{"id":812337,"date":"2026-08-13T14:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T14:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/812337\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T14:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T14:22:12","slug":"how-american-society-shields-perpetrators-of-child-sexual-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/812337\/","title":{"rendered":"How American society shields perpetrators of child sexual abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Widespread denial accompanied the public exposure of Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s decades-long sexual abuse and trafficking of girls and women<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After the U.S. Justice Department released millions of case documents on Epstein<\/a> in January 2026, billionaires<\/a>, politicians<\/a>, heads of state<\/a> and academics<\/a> proclaimed their ignorance of Epstein\u2019s global network of sexual exploitation.<\/p>\n

Why would so many intelligent and powerful people repeatedly trumpet their lack of awareness, especially after Epstein\u2019s 2008 plea agreement<\/a> to underage prostitution charges<\/a>?<\/p>\n

And what about all of Epstein\u2019s staffers and business associates<\/a> who kept quiet about the suspicious behavior they observed? <\/p>\n

As a human rights researcher<\/a> who has conducted genocide research<\/a> on four continents, I think denials of human rights atrocities can help people understand the denial of crimes like child sexual abuse and trafficking. <\/p>\n

Avoiding accountability for atrocities requires two types of denial: by the perpetrator and by the community. It\u2019s easy to understand why mass murderers and child rapists deny their horrific actions. More perplexing is why bystanders, law enforcement, colleagues, family and institutions claim ignorance. <\/p>\n

Society understands that staying quiet after witnessing impermissible crimes is a form of complicity. Bystanders are likely to deny an atrocity when acknowledging it requires action, both morally and legally.<\/p>\n

As sociologist Eviatar Zerubavel<\/a> has noted: \u201cLike silence, denial involves active avoidance. Rather than simply failing to notice something, it entails a deliberate effort to refrain from noticing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

US and international law<\/p>\n

A network of international and domestic laws considers certain crimes so horrific that there are no extenuating circumstances for committing them. Other laws stipulate that everyday observers of certain crimes have a legal responsibility to report them and to protect victims if possible.<\/p>\n

The 1987 United Nations convention against torture<\/a> emphasizes: \u201cNo exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war \u2026 may be invoked as a justification of torture.\u201d And the 1948 U.N. genocide convention<\/a> holds all signatory nations responsible for their inaction against genocide. <\/p>\n

In the United States, the 1974 Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act<\/a> mandates that states have provisions requiring certain people \u2013 doctors, teachers, clergy and law enforcement \u2013 to report known or suspected cases of child abuse.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

A billboard in Times Square in New York on July 23, 2025, calls for the release of the Epstein files, the government documents and investigative reports detailing the late financier\u2019s criminal sex-trafficking network.
\n Adam Gray\/Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

About a quarter of states go further<\/a> and stipulate that \u201call persons who have cause to suspect that any juvenile is abused, neglected, or dependent or has died as the result of maltreatment shall report\u201d to the authorities. <\/p>\n

Perpetrator denial<\/p>\n

In the context of government human rights abuses, sociologist Stanley Cohen<\/a> in 2001 classified denial into three strategies: literal, interpretive and implicatory.<\/p>\n

With literal denial, Cohen wrote, the perpetrator simply claims the event never happened. If successful, this form of denial makes the problem disappear.<\/p>\n

During the U.S. war on terror<\/a> after the 9\/11 terrorist attacks, human rights groups accused the George W. Bush government of torturing detainees in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Applying Cohen\u2019s typology illuminates how the Bush administration cycled through strategies of denial, beginning with literal denial. Responding to evidence of U.S. torture of detainees in Iraq in 2006, Bush denied the accusations: \u201cThis country doesn\u2019t torture; we\u2019re not going to torture<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n

After the failure of literal denial, the Justice Department employed interpretive denial, which admits to something having taken place, just not something that rises to the level of a crime. The DOJ redefined torture<\/a> and referred to acts such as waterboarding \u2013 legally classified as torture<\/a> \u2013 as \u201cenhanced interrogation methods<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following his guilty plea to soliciting prostitution from a 14-year-old<\/a>, Epstein used interpretive denial by comparing the severity of his crime to shoplifting: \u201cI\u2019m not a sexual predator,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m an \u2018offender.\u2019 It\u2019s the difference between a murderer and a person who steals a bagel.\u201d<\/p>\n

When interpretive denial fails, perpetrators turn to what Cohen calls implicatory denial. It accepts the facts \u2013 torture of detainees, forced expulsions, mass killings \u2013 but denies the psychological or moral ramifications that follow.<\/p>\n

In his memoirs, Bush did not deny the use of torture<\/a>; he denied the immorality of the torture. \u201cThe choice between security and values was real,\u201d he wrote<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Attorney Bradley Edwards speaks at a news conference at the U.S. Capitol with alleged victims of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein on Sept. 3, 2025, in Washington.
\n Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

Community denial<\/p>\n

Research that I\u2019m currently conducting revises Cohen\u2019s typology to understand why bystanders to crimes like Epstein\u2019s don a veil of ignorance. <\/p>\n

Denial of child sexual abuse occurs within a community \u2013 a citizenry, a family, a congregation. The community establishes the parameters of morality, the relative power of each member, and which actions constitute crimes.<\/p>\n

In cases where accepting the truth has a high communal cost \u2013 a reordering of the power structure, more egalitarian institutions, eradication of prejudice or social disgrace \u2013 many people calculate that the cost of justice is not worth reordering the structure of privilege from which they benefit. <\/p>\n

In the case of institutional abuse, powerful groups, such as the Catholic Church, prioritized the reputation of the institution<\/a> over the victims.<\/p>\n

Much like perpetrators, a community adheres to its preferred version of reality by denying abuse at the literal, interpretive and implicatory levels. <\/p>\n

With literal denial, bystanders negate the experience of one particular child. This is so prevalent among mothers of incest victims<\/a> that the legal community is exploring criminally charging the mothers who fail to protect their children. <\/p>\n

Community interpretive denial tells the victim they did not experience what they thought they experienced. This occurred repeatedly for many victims of Larry Nassar<\/a>, a former physician who sexually assaulted hundreds of gymnasts<\/a> in the guise of medical treatment<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Gymnast Larissa Boyce<\/a> described what happened when the then-16-year-old reported Nassar\u2019s abuse to her coach. \u201cShe just couldn\u2019t believe that was happening. She said I must be misunderstanding what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Community implicatory denial negates the moral implications of the atrocity by blaming the victim for the perpetrator\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

During the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal that erupted in the late 1980s, Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland<\/a> admitted that sexual activity had taken place between some of his priests and their young parishioners, but he dismissed the notion that the priests were entirely to blame. <\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes not all adolescent victims are so \u2018innocent,\u2019\u201d he told The Catholic Herald in 1988. \u201cSome can be sexually very active and aggressive and often quite streetwise.\u201d <\/p>\n

Communities blinded by the perpetrator\u2019s stethoscope, billion dollars, clerical collar or Ivy League degree often refuse to acknowledge the stereotypes that protect privileged predators.<\/p>\n

And that willful ignorance of child sexual abuse equals complicity. Through denial, members thus absolve themselves for inaction in the face of atrocity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Widespread denial accompanied the public exposure of Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s decades-long sexual abuse and trafficking of girls and women.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-812337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}