One obvious theme is the sense of entitlement of the very rich and powerful, their assumption that illegal activities committed in the privacy of mansions and palaces are immune from prosecution, that rich and powerful men have a right to sexual relations with younger and often poorer women, and the mechanisms by which the crimes of the powerful are excused or hidden.

A second theme is how far is there a change in public attitudes towards sexuality and the sexual abuse of children and young women. Is there more willingness to report and condemn? Are some behaviours which might have been treated as acceptable or even ‘liberated’ at one time now being defined as utterly unacceptable? This question involves changing attitudes towards masculinity and the identification of some forms of masculinity as toxic, thus presenting a shock to some men who thought they could get away with sexual objectification of women and sexual abuse of young girls. The excuse that “it was acceptable in my day” no longer holds.

A third theme is the relationship between sex trafficking and the sex industry. There is a spectrum of views among feminists and the left about the sex industry, from those who see the industry as inevitably oppressive towards women and call for its total abolition to those who view it as form of employment which needs regulation and union organisation.

A fourth theme is the question of when behaviour becomes a public scandal, whether this scandal is principally about sex trafficking and the sexual abuse of women and girls, or financial scandals or misconduct in public office. In the UK case there may also be implications of this scandal for the future of the House of Windsor and prospects of republicanism in Britain. This is especially the case following the arrest on 19 February of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the brother of King Charles III. The press pointed out that the last member of the British royal family who was arrested was Charles I in 1649.

The crimes of the powerful

Social scientists who advance radical perspectives in Criminology and Sociology write about the crimes of the powerful. This comes from a perspective towards crime which acknowledges that poorer and less powerful people are more likely to be subject to policing and to processes of criminalisation (detection, arrest, trial, sentencing and punishment, such as fines or imprisonment), while more powerful individuals may benefit more from police and court discretion in these processes. This may apply particularly to categories of people such as members of royal families, very rich individuals and holders of elected political offices. It is based on a recognition that criminal justice systems operate in societies based on inequalities of class, race, nationality, sex and other social divisions.

The Epstein files contain information about networks of the very rich and powerful. They include information on business dealings which may be corrupt and in breach of the laws of various countries. They provide an insight into the world of the very rich. Their publication is an instance of a loss of privacy regarding financial matters and lifestyle which the super-rich may have assumed they were entitled to. The operation of taxation systems in most capitalist countries also gives the very rich far more scope for tax avoidance and concealment of wealth than the average worker. These features of the capitalist system will increasingly come into focus as the Epstein files are studied further.

From what has been published so far it appears the two main areas of the crimes of the powerful which the Epstein files will reveal are corruption in terms of financial matters and sex-trafficking of minors.

Changing attitudes

How far does the news coverage and debate of the Epstein files indicate changing attitudes towards sexual behaviour, particularly in the case of older men having sexual relations with young women and female children? Centuries of feminist struggles, including campaigns to establish age of consent laws and to prevent child prostitution, as well as identification of sex trafficking as a crime and as part of wider processes of forced labour, may have raised awareness of how such practices oppress women and female children. One theme mentioned in some Facebook posts has been that the victims are children, not young women, emphasising the right of minors to legal protection from adults, and the total unacceptability of the behaviour of men such as Epstein.

This is a world away from attitudes sometimes expressed in left and libertarian circles in the past about the case for abolishing age of consent laws as an unjust restriction on the right of young people to explore their sexuality.

It is also the case that the reporting of the Epstein files clearly identifies sex with minors and sexual trafficking of minors as criminal behaviour, with no attempt to transfer the responsibility to the victims, or to suggest they were ‘Lolitas’ or ‘promiscuous’.

In many countries in the world today, including the USA, young women have grown up in a world partly shaped by feminism, with equal legal rights in education and employment and with a growing presence of women in politics and public office-holding. They expect to be treated as citizens not as sex objects and servants. Young women are encouraged to define their futures in terms of their own identity and aspirations, not only in terms of marriage, family and motherhood. They have learned ideas about bodily autonomy and the importance of consent in sexual relations. The treatment of the young women trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell is shocking to young women raised with feminist aspirations and expectations.

Recent decades have also seen, as part of a resistance to feminism, the growth of misogyny in some quarters, with social media influencers such as Andrew Tate promoting negative attitudes towards women. Sections of the far-right promote an ultra-conservative view of the family in which women are confined to domestic roles and excluded from paid employment and the public sphere. This has been accompanied by the development of the sex industry, which commercialises sexual behaviour and promotes the view that men are entitled to pay for sexual access to women’s bodies.

The sex industry and sex trafficking

The material in the Epstein files demonstrates the existence of sex-trafficking, the transport of young women and female children around the world to engage in sexual relations which they did not consent to. This is being defined as criminal.

It also raises the issue of the relationship between the sex industry and sex-trafficking, including how many workers in the sex industry are not there by choice, but rather through coercion. There will be owners and managers in the sex industry, and the advocates for the industry, who will argue that it is entirely possible to run a sex industry without any forced labour element to it. Others will argue that sex trafficking and coercion into the sex industry is widespread and that is one of the reasons why it should be abolished. We shall see how far the debate about the Epstein Files raises wider issues about the future of the sex industry.

There is a considerable range of views among feminists and socialists about the sex industry. For the owners and promoters of the sex industry, work as a sex worker is an occupational choice, with sex work presented as like any other employment. Attempts to shut down the industry are condemned as removal of an occupational choice. Sometimes sex work is presented as a form of female empowerment or at least as an occupational choice women make in preference to other, lower-paid jobs for women.

Sometimes sex work is justified on the basis some men would not be able to find sexual partners in any other way. Sometimes it is presented as an expression of bodily autonomy and a woman’s right to choose what to do with her own body. This viewpoint rejects the view of sex workers as victims and focuses on their agency and autonomy. Some supporters of this view advocate for trade unions for sex workers to improve their conditions of employment. It should be noted that many workers in the sex industry experience forms of pseudo self-employment, in which for instance they are required to pay to enter premises in which they meet clients or dance in lap-dancing premises.

Against this perspective of sex work as female empowerment or an occupational choice like any other, many feminists have argued that prostitution and the commercialisation of human sexuality have negative consequences for the status of all women in society. They point out the dangers to which work in the sex industry can expose women, that many women are trafficked into prostitution and that many others would choose to leave if better paid work were available. They define the sex industry as a form of organised abuse and violence against women. They also condemn the use by the sex industry of the label ‘sex worker’ to normalise prostitution as a job for women and for men to treat it as acceptable to pay women for sex.

In this perspective it is acceptable for governments and other agencies to offer pathways out of prostitution, without this being derided as ‘rescue work’ or ‘puritanism’. Such feminist anti-sex work industry perspectives may also include support for legislation which criminalises men who seek to use women as prostitutes.

Scandal and publicity

Since much of the behaviour reported in the Epstein Files is not new, it is worthwhile to explore why this behaviour is now a matter of extensive news reporting and seen as shocking and reprehensible. There will be a variety of political interests, including opposition to the Trump presidency, as to why some politicians want to keep the focus on this material. There is also extensive material, now that the files have been published, for journalists to write about.

The courage of the women who have spoken out, for many years, about their experiences of sex-trafficking, must be recognised. Often when women speak out about such things they face a struggle to be believed. They and their supporters persisted, and it is now recognised that crimes were committed against these women.

The question now is whether there will be accountability in the courts and will there be prosecutions. This is something many of the women who experienced sex trafficking and their families and supporters are asking for. The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, a private estate owned by the British royal family, has given encouragement to those demanding prosecutions. Very soon after his brother was arrested, Charles III issued a statement to the effect that the law must take its course. The principle that no one is above the law is the demand from the victims and their families.

It remains to be seen how far any prosecutions and ongoing news coverage focus on the issue of financial corruption or of sex trafficking, and what relative significance is given to these two issues. If the sex-trafficking dimension is downplayed, this will be seen by many women as implying sex-trafficking is seen as less of an offence or less serious than financial corruption.

The Epstein files have become a news issue because of the courage and persistence of the women who spoke out about their experiences of sex-trafficking. Speaking out about these abuses of female children and young women is part of feminist struggle. It is to be seen how far the impact of this case, together with cases like that of Gisele Pelicot in France, leads to long-term changes in attitudes towards women and sexual violence. These cases have both occurred in a context of increased feminist consciousness of sexual violence and raised it to a wider level of public awareness.