The Need to Protect Teenagers from Predators Too

A man convicted of procuring a girl under the age of 18 for prostitution should not get away with serving only 13 months in prison.  A level 3 registered sex offender shouldn’t hobnob with Harvard’s finest or be able to fraternize with prominent New Yorkers, such as President Trump and President Clinton, while repairing his tarnished reputation. 

But, in the United States, registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, managed to do both. 

Is the notion of adult males having sex with tweens considered quasi-acceptable by society at-large?  After all, Epstein told the New York Post in 2011, “I’m not a sexual predator, I’m an ‘offender,’…It’s the difference between a murderer and a person who steals a bagel.”

The pediatrician in me finds this notion reprehensible. The mother in me is scared beyond belief.  Teenage girls are still children. It is high-time our society started seeing them that way. Bagels, however, will never quite be the same for me, again.

Jeffrey Epstein is accused of running a pyramid-like sex trafficking scheme involving dozens of underage girls between 2002-2005.  In early July, he was arrested on charges that he "sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes" in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida. Evidence in the recently unsealed federal indictment indicates Epstein may have a sexual preference disorder, most likely, hebephilia, meaning he is sexually attracted to pubertal children.  Scientifically, hebephiles are not that different from pedophiles, who target younger children who have not yet entered puberty.

 

If convicted of the charges, Epstein could be sentenced to 45 years in prison.  Knowing the average child molester offends 200–400 times before being caught makes four and half decades seem like a slap on the wrist.  Hebephiles are predators.  They tend to engage in frequent, indiscriminate, and compulsive sexual encounters with young victims. They also target at-risk children:  those who live with a single parent that has a live-in partner are 20 times more likely to be sexually abused and those in foster care are 10 times more likely to be victims of sexual abuse than children who live with both parents.

 

Perpetrators take pleasure in abusing children sexually.  They believe their needs are more important than those of the children they harm.  But there is something even more sinister at play: underneath their often-charming facade lurks a sense of pathologic entitlement to take what one wants regardless of consequences, coupled with a lack of empathy for the children they abuse.      

         

Abusers often rationalize their actions by telling themselves what they are doing isn’t harmful or the child ‘consented’ to the sexual contact.  For instance, in a recent conversation with publicist R. Couri Hay, Epstein claimed that his conviction did not constitute pedophilia.  Epstein reportedly told Hay that the girls he had sex with were “teens and tweens,” as if that fact makes his actions less objectionable. 

  

Like pedophiles, hebephiles were often molested as children and had no control over the situation.  By sexually assaulting children, molesters gain the upper hand through a reversal of roles.  Unfortunately, their sexual attraction to children is highly resistant to change. Yet, Epstein’s defense team argued he has lived a law-abiding life for the past decade and should be permitted to await trial in his $77 million Manhattan mansion. Ironically, it is inside this very same mansion where authorities found hundreds of nude and seminude photographs of underage females on the night of his arrest. 

U.S District Court Judge Richard M. Berman denied bail, citing concerns that Epstein posed a danger to underage girls and his extraordinary wealth and overseas connections made him a flight risk.  Berman said, "it seems fair to say that Mr. Epstein's future behavior will be consistent with past behavior." Judge Berman is unequivocally right.

 

This week, Epstein “appears to have made a suicide attempt” resulting in non-life-threatening injuries.  If accurate, Epstein engaged in non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI,) an action intended to quickly alleviate intense negative emotions.  While one hopes he is experiencing tremendous guilt for those he allegedly harmed, it is far more likely that his mounting frustration after being denied bail, finally got the best of him.

 

The bottom line is that there are no effective treatments for hebephilia or pedophilia, so our society should focus on protecting innocent children, including vulnerable “teens and tweens.” Epstein has appealed the bail decision to the 2^nd U.S. Circuit Court.  While Epstein seems to be capable of convincing almost anyone of anything—just look at U.S. attorney Alexander Acosta—let’s hope the buck stops with the U.S Circuit Court of Appeals.