In the past few years, several high-profile cases of sexual abuse in the US – Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby and R. Kelly – have prompted serious soul-searching. How could abuses like these have persisted for so long, given the number of people who had to have known what was happening?
In the Epstein case, there is some solace in the recent conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s long-time companion, on charges of having recruited the young women. Still, how many others were complicit but managed to avoid being held responsible? And how many more knew but did nothing?
