The Jeffrey Epstein case caused outrage worldwide because it offered a brief glimpse into a world in which members of the wealthy and influential elite exploited young girls. But the Epstein scandal is not, in fact, a unique story. It is the surfacing of a much larger global phenomenon. While public attention focuses on the “Epstein lists” and the names of celebrities, a vast international sex-trafficking industry operates in the background, estimated at around $245 billion, pushing millions of people into exploitation every year. Investigations published in the American press suggest that the Epstein case is only a singled-out example of a system whose operation often remains unnoticed.
American Community Media held a press briefing on this topic with Dr. Michele Goodwin, a professor of constitutional law and global health policy at Georgetown University in Washington; Jacquelyn Aluotto, co-founder and president of No Trafficking Zone; the well-known Courtney Litvak, a survivor of sex trafficking and a former member of the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking; and Carmen McDonald, executive director of the Survivor Justice Center. The occasion was the Justice Department’s release of 3.5 million pages of documents in the case of the late Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender.
Most of the news generated by the release of these documents focused on the wealthy and influential men around Epstein. Epstein’s victims were largely pushed to the sidelines. Women have been speaking since 1996 about Epstein’s trafficking of women and girls, but law enforcement largely ignored them. Women and girls are shamed or arrested by law enforcement when they gather the courage to speak out about the crimes committed against them. The difficulty of bringing sex-trafficking cases to criminal prosecution is reflected in the fact that fewer than 1% of cases end in conviction.
The gravity of these cases is illustrated by the fact that even the U.S. president’s connections to them remain unclear. Available records show that the Justice Department’s redactions materially conceal the Trump-related material in order to protect him from criminal prosecution. In 2016, Katie Johnson filed a $100 million lawsuit against Epstein and Donald Trump, claiming that both men sexually assaulted her and forced her into “various perverse and depraved sexual acts.” In her complaint, Johnson claimed that Epstein threatened her family with harm if she did not comply.
A former Epstein employee provided testimony in Johnson’s case, which two courts dismissed for lack of evidence. Trump’s legal team called the lawsuit politically motivated and a hoax. Trump himself called Michael Reiter, the former police chief of Palm Beach, in 2006 to tell him that Epstein’s activities with teenage girls were common knowledge in both New York and Palm Beach. Yet no action was taken until 2008. When Epstein was convicted on one count of soliciting a minor for prostitution, he was allowed to work from his Palm Beach office while serving his 13-month sentence. And against this backdrop, an entire network and industry continues to operate undisturbed.
“Human trafficking is a $245 billion industry in the United States,” said Jacqueline Aluotto, co-founder and president of Houston’s No Trafficking Zone. “That alone shows how many people profit from this illegal business and take part in it.” Aluotto shared a shocking figure: in Texas, one of the centers of sex trafficking, on any given day at least 79,000 victims fall prey to human trafficking. Almost nothing is said about this massive underground criminal economy in the shadow of the Epstein case.
The numbers vary widely because most cases are not reported. However, a 2024 study by the Department of Health and Human Services notes that as many as 325,000 women and girls may be pushed into sexual slavery each year. A federal human trafficking report produced by the U.S. State Department notes that between 2000 and 2022 (more than two decades), only 10,775 victims of sex trafficking were identified, 2,929 prosecutions were initiated, resulting in 4,477 convictions. That is about 4,500 convictions compared to 325,000 victims.
The way victims are treated is illustrated by how even the victims in the highly publicized Epstein case were handled. “What has been released and made available is only a fraction of the Epstein files,” said Goodwin, the Georgetown professor. “Horrifically, in these files the names of people who were raped and sexually abused have come to light. Even their images were made public. That is absolutely shocking and contrary to what the rule of law would be,” she said. At a February 11 hearing, Attorney General Pam Bondi refused to apologize to Epstein’s victims—who were sitting beside her—for failing to redact nude photos and other information in the released files.
Goodwin noted that statutes of limitations remain a serious obstacle to justice for survivors. “If someone was sexually abused at the age of 6, 7, 8, or even 15 or 16: when does she seek justice for herself?” she asked. “There are statutes of limitations that give you only a few years after reaching adulthood to bring a lawsuit, which of course makes it very difficult, almost impossible. Prosecutors often expect victims to provide evidence that they could not reasonably have gathered as children,” she said. “What six-year-old files a police report? There are no instructions for a child on what she should do to collect the evidence that police and prosecutors will later need.”
Part of the problem is that prosecutors expect victims to handle their cases for them. They expect young people to gather evidence that gives them a stronger basis to bring a case. Goodwin also noted that they are reluctant to pursue high-level suspects. Epstein, she said, “received a very lenient sentence.” Weak evidence, victim-blaming, influential parties, and famous mentors all contribute to the fact that people can traffic children freely.
At the press briefing, the former victim Courtney Litvak said she, too, was targeted in high school, as so many girl children are in Houston. As she said, “My first trafficker approached me during school hours. Then he connected me with former graduating students who had been convicted of trafficking. That is how sex trafficking can happen, in secret, out of sight.” Courtney Litvak, a survivor of sex trafficking and a former member of the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking, said significant corporate and state money is at stake in sex trafficking, and that consumers need to know how to boycott accomplices and how to cut off the financing of the trade.
Litvak, who currently serves as director of survivor initiatives at No Trafficking Zone, said she was first assaulted after a school dance by “a very abusive older man who had served in the military.” When she tried to report what happened—including a network at her school dealing in blackmail and child abuse material—the school’s leadership was more concerned with her responsibility than with accountability and the crime. “They treated me like a criminal,” she said. “The school covered up these crimes. They cared more about protecting their college athletes and the school’s reputation than about protecting me,” Litvak said. The young girl was taken from her home, and for three years traffickers moved her across state lines.
According to the International Labour Organization, the global economic value of human trafficking and forced labor can be measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars, a significant portion of which comes from sexual exploitation. In the United States, the phenomenon operates especially covertly because in many cases it does not begin with illegal border crossings or a classic kidnapping, but with manipulation, dependency, debt, or simply the grooming of young people in vulnerable situations. Authorities say tens of thousands of people are forced into prostitution in the United States every year, while the real number may be far higher because a significant portion of victims never appears in statistics.
In this system, the Epstein case could remain untouchable for decades partly because early complaints were often not taken seriously. The first complaints appeared as early as the 1990s, but most investigations died out or never reached indictment. Several journalistic investigations concluded that some in law enforcement and the justice system initially did not treat the testimonies of young victims with sufficient seriousness. This pattern can be seen in many other sex-trafficking cases as well: victims’ accounts are often discredited, investigated too late, or simply never make it to court.
Victims often withdraw because of publicity, threats, or social stigma, while the networks facing them have money and influence. One important feature of the industry behind the Epstein case is that it is highly decentralized and often invisible. According to American authorities, one of the largest hubs of trafficking is Houston, Texas, which—because of its geographic position and economic ties—has become a node of sex trafficking. The city is one of the largest transportation and logistics hubs in the United States, where, authorities say, thousands of people may become victims of exploitation each year. Traffickers often run their operation through motel networks, online ads, and social media, which makes detection more difficult.
The seriousness of the problem is compounded by the fact that victims are often blamed for what happened to them. Police reports and sociological research indicate that many young girls are treated as prostitutes rather than as victims, meaning they encounter punishment instead of help. This attitude long hindered effective action against trafficking because authorities did not always recognize that coercion and manipulation may lie behind prostitution.
Litvak’s story has been covered by numerous American media outlets because she later became an activist and an expert in the field. Today she works in state and civil programs that help protect and rehabilitate trafficking victims. Litvak often emphasizes that traffickers’ most important weapon is manipulation and psychological control. Victims often do not immediately realize they are being exploited because the process frequently begins disguised as a romantic relationship or as help.
American research suggests that a significant share of sex-trafficking victims were already in vulnerable situations in childhood. Young people aging out of foster care, homeless teenagers, or girls fleeing domestic violence are especially easy targets. According to FBI data, traffickers often seek out such young people through social media and then gradually isolate them from their families and friends.
While the Epstein case has received enormous media attention, many experts fear that the public’s focus is overly concentrated on elite scandals, while the system that enables sex trafficking to function is pushed into the background. In the United States, thousands of investigations are launched each year for trafficking, but experts say only a fraction of actual cases reaches the authorities.
The global sex-trafficking industry can endure because it is extremely profitable and operates with relatively low risk. For traffickers, one person can often be “sold” multiple times, meaning the profit from exploitation is continuous. This distinguishes trafficking from other illegal markets and makes it one of the most lucrative forms of crime in the world.
The Epstein scandal is not merely the story of a powerful man’s crimes. It is the symbol of a system in which money, power, and vulnerability meet. While investigations continue to try to uncover who the members of Epstein’s network were, experts say the real question is whether society can face the far larger industry operating in the background.
The existence of a $245 billion sex-trafficking market is a reminder that the Epstein case is not the exception but a spectacular symptom of a system. If the public and authorities focus only on exposing famous names, it is easy for the reality to slip away that millions of people worldwide still live in sexual exploitation today. That is why the Epstein case is not only a criminal story but also a warning that, beneath the surface, a much larger, invisible world lies.
