Research on organized abuse emphases the diversity of organized abuse cases, and the ways in which serious forms of child maltreatment cluster in the lives of children subject to organized victimization (e.g. Bobby 1996b, ITII 1997, Kelly and Regan 2000). Most attempts to examine organized abuse have been undertaken by therapists and social workers who have focused primarily on the role of psychological processes in the organized victimization of children and adults. Dissociation, amnesia and attachment, in particular, have been identified as important factors that compel victims to obey their abusers whilst inhibiting them from disclosing their abuse or seeking help (see Epstein et al. 2011, Sachs and Dalton 2008). Therapists and social workers have surmised that these psychological effects are purposively induced by perpetrators of organized abuse through the use of sadistic and ritualistic abuse. In this literature, perpetrators are characterized either as dissociated automatons mindlessly perpetuating the abuse that they, too, were subjected to as children, or else as cruel and manipulative criminals with expert foreknowledge of the psychological consequences of their abuses. The therapist is positioned in this discourse at the very heart of the solution to organized abuse, wielding their expertise in a struggle against the coercive strategies of the perpetrators. Whilst it cannot be denied that abusive groups undertake calculated strategies designed to terrorize children into silence and obedience, the emphasis of this literature on psychological factors in explaining organized abuse has overlooked the social contexts of such abuse and the significance of abuse and violence as social practices.

Organised Sexual Abuse