Me Too, Chapter 2?

 The vote in the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking saga is now in, and almost all legislators in Congress agree that the FBI files in the case should be released. Some may be grateful to put this behind and get back to what they feel are more important things. But this certainly IS an important thing right now.

There has been a debate over the application of the word “pedophilia” to the Epstein story. Arguments have been made that this term shouldn’t be used in this case because it implies sexual offenses involving very young children, not the teenage girls who were the victims in Epstein’s ring. According to textbook definitions, those who make that argument are technically correct: the P word applies to prepubescent children.

There are wide legal and cultural variations around the world as to just when a girl becomes a woman. May-December relationships happen, and some turn into successful marriages.

But of course, that’s not what we’re talking about here, and hair-splitting over words almost misses the point. If you don’t like the P word, there should be no argument about the T word: trafficking. And it applies to more than just minors. When a girl in this country becomes a legal adult at age 18, she could still be a victim. In fact, the social services community recognizes the concept of transitional age youth, or TAY, which includes people up to 25 years old, an age at which many young women remain vulnerable to predators. Reaching legal adulthood should mean that women are all fully their own agents and always make rational decisions without pressure. I think we can agree that is not quite the case.

The sex trafficking in the Epstein ring was on an industrial scale, said to be valued at a billion dollars. It operated for decades and had in the neighborhood of a thousand victims. But how many other, lower-level Jeffrey Epsteins are out there, and what is the priority for investigating them? Are these crimes getting as much attention as they deserve, especially in our federal law enforcement arena? I think there’s a bigger social picture here, and a little zooming out is in order.

In the Me Too movement of a few years back, the names of men who used their wealth and power for the sexual exploitation of women were revealed. While relatively few were charged with crimes, many, including legislators, Hollywood executives, and even prominent journalists, fell precipitously from grace, and only some have managed to resurface. This is going to happen again, and maybe it needs to, but we had better brace ourselves for it.