Rapid Response to the Jeffrey Epstein Sentencing

he National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence Across the Lifespan (NPEIV) is an overarching group of individuals, organizations, agencies, coalitions, and groups that embrace a national, multi-disciplinary and multicultural commitment to violence prevention across the lifespan.

And we are extremely concerned about the minimization of the devastating and often lifelong consequences of exploitation in child sex trafficking painfully evidenced by the light sentence and apparent substandard prosecution of the Jeffrey Epstein case that involved over 30 identified victims. Thirty victims, likely many more, whose lives have been enduringly scarred to satisfy the sexual appetite of wealthy and powerful men. Additional cases, such as the recent charges involving Patriots owner Robert Kraft, also highlight the role powerful men play in the sex trafficking of immigrants.

Despite these realities, the tragedy of child sex trafficking facilitated by U.S. dollars and U.S. citizens remains largely invisible within a society reluctant to acknowledge the crime or its victims. While using a tiered system to punish and sanction other countries based on their attempts to combat human trafficking, the United States fails to truly acknowledge or seriously combat sex trafficking of male and female youth in hotels, motels, truck stops, casinos, apartments, and houses in major cities across the US, in rural America, and in mansions-turned-brothels in Florida and the Virgin Islands. NPEIV calls upon Congress to develop stronger evidence-based approaches for the prevention, investigation and prosecution of domestic sex trafficking, while also holding anyone who purchases sex from a child, no matter how wealthy or powerful, fully accountable for their abusive actions.

NPEIV is committed to reducing interpersonal violence and its consequences through scientific research and application of empirical findings. It is our mission to make the prevention of interpersonal violence a national and international priority and to encourage healthy relationships by linking science, practice, policy and advocacy.

Through our many partnerships and collaborations, it is our vision to end all types of interpersonal violence, for all people, in all communities, at all stages of life. For more information, please visit www.npeiv.org