(Louisiana Illuminator) — As headlines fixate on the Jeffrey Epstein case, the public narrative of sexual exploitation has narrowed to a familiar tableau: private jets, hidden islands, underage girls, powerful men insulated by wealth.
The exploitation of minors is devastating. And abuse of power with impunity, whether by elites or anyone else, is a profound societal failure.
But the idea that sexual exploitation is primarily a story of billionaire excess distorts the reality that sexual exploitation is common and often operates in ordinary settings.
Our research on sexual violence confirms this. Our team led an analysis of statewide surveys in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas in 2025 with approximately 1,000 adults responding in each state. We asked about experiences of sexual harassment and abuse, including if respondents had been forced or pressured “to do a sexual act in exchange for something (such as a good grade, a promotion, a job, drugs, food, money, or something similar) or instead of something (like paying rent or a citation).”
Between 6% and 8% of adults said they had experienced these types of sexual exploitation, with women consistently reporting a higher prevalence than men.
Louisiana had the highest prevalence of sexual exploitation among the three states surveyed, with nearly 1 in 12 adults confirming their experiences. When those results are extrapolated over the state’s population, it’s possible that some 300,000 Louisiana residents have been victims of sexual exploitation, with 1 in 40 experiencing it before age 18.
While we did not ask, we are fairly confident that these experiences did not occur on a private island. More likely, they took place in the workplace, at a landlord’s office or even in their own homes at moments of great vulnerability.
What’s more, in our data, the vast majority of those who experienced sexual violence did not report it to authorities. National data also show conviction rates for sexual assault are low.
The distance between harm and accountability remains wide, and impunity is not confined to the ultra-wealthy. It is found in ordinary settings where people fear retaliation, depend on the person who harmed them or believe reporting will not lead to meaningful action.
These settings reflect everyday power imbalances, such as economic insecurity, job dependence, housing vulnerability and institutional hierarchies that can create conditions in which saying “no” feels costly or dangerous.
With nearly 1 in 12 adults surveyed reporting they have been sexually exploited, the problem is not exceptional. It is embedded in how authority and vulnerability intersect. And that’s the scandal of sexual exploitation. Not that some powerful men have acted without consequence, but that it is so normative that people see it and ignore it.
If we are serious about confronting sexual exploitation in the United States, we must look beyond spectacle and examine how power and vulnerability operate in ordinary life.
Yes, rich and powerful men might be acting their crimes publicly with impunity, but they are not the only ones acting with impunity. And those witnessing women and girls on the island and saying nothing are not the only people who see what is happening and choose to deny it to themselves or not call it out.
Sexual exploitation is all around us, and we need to ask ourselves – as well as asking those at the Epstein parties who say they did not engage with the women and girls there – why do we ignore it?
Sexual exploitation does not persist because it is hidden. It persists because it is tolerated. It survives on complicity, the quiet calculation that it is safer not to get involved than to challenge power.
Change will require improvement in bystander intervention. If exploitation thrives in everyday settings, then everyday people are part of the solution. Research shows that when community members are trained to be effective bystanders (i.e., recognize warning signs, interrupt abuse or control and safely support those at risk) violence declines, and norms shift on acceptability of sexual violence and speaking out against it.
At the same time, policies supportive of prevention as well as punishment of those causing harm are needed. Prevention means strengthening workplace and housing protections, enforcing clear anti-retaliation safeguards and ensuring reporting systems that do not place the burden solely on those harmed. It must also include education and screening in schools and universities, both to build awareness of these concerns and to provide early outreach to youth at risk.
When society and institutions make clear that exploitation will not be tolerated — and when individuals refuse to normalize or ignore what they see — the space for abuse narrows.
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Anita Raj, a New Orleans-based researcher, is executive director of Newcomb Institute, the Nancy Reeves Dreux chair and a professor of public health at the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University. Trained as a developmental psychologist, her research focuses on gender inequities in health and development. She has over 300 peer-reviewed publications and has been an adviser to the National Institutes of Health and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. While she works nationally and internationally, her local research includes leading LaVEX, Louisiana’s first statewide survey on violence, discrimination and health. Anita was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2025.
