Following the release of millions of documents from the Epstein case, survivors and experts gathered by American Community Media demanded structural reforms and reporting focused on victims, not shielding the elites.

Courtney Litvak was kidnapped at 17. Today, she is a survivor of sex trafficking. She tried to report what was happening to her while she was still a minor. Not only did she fail to find protection, but, as she recounted, she ended up facing the weight of the system. After turning 18, she was moved to another state and continued to be exploited in networks that also operated in drug trafficking, weapons, and money laundering. Her testimony opened the briefing organized by American Community Media (ACoM).

Her remarks came in the context of the recent release of 3.5 million documents from the Department of Justice related to the case of convicted financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. As public attention once again shifts to the powerful names appearing in the files, Litvak was clear: the focus cannot return to the elites.

“If they can dismantle your identity and rebuild it the way they want, they can control you,” she explained, referring to grooming techniques used by traffickers who—she said—study the law to evade it. In her view, the message many victims receive is unmistakable: powerful predators rarely face consequences.

Less than 1% lead to convictions

Professor Michele Goodwin, a scholar of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy at Georgetown University, argued that the Epstein case is not an anomaly but a symptom of a structural problem.

More than one million people are victims of trafficking each year in the United States, yet less than 1% of cases result in convictions, according to figures cited during the briefing. For Goodwin, statutes of limitations are among the main barriers. “If you were abused at 6, 8, or 15, when exactly are you supposed to process that and also gather evidence?” she asked.

She also criticized institutional passivity. “They’re waiting for young people to build the case for them,” she said, referring to prosecutors who expect victims to provide comprehensive evidence in contexts shaped by coercion and abuse.

A multibillion-dollar, low-risk industry

Jacquelyn Aluotto, co-founder of No Trafficking Zone, broadened the scope. “Trafficking is a $245 billion industry,” she said. In Texas, she added, around 79,000 young people are victims of exploitation on any given day, and 55% of survivors were recruited in school settings.

She described an operation with corporate-style logistics: recruitment through social media, transportation via ride-hailing apps, and links to parallel illegal markets. Traditionally, she argued, it has been “a high-profit, low-risk crime.”

To counter that dynamic, her organization backed Texas Senate Bill 1831, which makes trafficking in schools and universities a first-degree felony, punishable by up to 99 years in prison.

The system as a weapon against victims

From a frontline perspective, Carmen McDonald, executive director of the Survivor Justice Center in Los Angeles, warned that when an abuser has financial resources, the legal system itself can be used as a tool of intimidation.

“They can file reports related to drugs or other offenses stemming from the abuse itself, and that leads to arrests,” she explained. That subsequent criminalization affects employment, housing, and even child custody. Immigration status, she added, is another critical barrier: many survivors fear reporting abuse due to possible immigration consequences.

The role of the media

In the closing moments, the message to journalists was direct. Litvak urged reporters to “follow the money” and scrutinize the financial structures sustaining exploitation. Aluotto was even more blunt: “We need journalists to be as brave as the survivors.”

As the Epstein-related files continue to be examined for the names of influential figures, the organizations gathered by ACoM insisted that the story must not revolve once again around power or spectacle, but around the women and girls who reported abuse for years without being heard.

Because, as Litvak made clear, the greatest failure is not the existence of a well-connected predator. It is a system that knew—and did not act.