epstein is an extreme example, but he is far from an isolated case. Many men are willing to pay for sex, and a market exists to cater to their tastes, which are often for girls and young women. Sex buyers focus on their desire for sexual gratification, which involves demanding whatever they want behind closed doors, ignoring signs of desperation, drug dependency, and coercion in the individuals they purchase. Young women and youth are supplied through trafficking and exploitation: no teenager—like many of Epstein’s victims—can make an informed decision, uninfluenced by external pressure, to join the sex trade.
Typical cases of sex trafficking fit a profile well known to experts. One aspect of that profile that the Epstein and Maxwell case illustrates is that sex traffickers rarely operate alone. They work with conspirators who don’t just conceal the abuse but actively participate in it. It’s no accident that a woman was Epstein’s co-conspirator. Using a woman to disarm and lure in victims is calculated and strategic. Maxwell used her status and influence to coerce vulnerable girls into commercial sex. She was—and is—the definition of a sex trafficker.
Tactics like those she employed are routinely used to groom girls by “Romeo Pimps,” men who befriend those they prey on with promises of love, protection, and a better life. Similarly, Maxwell used a cruel and sinister pretense of being a mother figure and mentor to create trust, then vacillated between giving and withholding her affection while shoving them through the doors of hell. And she didn’t stop at recruitment. According to survivors, she took part in their sexual assaults. Survivors describe feeling even more betrayed by Maxwell than Epstein because she intentionally befriended them only to utterly destroy their core sense of self and safety in the world.
Like other sex traffickers, Maxwell deliberately targeted those who were most vulnerable. Many of the young women she recruited came from complex family situations, had histories of childhood sexual abuse, and were deeply in need of support and opportunities. She was well aware of their vulnerabilities and aspirations, which she exploited. Some of her victims were as young as 14. Others were in their early 20s and though legally adults, they were still emotionally developing, trusting, and deeply impressionable. An 18th birthday doesn’t erase prior trauma or grant the maturity to spot sophisticated manipulation and predation.
Another aspect of the profile of sex trafficking illustrated by the Epstein and Maxwell microcosm is that the men involved are often financially well-off and socially respected. We saw this dynamic play out with the rotating cast of powerful men who preyed on the girls and young women Epstein and Maxwell supplied for entertainment and abuse. The clear power differential between sex buyers and those prostituted leads to perpetrators getting a free pass for the grave harm they inflict. These men have been protected every step of the way. That their reputations and livelihoods remain intact is evidence of a “nothing to see here” mentality that allows the sex trade to continuously swallow up new victims.
We must seize this moment to confront and combat the problems epitomized by Epstein and Maxwell’s crimes. We must enact laws that both hold accountable those driving demand—sex buyers, pimps, and brothel keepers—and provide services and assistance, not criminal penalties, for the victims. World Without Exploitation—the largest anti-trafficking coalition in the county—is working with survivor-led organizations and allies to lobby dozens of state legislatures to support those in the sex trade to obtain assistance and exit services while closing loopholes that provide impunity for sexual predators and those who profit from exploitation. The Survivor Model (also known as the Equality Model) serves this goal. This model continues to criminalize those purchasing sex while decriminalizing and providing exit services to those who are sold in the sex trade. This combination is a proven way to combat sex trafficking while supporting victims. This legal framework is successful in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Norway, Sweden, France, Israel, and Canada.
We are beginning to see progress on its implementation in the United States. Just two years ago, Maine made history as the first state to enact the Survivor Model. Maine also seals records of prostitution convictions so that survivors can rebuild their lives without fear of discrimination in housing, employment, and other key areas. More recently, New Hampshire took a major step to strengthen the state’s response to commercial sexual exploitation by passing critical legislation. Just last month, Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed SB 267 into law, requiring fines collected from sex buyers engaging in prostitution to be forwarded to the state’s Victims' Assistance Fund, ensuring that the women harmed by the sex trade will receive critical services and support. Hopefully, more and more states will follow the lead set by Maine and New Hampshire.
Over the past decade and a half, I’ve spent thousands of hours listening to sex trade survivors: through first-person interviews, during legislative testimony where survivors courageously speak out against harmful pro-pimping bills, and in conversation with friends and colleagues who have lost years of their lives from being sold to sex buyers—usually beginning in their youth. Countless devastating stories confirm that the sex trade shatters lives. Prostitution does not just involve physical violence—bruises, traumatic brain injuries, broken bones—it also creates severe and permanent mental damage. Even decades after exiting the sex trade, many survivors continue to experience ongoing psychological disassociation, hyper vigilance, night terrors, and complex PTSD. In April, one of Epstein and Maxwell’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, took her own life.
Leniency for Maxwell would be a brazen disregard for the immense harm she inflicted on hundreds of girls and women. It would also send a chilling message to victims and survivors everywhere: that justice is negotiable and those most powerful can be shielded from legal accountability.
This would be an egregious travesty of justice that we must vehemently oppose.
Rachel Foster is an attorney and co-founder and executive council chair of World Without Exploitation, the largest anti-trafficking coalition in the United States.
Thank you Attorney Foster for this excellent article calling our attention to the work of the anti-trafficking coalition you are involved in. Thanks also for pointing out areas where progress has been made. It's important not to be fatalistic about the problem that seems ages old. You show that not only must we fight back but that we can fight back and prevail.
...Aaand, like clockwork, when another Epstein distraction is needed, gee, Mister declares another sudden "emergency" in the nation's capital. (There's an emergency there alright, just not the one he thinks.)