Jeffrey Epstein Coverage Missed the Real Story of Child Sexual Abuse
In their new book “One in Five,” Elizabeth J. Letourneau and Luke Malone argue child sexual abuse is preventable, not inevitable.
Jeffrey Epstein's crimes were not just about money, celebrity, or politics. They were, in fact, crimes against children, a fact that largely went unaddressed in the coverage. Elizabeth J. Letourneau, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, expressed outrage that the case did not serve as a national conversation starter on child sexual abuse.
The authors of the book "One in Five" aim to highlight this missed opportunity, emphasizing that one in five kids will experience sexual abuse before their 18th birthday. Up to 70 percent of this abuse is perpetrated by other kids, often due to ignorance about consent and boundaries. The authors argue that child sexual abuse is a preventable public health crisis, not an inevitable crime, and that education and conversation are key to prevention.
Social media and the internet play a significant role in both victimization and predator tactics, with peer-to-peer abuse being a prevalent form of harm. The authors stress that education and conversation should start early, but often do not, as schools tend to back away when children are most vulnerable.
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