Source: Bloomsbury Press
In No more receivedlaw professor and cult expert Robin Boyle-Laisure, JD, discusses the commonalities between cults and human trafficking. In the mix, he also thinks intimate partner violence and a child sexual violence. Coercive control unites these different situations.
The title of the book is Protect Your Children from Human Trafficking and Cults. Most of it is aimed at parents and teachers. However, it seems relevant to professionals working in mental health, child protection and law, as well as to lay readers interested in these topics.
9 main points of the book
- Human trafficking and cults have a lot in common. Leaders of both types of businesses manipulate youth and adults for their own benefit.
- Used by traffickers and religious leaders cheat attract their targets. They know what potential hires value and take advantage of it. More often than not, they present false offers of financial gain, romance, community, or fame—whatever. Labor traffickers attract their targets by promising favorable working conditions and wages.
- Cult leaders and traffickers train their new recruits. They establish and strengthen interpersonal relationships through gifts, affection, kind words, and acts of greeting. The new recruits let their guard down. Then they find themselves trapped and find there is no way out.
- Cult leaders and traffickers tailor their targets to accept increasingly difficult conditions. They are not susceptible to recruit abuse. A sex trafficker posing as a boyfriend may ask his girlfriend to “prove his love” by having sex with him. Or a sex trafficker may promise a career in modeling. Cult leaders ask new members to prove their devotion by turning over money and cutting renouncing previous relationships. Labor traffickers create “deals” where targets appear to owe money and face legal trouble if they try to escape.
- Human trafficking is very profitable because people can be sold and resold. Once drug gangs have discovered that the trade of (young) women and men can bring them huge profits in the long run. Many gangs are involved in drug and human trafficking. Each facilitates the other.
- Cults don’t all look the same. When people think of cults, they often think of mercenaries with shaved heads, dressed in orange, singing and begging on the streets. But, as Boyle-Laisure points out, cults are not all religious. They can be political, terrorist, commercial or a combination of these.
- Mind reform, brainwashing and coercion are the same process. Traffickers, cult and gang leaders, home and sexual all abusers use similar social and psychological pressures to change the thoughts and actions of their targets. Attitudes and self-perceptions of targets change. The unthinkable gradually seems acceptable, inevitable, or even pleasant. For example, a member of a new religion that was once close to their family may write them off as unacceptable. A newly recruited trafficked person is a virgin when she meets her “boyfriend” and may agree to have sex with others at his request and convince herself that he is happy to make her happy. Victims of labor trafficking may believe that they will “just get by” for the next month or two, and then they will receive the wages they are entitled to.
- Young people need developmentally appropriate guidance on how to stay safe. The author provides a section on Raising a Smart Child and a section on Protecting Children from Online Predators. She offers tips for caregivers on how to talk to children and teens about social risks without paralyzing them. fear. It describes planning for a number of family emergencies. It offers practical advice, including guidance on when children should get a mobile phone and how to use it safely.
- Clinicians working with survivors of cults and human trafficking must change their routines trauma– directed practices. The book includes an entire chapter devoted to “mental health professionals, college administrators, and the community.” Boyle-Laisure consults experienced psychotherapists for advice on clinical work with survivors of cults and human trafficking.
The book is characterized by minor errors. For example, Steve Hassan’s effect continuum is called the “continuity effect” several times. The practice of recruiting members of God’s children through sexual seduction is repeatedly referred to as “flirt fishing” rather than “flirt fishing”. These are simple statements in a well-researched and interesting book.
