Content note: This edition focuses on ritual abuse, mind control, and organised abuse. Please exercise self-care – especially if you are a survivor. To survivors reading this bit: I hold you in huge warmth, respect and care.
I don’t know nearly as much about ritual abuse (or, as Valerie Sinason has called it, “calendar abuse,” [1994, as cited in Sinason, 2011, p. 10]) as I think I should, but I find myself worrying the most about it at this time of year. UK charity NAPAC (The National Association for People Abused as Children) has historically received the most calls about ritual abuse (RA) between autumn and Christmas (NAPAC, 2023). I’m sure there must be many in the ISSTD who will know about this first-hand. I chose RA (as well as organised abuse/exploitation, spiritual abuse, abuse involving mind control) as the theme for this edition in the hope of supporting some of those professionals who may have been brave enough to open their ears recently, and for other students like me who are struggling to understand it as best we can.
The first three articles (Chisholm et al., 2022; Krinkin & Dekel, 2023; Mariacha Pacheco et al., 2023) outline a few situations where people have been exploited through ritual, religious or attachment-based means. The next two articles (Salter & Woodlock, 2023; Vos, 2024) discuss the dissociative ‘slipperiness’ of knowing about organised abuse, and how perpetrators capitalised on this. This is followed by two articles (Macfarlane, 2023; Zaeske et al., 2024) that discuss some of the complications and potentially helpful ways of working with survivors, navigating issues of religiously and ideologically manipulated identity and, in Macfarlane (2023), moral injury from having been forced into doing harm. (I wouldn’t have thought of including research about child soldiers if not for Schwartz’s [2013] brilliant and horrifying illustration in ‘The Alchemy of Wolves and Sheep.’) The final three articles are the most hopeful, illustrating how some aspects of ‘ritual’ have been used in positive ways by (or in service of) survivors (McCormack & Hing, 2023; McDonald, 2024), and how survivors have been able to participate in research about RA (Matthew & Barron, 2023).
I hope this edition is of interest. And in reference to McDonald (2024), the final article on this list, I’d like to thank the ISSTD and all you proper professionals who work in this area for ‘hanging up ribbons’ for those of us who can’t always manage it ourselves.
Warmly,
Charlotte
Chisholm, A., Mark, I., Unigwe, S. & Katona, C. (2022). Rituals as a control mechanism in human trafficking: Systematic review and thematic synthesis of qualitative literature. Journal of Human Trafficking, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322705.2022.2062563.
Abstract:
Spiritual rituals have potential for misuse as a form of control in human trafficking. A lack of understanding of this process can lead to challenges in supporting trafficking survivors. This article is a metasynthesis of systematically reviewed qualitative literature on ritual use in human trafficking, providing insight into ritual practices and their impact. Relevant qualitative research was identified via blind screening. A total of 3087 studies were screened; 24 met inclusion criteria. Data were analyzed using thematic synthesis, yielding eight themes incorporating 27 sub-themes: These were 1) background vulnerabilities that make a ritual a powerful control mechanism, 2) trafficker intention to exploit, 3) power and consent issues in agreement to a ritual and contract, 4) powerful and often frightening ritual experiences, 5) control mechanisms arising from the ritual experience, 6) impact of the ritual on the victim, 7) challenges for the victim in leaving and getting help, and 8) successes in helping survivors who have escaped exploitation. We offer an illustrative framework for considering the relationship between rituals and human trafficking. We discuss implications for policy making that empowers trafficking survivors and promotes just outcomes within legal, governmental and health care systems.
Mariacha Pacheco, E. L., Buenaventura, A. E., & Miles, G. M. (2023). “She was willing to send me there”: Intrafamilial child sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking of boys. Child Abuse & Neglect, 142(2), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105849.
Abstract:
Background: Boys subject to intrafamilial child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) – in particular, cases which begin as incest and later evolve into child trafficking for sexual exploitation – face many barriers in disclosing their exploitation, often leaving victims and survivors feeling isolated from society and dismissed or mishandled by service providers such as law enforcement officers, child protection specialists, medical staff and mental health professionals.
Objective: This study explores the unique characteristics of intrafamilial CSEA through the sex trafficking of boys, and the barriers to disclosure and recovery experienced by male victims and survivors.
Participants and setting: Ten adult male survivors of intrafamilial child trafficking for sexual exploitation were interviewed multiple times to gain a deeper understanding of intrafamilial CSEA and how it compares and contrasts with non-familial CSEA. Participants in this study primarily came from North America.
Methodology: Multiple semi-structured online interviews were conducted with these 10 adult male survivors because they experienced 1) intrafamilial CSEA and 2) being trafficked by their families to be sexually exploited by non-familial perpetrators. The participants were then asked to compare and contrast intrafamilial and non-familial CSEA. The research team employed a descriptive phenomenological approach and interview transcripts were coded, analyzed, and compared to identify patterns of non-verbal CSEA indicators and thematic narratives. The study also explored the internal and external barriers to disclosure reported by participants. Trauma-informed, person-centered practices were used throughout the entirety of the study to minimize harm to participants. The research team employed a co-productive approach using participants’ initial interviews and feedback to formulate new questions for later rounds of interviews and by having the participants confirm the accuracy of their respective quotes and case summaries.
Results and discussion: This study highlights several CSEA modalities, such as “boy-swap” events and local/national/transnational trafficking rings engaged in CSEA of boys. It also discusses how survivors’ experiences differed between intrafamilial and non-familial CSEA and trafficking, and how familial settings may facilitate concealment of CSEA. Participants described various modus operandi used by abusers, traffickers, and buyers of all genders. While all 10 intrafamilial CSEA cases included male perpetrators, female perpetrators were also present in nine of them. In addition, participants identified various psychological and physiological CSEA and trafficking indicators that evidenced their victimization during their childhood years. All 10 survivors reported long-term health consequences into adulthood and scored highly on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) questionnaires.
Recommendations and conclusion: Findings underscore the importance of trauma-informed practices for identifying, liberating, and rehabilitating victims and survivors. Participants reported receiving more effective assistance from service providers that exhibited trauma-informed practices. Traditional gender stereotypes may hinder the ability of service providers to recognize and provide support to boys victimized and trafficked by their families for CSEA. Consequently, service providers may stand to benefit from training on 1) trauma-informed, person-centered practices and 2) conscious and unconscious biases, particularly those related to gender. Survivors in recovery require expanded support services, such as the provision of safe housing, online/in-person support communities, and professional/life skill training. Co-productive research methods that integrate the views and experiences of CSEA and trafficking survivors are also recommended.
Krinkin, Y. & Dekel, R. (2023). Sexual grooming processes carried out by offending rabbis toward religious men and their families. Child Abuse & Neglect, 146, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106491.
Abstract:
Background: Research regarding sexual grooming in cases of sexual abuse by religious authorities (SARA) is limited, despite the assumption that many SARA cases go unreported. To the best of our knowledge there is no research regarding sexual grooming committed by rabbis who sexually abused Israeli Jewish religious men.
Objective: The present study examined how Israeli religious SARA victims and their family members experienced sexual grooming carried out by offending rabbis.
Methods: Based on a constructivist-phenomenological paradigm, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 16 formerly and/or currently still religious men who had been sexually abused by rabbis in their adolescence, and 14 of their family members.
Results: In comparison to the Sexual Grooming Model (SGM), findings showcased that unlike other kinds of sex offenders, offending rabbis incorporated religious elements throughout the grooming process. Additionally, offending rabbis used different grooming tactics than did Catholic priests (e.g., offering joint religious studies with victims’ family members; using religion to justify sexual discourse and contact).
Conclusions: The findings expand the SGM, enable a more complex understanding of the grooming processes in SARA, and emphasize the importance of further research focused on increasing the ability to use the SGM for detecting and preventing grooming behaviors.
Vos, H. (2024). What is the problem with retractors? European Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 8(2), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejtd.2024.100407.
Abstract:
The topics “retractor” and “recovered memories” are almost always associated with each other, often in the sense that retracting a told story of sexual abuse means that the original story was based on so-called false memories. Usually, these would have been created by an overly suggestive or controlling treatment (Ost, 2017). That this connection is less simple than usually suggested is clarified in this article. The article will focus on the person of the retractor, what drives her or him, and on influences from outside the person on the process of retraction. The focus will be on victims of organized sadistic abuse.
Salter, M. & Woodlock, D. (2023). The antiepistemology of organized abuse: Ignorance, exploitation, inaction. The British Journal of Criminology, 63(1), 221-237. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azac007.
Abstract:
Organized abuse, in which multiple adults sexually abuse multiple children, has an important role to play in the production of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) but has been relegated to the margins of criminological concern. This paper presents the findings of an international survey of 74 adults who described childhood victimization in CSAM and organized abuse, emphasizing the relationship between organized abuse and entrenched ignorance of it. The paper identifies the multiple zones, practices and structures of ignorance that render organized abuse unknowable and advocates for strategic forms of knowledge production in which ignorance features as a provocation towards information-seeking rather than as a defence mechanism against intolerable realities.
Zaeske, L. M., Dye, A. R., Spadoni, S. Strothkamp, R., Kane, M. L., Ridgway, K., Dugan, A. J., Patterson, T. P., McEathron, S. R. & Cole, B. P. (2024). Addressing harm from adverse religious/spiritual experiences in psychotherapy: A scoping review. Practice Innovations, 9(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1037/pri0000237.
Abstract:
In the past few decades, researchers have delineated the importance of acknowledging and addressing harm, trauma, and abuse from religion/spirituality. With this increase in awareness around these issues, the dearth of research on psychotherapeutic intervention for these concerns has become more apparent. The present scoping review is a synthesis of the psychotherapy recommendations for addressing harm from adverse religious/spiritual experiences that have been published in the peer-reviewed and grey literature. Of the 8,048 studies reviewed, 44 studies met the following inclusion criteria: were an empirical peer-reviewed article, doctoral dissertation, or master’s thesis; discussed implications to inform the process of psychotherapy; therapy implications were directed toward addressing harm, trauma, or abuse from adverse religious/spiritual experiences; and were written in English. Results were synthesized according to research characteristics and methods, conceptualization, participant demographics, therapy implications as the purpose of studies, and therapy implications as discussion commentary. Studies were frequently qualitative, grey literature, White, Christian, and U.S.-based, with therapy implications often only as discussion commentary. Recommendations for research, practice, cultural diversity, and ethics are discussed.
Clinical Impact Statement: This scoping review summarizes what is currently known and recommended for addressing adverse religious/spiritual experiences in psychotherapy. While providing many suggestions for therapeutic approaches, goals, and interventions, it additionally highlights the gaps in this research, notably a lack of process and outcome research for this population in psychotherapy, as well as a need for expansive discussions about intersectionality, ethics, and therapist training in this area.
Macfarlane, K. (2023). Child soldiers in Nepal: re-conceptualizing reintegration and identity. International Affairs, 99(3), 1211-1230. https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiad106.
Abstract:
This article contributes to a critical discussion of practices of child soldier reintegration and scholarship on the topic. Child soldiers’ lived experience of reintegration is characterized by an interconnection between their child and adult worlds resulting from their conflict experience, social transition to adulthood and identity. The article provides a primary source of data based on 30 semi-structured interviews with former child soldiers, both boys and girls, from the former Communist Party of Nepal—Maoist. This article makes both practical and theoretical contributions. Firstly, reintegration practices assume that children and adults should be separated based on altogether different needs. However, a child soldiers’ reintegration experience is framed by an important social interconnection between their child and adult worlds. Secondly, by theoretically engaging children as both a subject and an agent, this article contributes to a nuanced theorization of identity and agency that defies simplistic categories of victimhood and childhood. Finally, the article advances a new framework called ‘post-conflict identity’ that consists of three interconnected subject positions—victim, participant and political agent—to account for the complex ways that former child soldiers negotiate and respond to different life events and transitions across their conflict and post-conflict lives.
McCormack, L. & Hing, M. S. (2023). “I drive my happiness when I save a child”: Altruistic passion, purpose and growth in caring for victims of child sacrifice and trafficking in Uganda. Traumatology, 29(2), 289-300. https://doi.org/10.1037/trm0000371.
Abstract:
Child sacrifice remains a horrific contemporary crime that masquerades as an old custom. Its revival in Uganda this century as a worldwide commercial enterprise, leaves those working to expose this violence, rescue, and care for the victims of child sacrifice, at psychological risk. This idiographic study sought subjective interpretations from 6 female carers working with a faith-based organization that rescues and cares for victims of child sacrifice/trafficking in Uganda. Semistructured interviews provided data for analysis using the protocols of interpretative phenomenological analysis. One superordinate theme, Cultural darkness, passion, purpose, and growth, overarched 5 subordinate themes: 1) Mission in life; 2) Dark society, dark future; 3) Cost to self; 4) Coming from a place of humility, openness, and learning; and 5) Healing children, healing life and healing society. Participants reflected on a strong “calling” or spiritual commitment to the high needs of others victimized by child sacrifice. This juxtaposed with inherent risks to personal safety, psychological distress, altruistic disruption, loss, and burnout. Skeptical of political will to eliminate corrupt practices, and shamed by cultural acceptance, the gratitude of child victims triggered humility, empathy, compassion, patience, and sense of purpose in the participants. Unexpectedly, carers spoke of overcoming the impossible through soothing and nurturing a renewed love of life and trust in the children, and seeking opportunities for psychological and spiritual growth for themselves out of merciless inhumanity. Culturally appropriate organizational trauma-management, and self-care protocols and procedures to protect carers’ mental health and well-being, is a unique field of posttrauma recovery and growth that actively needs support.
Matthew, L. & Barron, I. (2023). Ritual abuse survivors’ perspectives on research participation: An exploratory mixed methods online study. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 32(5), 637-653. https://doi.org/10.1080/10538712.2023.2211578.
Abstract:
This exploratory study sought a deeper understanding of the perspectives of self-defined ritual abuse (RA) survivors, who had experienced sexual victimization, on participation in research. A mixed-methods qualitative design involving online survey and follow-up virtual interviews included 68 adults across eight countries. Content and thematic analysis of responses indicated that RA survivors were keen to be involved in a range of research activities to share their experience, knowledge, and support for other survivors. Having a voice, gaining knowledge, and feeling empowered were reported as advantages of participation, while concerns included exploitation, researcher ignorance, and emotional dysregulation caused by content discussed. To enable their engagement in the future research, RA survivors identified participative research designs, anonymity, and increased opportunities for inclusion in decision-making.
McDonald, D. (2024). The work of acknowledgment: ‘Loud fence’ as community-level response to institutional child sexual abuse testimony. Social & Legal Studies, 33(2), 213-235. https://doi.org/10.1177/09646639231171679.
Abstract:
Since the 1980s, the global dimensions of institutional child sexual abuse have become increasingly apparent. In some countries, this has had a profound impact locally. In Australia, one such place has been the storied town of Ballarat. Throughout Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Ballarat became a significant focus of the Inquiry. As local abuse became clearer, colourful ribbons began appearing at sites throughout the town. This article investigates the meaning of such a response, and its role in relation to survivor testimony. Transforming into a movement that persists to this day, the effect is to reconsolidate a community’s ‘difficult heritage’ of institutional abuse into a more celebrated story of rebellion and protest. The originality of the article stems from the contribution it makes to understanding community-level responses to institutional abuse, and the role of ritual in the formation of collective memory.
References
NAPAC (2023) What is ritual abuse and where can I go for support? [Online]. London: NAPAC. Available from: https://napac.org.uk/blog-ritual-abuse-where-to-go-for-support/. [Accessed 21 September 2024].
Schwartz, H.L. (2013) The Alchemy of Wolves and Sheep: A relational approach to internalized perpetration in complex trauma survivors. East Sussex: Routledge.
Sinason, V. (2011) What has changed in twenty years? In: Epstein, O.B., Schwartz, J. & Schwartz, R.W. (eds.) Ritual Abuse and Mind Control: The Manipulation of Attachment Needs. Oxon: Routledge, pp. 1-37.