Collection
Sexual Exploitation & Commodification
Cases documenting sex trafficking, institutional sexual abuse, and the commercial and digital systems — from pornography to image-based abuse — that create incentives for exploitation. Distinguishes conviction, allegation, and association throughout.
2 files in this collection
Jeffrey Epstein Case
Financier Jeffrey Epstein was investigated beginning in 2005 for the sexual abuse of dozens of minors in Palm Beach, Florida, and pleaded guilty in 2008 to state prostitution-related charges under a controversial federal non-prosecution agreement later ruled by a federal judge to have violated victims' rights. Re-arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges in 2019, Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail before trial, following institutional failures documented by the Justice Department's own inspector general.
Ghislaine Maxwell Case
Ghislaine Maxwell, a former associate of Jeffrey Epstein, was arrested in July 2020 and convicted in December 2021 on five federal counts, including sex trafficking of a minor, for her role recruiting and grooming underage girls for abuse by Epstein between the mid-1990s and 2004. She was sentenced in June 2022 to 20 years in federal prison; her conviction was upheld on appeal.