The goal of the present project is to contribute to the existing literature on why victims of cults often are attributed great responsibility for the loss they sustained when they actually exerted little control over the environment in which their loss occurred.
For 28 years of my life, my father was the Prophet of the AUB cult, centered in Murray, Utah. My mother was the first of his 13 wives and I was number 12 of his 23 biological children.
Defectors from the Jehovah’s Witnesses (and others) do not move easily from within that highly controlled ethos into a new, self-determined lifestyle, but enter a “transit zone” before freedom from all the lingering hindrances to further progress and which can cause considerable distress.
As contemporary researchers have focused more on terror groups than cults, the archival knowledge from cult survivors and years of cult research have not been adequately illuminated as a guide for terror studies.
Assessment of perceptions and experiences of family members or individuals concerned about a loved one who is or was in a controlling or abusive group or relationship.
The language and understanding of coercive control has begun to shift how we view and understand experiences of domestic abuse, deepening our capacity to understand the long term impacts of this crime often perpetrated against women and girls.