Virginia Giuffre fought Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell for decades. As a survivor of their trafficking, she spoke truth to power and endured public scrutiny as she became one of their most vocal and transparent accusers. On April 24, she died by suicide.
Her death should have marked a devastating failure of our systems to support trafficking survivors. Instead, it became another footnote in a political circus focused on conspiracy theories and file releases.
The hunt for answers and accountability is important, yet it can often eclipse survivors’ fight to rebuild their lives. As two of them recently wrote, “I am not some pawn in your political warfare.”
What many forget is that escaping a trafficking situation does not mean the survivor is free. It’s just the first step of many toward health and stability. If we truly want justice for the crimes committed by Epstein and his associates, we also need to focus on the long-term support systems survivors need to achieve true freedom.
Freedom means more than escape
Therapist Randee Kogan, who works with Epstein survivors, explained the challenges they face: “They have been trying to heal for 18 years, and every time they’re on the road to recovery, something new comes out in the news.”
Freedom begins at escape but requires long-term work to achieve and sustain. Survivors have identified six areas that define freedom: health and basic needs; rights and safety; housing and access; education, employment, and finances; community and connection; and mental and emotional well-being.
Rescue alone rarely addresses the conditions that made someone vulnerable to exploitation in the first place. When leaving a trafficker means homelessness, hunger, or worse, many stay trapped in cycles of abuse. Many survivors have criminal records for crimes committed under coercion that prevent them from finding a job, renting an apartment, or pursuing education.
None of this can be fixed overnight. Every survivor needs holistic, long-term support to establish true independence. Yet less than 1% receive the care they need.
What survivors need
Real justice for trafficking survivors is about more than holding the wealthy and powerful accountable. It requires addressing the conditions that trap people in cycles of exploitation and revictimization.
Survivors have told us what freedom looks like. We need to listen and make systemic changes:
Stop treating victims as criminals. Law enforcement, courts, and healthcare systems must be trained to recognize and understand the trauma experienced by trafficking survivors and avoid criminalizing them.
Unsealed grand jury transcripts from Epstein’s 2006 case revealed prosecutors initially accused his underage victims of prostitution. But there is no such thing as a “child prostitute”—only children who are exploited and forced into commercial sex. This kind of victim-blaming approach is not uncommon.
When our healthcare and criminal justice systems can recognize the signs of trafficking and know how to handle those situations, they can avoid further marginalizing victims who only want to rebuild their lives. Prioritizing survivor well-being also empowers survivors to engage in the judicial process, leading to stronger testimony, better-preserved evidence, and more effective pursuit of justice.
Expunge trafficking-related convictions. Criminal records hang over the heads of survivors for decades, even though they committed the crimes under coercion and threats of violence. Those convictions cut off job and housing options, their right to vote, even their ability to volunteer to help other trafficking survivors.
We need stronger legal reforms that automatically expunge trafficking-related convictions for survivors at the federal and state levels.
Sustain support that prevents re-exploitation. Most anti-trafficking resources go toward rescue operations but ignore the threat of re-exploitation.
We need to invest in mental health services, peer support networks, and care that lasts years, not months. In addition, long-term housing assistance and job training programs that provide living wages can help survivors gain a foothold toward freedom.
This means funding organizations that provide direct services and recognizing that recovery is a long-term process requiring sustained community support.
Focus on survivor voices. Every time we amplify sensational headlines over survivor testimony, prioritize political theater over policy reform, or spend millions on investigations instead of funding survivor services, we perpetuate their marginalization.
Survivors’ voices and experiences must be at the core of policy decisions, funding priorities, prevention strategies, and recovery programs.
Some are rebuilding their lives with adequate resources. Others are struggling without services they desperately need. All of them deserve better than being haunted by daily Epstein headlines while they’re largely forgotten.
We can honor Virginia Giuffre’s memory, and all the survivors, by supporting funding for direct, long-term services, advocating for criminal justice reforms, and changing how we talk about trafficking.
The headlines about the Epstein case will eventually fade. But the people he exploited will still be fighting hard to rebuild their lives. Let’s use this moment to build the systems that will help survivors finally know true freedom.
- Kelsey Morgan is the cofounder and CEO of EverFree, a global nonprofit developing data-driven solutions to end human trafficking. With 15 years of experience in the anti-trafficking field, she is the cocreator of Freedom Lifemap, a groundbreaking digital case management tool for survivors of exploitation.
