Jess Michaels thought she was going for a job interview before she was raped by Jeffrey Epstein in 1991. Her roommate had encouraged her to go, but after she went inside past the building’s doorman, the billionaire forced himself on her.
Years before #metoo made discussions of sexual assault mainstream, she froze in shock and anxiety and later quietly walked back outside, her life upended.
At 22, she had no way of knowing that Epstein, who counted Donald Trump and Bill Clinton among his friends, would later be publicly disgraced. Although Epstein is now one of the world’s most notorious sex offenders, it took Jess almost 30 years to understand and acknowledge her abuse.
She was not alone. Epstein’s social and financial power made his victims feel isolated and ashamed, and that their word would not be believed.
For decades, she did not know that he was a serial predator, and what happened to her was also happening to countless other young women and girls.
But with huge advances in tech since she walked into that New York building, Jess believes there is now a tool available which could tip the balance in empowering survivors.
An encrypted website called Callisto offers a confidential place to report sexual assault, harassment or violation, which goes no further –unless somebody else names the same perpetrator.
It offers a sensitive way for survivors to connect and share their experiences without the pressure of a police investigation, potentially helping people to better understand what happened to them, and identify patterns of behaviour.
‘Every single perpetrator wants us to think we’re the only one,’ Jess told Metro. ‘I really believe Callisto could be a huge game changer in this epidemic.’
The website is currently only available to university students in the US, designed to combat sexual abuse on campus.
But staff hope they will be able to roll out out more widely as its use base grows, potentially going global.
Jess knows the power of connecting with other survivors firsthand, as it was only after seeing Epstein on a newspaper front page that she could begin to confront her trauma, realising she wasn’t alone.
Reading about accusations of his abuse of underage girls, and the lenient plea deal he received in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from someone under 18, she finally had clarity that what happened to her was not somehow her fault.
At 22, she was living in New York having moved there to work as a dancer and actress.
‘I believed that if something bad happened to me, I’d ninja kick my way out of it,’ she said. ‘I would scream, I would run away. And so when I froze, it was a conflict with my self-identity.
How does Callisto work?
A victim of sexual assault or sexual harassment can submit a confidential, timestamped report on the website.
They can add identifying details about their attacker, including name, phone number, email, and social media usernames including LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, X, TikTok, and Google Scholar.
If another person reports matching details, the logs are reviewed by a legal expert. If they seem legitimate (and not someone making a hoax report, for example), the legal counsellor will contact the people who made the reports to tell them there is a match.
The website is end-to-end encrypted, so nobody else will see the report unless someone else names the same perpetrator.
Survivors can delete their information at any time, but otherwise it is held indefinitely.
The reporting function was first made available in 2015, and last year expanded so that 21 million people now have access.
At the moment, it is only available in the US and to people with an email address ending .edu., which is for those connected to higher education such as universities.
But the company hopes to expand more widely in future.
‘I thought, “I must not be who I thought I was. I must not be confident. I must not be trustworthy. I must not be safe.”
‘My career took a horrible hit because I was so anxious all the time and had insomnia all the time.’
Before social media and smartphones, she didn’t realize that a common response to sexual assault is to freeze, rather than fight, and so blamed herself.
Callisto’s chief executive Tracy DeTomasi told Metro that she does not define what can be reported on the platform, because laws vary from state to state.
Anyone who feels they have been violated can use the system, and the report will not be visible to anyone else, even staff at Callisto, unless someone else reports the same person.
It doesn’t stop people reporting to the police at the same time but can offer an alternative to those who do not want to immediately enter a legal process which can itself be traumatizing.
One of those is Ray Epstein, who told Metro how she had made a report to Callisto about a sexual assault by a peer when she was 13.
She does not intend to pursue legal action against the boy, who had himself been a victim of abuse, but would consider some kind of collective action if a pattern was identified.
‘I’ve always felt so alone in my experience,’ she said. ‘Knowing someone else was there would be a really powerful thing.’
She said she had always struggled with doubting herself over what happened or how she should react, and just knowing that her report is on Callisto has given some peace in knowing one day she will find someone in solidarity, or if not, then have an indication that he is now a ‘safe person’.
Both Jess, Ray, and Tracy stress that Callisto is not necessarily a precursor to criminal prosecution, although it can lead to this.
The more important focus is on connecting and empowering survivors, to give them solace and validation, as well as the potential for someone to corroborate their story if they do decide to take it further.
It is a safer alternative to informal ‘whisper networks’ which have proliferated on social media, such as the ‘Shitty Media Men’ Google doc or Facebook groups like ‘Prick Advisor’ for women to warn others of men who allegedly behaved badly. If identifying information is posted online, women can be at risk of retaliation or defamation proceedings.
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Although the site is only available in the US currently, it shows the possibilities of new tech to make a dent in rates of abuse.
After rolling out nationwide a year ago, although only to those connected with higher education email addresses, it has reached a 6% match rate for all reports.
‘In our pilot we had closer to 15%,’ Tracy said, a significant number given that it relies on two or more people being assaulted by the same person, both of those people being willing to report it, and both even knowing that the platform exists.
Perpetrators rely on their victims’ self-doubt and shame, their unwillingness to go to the police, and the low conviction rates for sex assault to continue their offending.
But Callisto can prove ‘a pattern of behavior that is undeniable,’ Jess, who is now a public speaker and has launched ‘sexual assault first aid’ app 3Joannes, said.
Tracy adds that in many cases, perpetrators abuse dozens of victims, such as gymnastics coach Larry Nassar.
Although individuals do come forward, they may not be taken seriously until there is a ‘collective voice’ when it becomes impossible to ‘deny the pattern’.
Rates of offending had not really changed since she started working in the field 25 years ago, she said.
But ‘I believe that if we get awareness of this resource at a tipping point, we are going to be able to hold perpetrators accountable so they stop’.
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