Rape and Sexual Assault
Itâs not your fault.
What are Rape and Sexual Assault?
Sexual assault is a general term that includes any forced or unwanted sexual activity, including rape, incest, sexual abuse, and molestation. Sexual assault includes any forced or unwanted touching of an intimate part of the body, such as breasts, buttocks, or genitals.
Rape, a specific type of sexual assault, involves any forced, manipulated, or coerced penetration of the vagina, anus, or mouth, by a penis or other object. Sexual assault/rape is not a crime of passion but a crime of violence, using sex as a weapon to overpower and to degrade the victim. A rapist can be a stranger or someone the victim knows, including a spouse, date, or family member.
-To recognize that non-consensual sex is sexual assault.
-To identify situations in which sexual assault may occur.
-To intervene in situations where consent has not or cannot be given.
-To create an environment in which sexual assault is unacceptable and survivors are supported.
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Tools and Tips:
Consent is voluntary and mutual and can be withdrawn at any time.
Past consent does not mean future or current consent.
There is no consent when there is force, coercion, or intimidation.
One cannot always consent when under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.
Talk to your friends honestly and openly about sexual assault.
Donât just be a bystander â if you see something, intervene in any way you can.
Trust your gut. If something looks like it might be a bad situation, it probably is.
Be direct. Ask someone who looks like they may need help if theyâre okay.
Get someone to help if you see something â enlist a friend.
Keep an eye on someone who has had too much to drink.
Understand that if someone does not or cannot consent to sex, itâs rape.
Never blame the victim.
PREDATORS: Pedophiles, Rapists, and Other Sex Offenders
Who They Are, How They Operate,
and How We Can Protect
Ourselves and Our Children
By Anna C. Salter, Ph.D, first published in 2003
A world-renowned expert provides a psychological profile of serial sex offenders – how they think, how they deceive their victims, and how they elude the law.
Chapter 2: Deception
Chapter 9: Rose-Colored Glasses and Trauma
The Invisible War, a groundbreaking investigative documentary about one of Americaâs most shameful and best-kept secrets: the epidemic of rape within the U.S. military.
âThis is not an issue of sexual orientation; this is an issue of power and violence. Male sexual predators have targeted whoever is there to prey uponâŠâ
âA great wall of silence has gone up to protect the guilty.â
ââŠrapists prey on other human beings and stalk them. They wait until the victim is at the most vulnerable point in time to perpetrate their crimes.â
âMost sex offenders have this hidden persona that nobody ever sees but the victim. Therefore, when theyâre caught, or if somebody reports, people donât tend to believe that [report or victim] because they donât see the âtypicalâ sex offender.â
âMost sex offenders are hunters. Just like any hunter, they study their prey â study their movements â study their behaviors â study the environment.â
âParticularly for a savvy perpetrator, to work within a relatively closed system like the military, it becomes a prime sort of target-rich environment for a predator.â
âIf he does it once and gets away with it, he thinks: âWow, this was pretty easy. Iâm gonna try it again.’â
Dispatches from the Front Lines:
Articles and Essays written by Andrew Vachss
People
The Darkest Secret
A STORY OF INCEST
MISS AMERICAâS TRIUMPH
OVER SHAME
By Marilyn Van Derber Atler
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Star Cries Incest
ROSEANNEâS BRAVE
CONFESSION
By Roseanne Arnold
Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy
and Reclaiming Your Life
By Dr. Susan Forward
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL
The Sexual Abusers
Adult Survivors in Therapy
By Christine A. Courtois, Ph.D.
Chapter 3: Dynamics of Abuse and the Incestuous Family
Chapter 4: Parent-Child Incest
Healing requires words. There is no way around a tragedy or trauma. The only way over is through, and the way you get through is by talking. Shakespeare understood this in Macbeth when he wrote:
Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak
Whispers the oâer-fraught heart and bids it break.
I would not have gone down like a kamikaze pilot in my own life if I had started talking years before. Friends help, but therapists are essential for anyone who has been profoundly traumatized. I could not have survived without the professionals at Johns Hopkins. My past was a minefield. Without them to guide me through it, I would have exploded.
The sad thing is that no one could have convinced me to start talking. I had no idea â and could not have been persuaded â that something from so long ago suddenly could take over my life. I want others to know what I learned â if you have been traumatized by abuse, you must find a way to understand and resolve it. Even if your life seems fine at the moment, unresolved trauma neither goes away nor diminishes over time. It can erupt at any time.
Even if the trauma never recurs, its initial impact can have long-term effects. Depression, alcoholism and other addictions, rage, insomnia, nightmares, and low self-esteem are some of the common shoals for people who carry too much emotional cargo. They should lighten the load by finding a supportive therapeutic environment and safe place to feel terrible.
Richard Berendzen, from Come Here: A Man Overcomes the Tragic Aftermath of Childhood Sexual Abuse
Marilyn Van Derbur | A Survivor Story
September 9, 2014
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Documentary
March 24, 2020
Marilyn Van Derbur Atler had a fairytale life. She appeared to have it allâfrom a prominent family, crowned Miss America, enjoyed a successful television career, sought-after as a motivational speaker, named âOutstanding Woman Speaker in Americaâ, married to her high school sweetheart, and raising a beautiful daughter. But at age 53, she revealed a sinister secret of trauma and shame: Marilyn had been a victim of childhood incest at the hands of her father. Her courageous public disclosure changed her life â from one of celebrity â to healer of tens of thousands of abuse survivors.
Causes of sexual violence
There are many different theories explaining the causes of sexual violence. The theories that will be discussed in this article include military conquest, socioeconomics, anger, power, sadism, traits, ethical standards, laws, and evolutionary pressures that lend some explanation to the causes of sexual violence (such as rape, molestation, sexual harassment, stalking, incest, etc.). Please note, most of the research on the causes of sexual violence has only been done on male offenders (and has largely ignored female perpetrated sexual violence) and is in no way fully developed.
Clinical psychologist Nicholas Groth has described several different types of rape. A detailed conceptual analysis shows that objectification might underlie denial of agency and personhood that leads to rape.
From MEN WHO RAPE: The Psychology of the Offender, by A. Nicholas Groth, Ph.D., with H. Jean Birnbaum, B.A., 1979
Regardless of the pattern of the assault, rape is a complex act that serves a number of retaliatory and compensatory aims in the psychological functioning of the offender. It is an effort to discharge his anger, contempt, and hostility toward women â to hurt, degrade, and humiliate. It is an effort to counteract feelings of vulnerability and inadequacy in himself and to assert his strength and power â to control and exploit. It is an effort to deny sexual anxieties and doubts, and reaffirm his identity, competency and manhood. It is an effort to retain status among male peers, and it is an effort to achieve sexual gratification. Rape is equivalent to symptom formation in that it serves to defend against anxiety, to express a conflict, and to gratify an impulse. It is symptomatic of personality dysfunction, associated more with conflict and stress than with pleasure and satisfaction. Sexuality is not the only â nor the primary â motive underlying rape. It is, however, the means through which conflict surrounding issues of anger and power become discharged. Rape is always a combination of anger, power, sexuality, and each of these components must be examined in evaluating the offender and assessing the impact of the assault on the victim and the nature of her trauma.
. . . The assault triggers an acute disruption of the victimâs physiological, psychological, social, and sexual lifestyle as evidenced by somatic problems, disturbances in sleeping and eating patterns, and the development of minor mood swings and fears specific to the circumstances of the assault.(1) The sexual offense, from this standpoint, constitutes a situational crisis imposed on the victim, and the impact of the assault may disrupt the bio-psycho-social functioning of the victim for an indefinite period of time. Tragically, her victimization often does not end with the assault.
(1) Ann Wolbert Burgess and Lynda Lytle Holmstrom, Rape: Crisis and Recovery
By Judith Herman, MD
Published in Journal of Women in Culture and Society
vol. 13, no. 4
1988
March 19, 2001
Male Rape
Overview [excerpt]
Society is becoming increasingly aware of male rape. However, experts believe that current male rape statistics vastly under-represent the actual number of males age 12 and over who are raped each year. Rape crisis counselors estimate that while only one in 50 raped women report the crime to the police, the rates of under-reporting among men are even higher (Brochman, 1991).
Until the mid-1980s, most literature discussed this violent crime in the context of women only. The lack of tracking of sexual crimes against men and the lack of research about the effects of male rape are indicative of the attitude held by society at large â that while male rape occurs, it is not an acceptable topic for discussion.
Historically, the rape of males was more widely recognized in ancient times. Several of the legends in Greek mythology involved abductions and sexual assaults of males by other males or gods. The rape of a defeated male enemy was considered the special right of the victorious soldier in some societies and was a signal of the totality of the defeat.
There was a widespread belief that a male who was sexually assaulted, thus âlost his manhood,â and could no longer be a warrior or ruler. Gang rape of a male was considered an ultimate form of punishment and, as such, was known to the Romans as punishment for adultery and the Persians and Iranians as punishment for violation of the sanctity of the harem (Donaldson, 1990).
A. Nicholas Groth, a clinical psychologist and author of Men Who Rape: The Psychology of the Offender, says all sexual assault is an act of aggression, regardless of the gender or age of the victim or the assailant. Neither sexual desire nor sexual deprivation is the primary motivating force behind sexual assault. It is not about sexual gratification, but rather a sexual aggressor using somebody else as a means of expressing their own power and control.
Much has been written about the psychological trauma associated with the rape of female victims. While less research has been conducted about male rape victims, case research suggests that males also commonly experience many of the reactions that females experience.
These reactions include: depression, anger, guilt, self-blame, sexual dysfunctions, flashbacks, and suicidal feelings (Isley, 1991). Other problems facing males include an increased sense of vulnerability, damaged self-image and emotional distancing (Mezey & King, 1989).
Male rape victims not only have to confront unsympathetic attitudes if they choose to press charges, they also often hear unsupportive statements from their friends, family and acquaintances (Brochman, 1991).
People will tend to fault the male victim instead of the rapist.
July 17, 2012
Penthouse Magazine Level Lasciviousness Normalization Leads To Moral Degeneracy In Both Boys & Men
In a DOJ study 1953-82, Playboy, Hustler, & Penthouse published approximately 9,000 sexual scenarios with children under age 18, an average of 8-9 images per issue.
Raised on Porn | Documentary Film
Premiered September 30, 2021
Raised on Porn exposes the ways pornography has become the new sex education for children and unpacks the dangerous lifelong implications of this global phenomenon. Through riveting firsthand accounts, cinematic re-enactments, 3D animation, and interviews with the worldâs leading neurologists, sociologists, psychologists, and therapists, Raised on Porn is filled to the brim with raw, compelling insight on how pornography is poisoning us and our relationships. This film shatters cultural myths about the âharmlessâ nature of pornography and provides a sobering framework to understand how this graphic genre of media has shaped our world, eliciting a desperately-needed call for change.
AGAINST OUR WILL: Men, Women, and Rape, by Susan Brownmiller
The bestselling feminist classic that revolutionized the way we think about rape, as a historical phenomenon and as an urgent crisisâessential reading in the era of #MeToo.
As powerful and timely now as when it was first published, Against Our Will stands as a unique document of the history, politics, and sociology of rape and the inherent and ingrained inequality of men and women under the law. Fact by fact, Susan Brownmiller pulls back the centuries of damaging lies and misrepresentations to reveal how rape has been accepted in all societies and how it continues to profoundly affect womenâs lives today.
A keen and prescient analyst, a detailed historian, Susan Brownmiller discusses the consequences of rape in biblical times, rape as an accepted spoil of war, as well as child molestation, marital rape, and date rape (a term that she coined). In lucid, persuasive prose, Brownmiller uses her experience as a journalist to create a definitive, devastating work of lasting social importance.
PREDATORS: Who They Are and How to Stop Them
By Gregory M. Cooper and Michael R. King with Thomas McHoes
An inmate, incarcerated for the rape of seventy-five women, reveals in an interview that if his victims had simply put a pair of old construction boots at the front door, he would have passed by and never even considered them as potential targets. The grieving father of a murdered seventeen-year-old woman admits that he should have been more involved in his daughterâs life and paid attention to the âfriendsâ in her immediate circle. Most of us only half-listen to the public service announcements about safety in the home. We lock our doors at night, but do little else to change habits that may make us the next victims of the dangerous individuals who are always on the watch for their next opportunity.
This book takes readers through the mindset of predatory criminals â their motives, various plans of attack, and way of thinking â and then teaches simple lifestyle techniques that will help reduce the risk of becoming victimized. Criminal behavior specialists Greg Cooper and Mike King provide expert analysis based on real-life cases, in addition to moving insights from victims and criminals themselves.
The authors make the point that the people who commit these crimes arenât much different from the predators of the wild, preying on the weak and unsuspecting. What makes these individuals more dangerous than their instinctive wildlife counterparts, however, is that they consciously choose to inflict their will on the more vulnerable members of their own species. To protect our loved ones and ourselves requires that we truly educate ourselves about the predators who live in our society and then take appropriate action. This excellent, in-depth study will help readers lead safer lives.
PBS
January 16, 2007
Hand of God
In recent decades, more than 10,000 children were reportedly sexually abused by Catholic priests in the United States. In “Hand of God,” filmmaker Joe Cultrera explores just one of those cases, that of his own brother Paul.
Paul Cultrera was molested in the 1960s by Father Joseph Birmingham, who allegedly abused nearly 100 other children. “Hand of God” tells the story of faith betrayed, and how Paul and the rest of the Cultrera family fought back against a scandal that continues to afflict scores of churches across the country.
June 17, 2012
PAIN, PAYBACK
By Tracey Kaplan
WILL LYNCH IS WILLING TO RISK JAIL TIME
TO MAKE A PRIEST FACE UP TO A MONSTROUS PAST
New York
Intelligencer
Feb. 22, 2019
The Corruption of the Vatican’s Gay Elite
Has Been Exposed
By Andrew Sullivan
I spent much of this week reading and trying to absorb the new and devastating book by one FrĂ©dĂ©ric Martel on the gayness of the hierarchy at the top of the Catholic Church, In the Closet of the Vatican: Power, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy. Itâs a bewildering and vast piece of reporting â Martel interviewed no fewer than â41 cardinals, 52 bishops and monsignori, 45 apostolic nuncios, secretaries of nunciatures or foreign ambassadors, 11 Swiss Guards and over 200 Catholic priests and seminarians.â He conducted more than 1,500 interviews over four years, is quite clear about his sources, and helps the reader weigh their credibility. He keeps the identity of many of the most egregiously hypocritical cardinals confidential, but is unsparing about the dead.
The picture Martel draws is jaw-dropping. Many of the Vatican gays â especially the most homophobic â treat their vows of celibacy with an insouciant contempt. Martel argues that many of these cardinals and officials have lively sex lives, operate within a âdonât ask, donât tellâ culture, constantly hit on young men, hire prostitutes, throw chem-sex parties, and even pay for sex with church money. How do we know this? Because, astonishingly, they tell us.
So much of the information in the book comes from sources deep within the Holy See. Named and unnamed, they expose their fellow cardinals and bishops and nuncios as hypocrites, without perhaps realizing that their very targets are doing the same to them. Martel didnât expect this remarkable candor, or, clearly, what he was about to see: âWhether they are âpractisingâ, âhomophileâ, âinitiatesâ, âunstraightsâ, âworldlyâ, âversatileâ, âquestioningâ, or simply âin the closetâ, the world I am discovering, with its 50 shades of gay, is beyond comprehension.â
February 25, 2019
Richard Carleton exposes cover up of
paedophile priests
It’s hard to imagine a graver charge. It’s against one of the most powerful men in Australia, the man who is now the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney. The accusation is simply this: That Dr George Pell attempted to bribe a distressed young man, who’d been sexually assaulted by a priest – and that Pell did this to cover up a potential scandal and to protect his church. And, as you’ll see, there’s more. Money offered to silence the family of two young girls, more tragic victims of a predator in the Catholic Church.
A HOUSTON CHRONICLE INVESTIGATION
ABUSE of FAITH
In the past 20 years, a disturbing number of Southern Baptists with formal church roles have engaged in sexual misconduct, a new investigation by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News reveals. They were pastors. Deacons. Youth pastors. They left behind more than 700 victims. Read and hear the stories of those victims, and learn the depths of the crimes and misconduct of the church leaders they trusted.
March 3, 2020
Dad arrested in sex-cult investigation
at daughterâs university.
Leslie M. Levy, Staff Writer
An investigation prompted by an April 2019 article in New York Magazine, âThe Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrence,â resulted in the arrest and formal indictment of Larry Ray on charges of conspiracy, exploitation, forced labor and sex trafficking, according to the New York Times.
Prosecutors claim the systematic abuse of several of his daughter Taliaâs housemates at Slonim Woods 9, on the campus of Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, NY, continued for nearly a decade. Three of his alleged victims still live together and remain loyal to Ray.
Dec. 27, 2018
Inside Alex Vartmanâs âThe New Tantraâ
By Be Scofield
Numerous former students and staff are speaking out about sexual, verbal and physical abuse by The New Tantra founder Alex Vartman. They describe a sex cult environment that has left people severely traumatized. Thousands of people have taken The New Tantra courses in over 10 countries since it began in 2010.
World News
Dec. 20, 2018
Sex Abuse Allegation Against Celebrity Spiritual
Leader Opens The Floodgates In Brazil
More than 500 women have accused JoĂŁo Teixeira de Faria, a self-professed psychic, of sexual abuse.
By Ana Beatriz Rosa
It began earlier this month, when Dutch choreographer Zahira Leeneke Maus dropped a bombshell allegation on Brazilâs Globo TV: She said celebrity Brazilian psychic JoĂŁo Teixeira de Faria had raped her.
Faria, who has appeared on âThe Oprah Winfrey Showâ and hosted âpilgrimagesâ around the world under his popular name, JoĂŁo de Deus, or John of God, denied the allegation. But Mausâ testimony inspired hundreds of other people to come forward with similar stories of abuse. Faria was arrested Sunday, just nine days after Maus went public with her accusation.
Robert Earl Burton and The Fellowship of Friends
An Unauthorized Blogography of âThe Teacherâ and His Cult
MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2019
81 stories of Robert Earl Burtonâs abuses
Just the Facts Ma’am â June 18, 2019 – Fellowship of Friends Discussion blog
Re-posting this. Did anyone read the article?
See additional quote at bottom.
Unmasking the Guru
Our new digital world has made it impossible to believe in infallible teachers. What comes next is up to us.
Interview with Bernhard Pörksen by Ursula Richard
SUMMER 2019 [Tricycle]
Changing cultural attitudes are not the only. . .reason that public revelations of institutionalized sexual abuse have been at the forefront of mainstream consciousness. Abuse is nothing new. What is new is the way it is being revealed to the publicâand what the public is doing with the information.
Bernhard Pörksen is a professor of media studies at the University of TĂŒbingen in southwest Germany, with particular research interest in the new media age. His writing regularly appears in both scholarly and popular science publications, and two of his books have been on the bestseller list in Germany. He has written or co-authored books on topics such as journalism, constructivism, and communications and systems theories, and he has received accolades for his direct and engaged appearances as a speaker, talk show guest, interview moderator, and discussion partner on radio and television as well as at conventions and public events.
In the following interview, Ursula Richard of the German magazine Buddhismus aktuell discusses with Pörksen the exposure and aftermath of scandals in Buddhist communities today and how we can understand the emerging role played by digital media.
âThe Editors
tricycle.org/magazine/bernhard-porksen
Or, in print, at a newsstand near you.
Another quote:
âTo sum it up: the holy man has become a broken shell, the guru is a sad or pathetic orâworst-case scenarioâeven criminal figure. And the image of the exalted being has to compete for attention with our personal experience and the online documentation of the guruâs disgrace.â
WhaleRider â June 18, 2019
Just the Facts Maâam:
Excellent article, thanks for re-posting. It brings up an important issue touched upon by Cult Survivor:
âIn conclusion, is there also a maxim relating to abuse issues? Yes. However difficult and painful it may be, at some point we have to accept the unthinkable as thinkable, in spite of our own experience of beauty, tranquility, and kindness. Seeing what is different from you, in all its strange-ness and fearfulness, might be the relevant categorical imperative to guide perception. And then investigate carefully and impartially, and act immediately to empower victims and prevent further suffering.â
Since Burtonâs current harem were trafficked presumably from a social, economic or political environment far worse than the opulent environment they are currently living in, and although they have been groomed and manipulated into being Burtonâs sex slaves and probably living with the fear of deportation and therefore may not complain as a resultâŠhas this accommodation of Burtonâs fraud and sexual mania cleansed the conscience of his followers and alleviated the suffering of his victims?
IMO, only once the guru is unmasked and demystified, so too is the suffering his victims endured unmasked and demystified.
brucelevy â July 17, 2019
Theyâre ALL the sameâŠ
thedailybeast.com/inside-tibetan-buddhisms-rape-and-abuse-scandal?ref=home
Nancy Gilbert â January 28, 2020
gen.medium.com/how-a-metoo-facebook-post-toppled-a-yoga-iconâŠ
More guru abuse!
diego â July 30, 2022
Sun newspaper today from the U.K., a Murdoch Tabloid
thesun.co.uk/news/19367843/google-cult-leader-robert-earl-burton-warning
In God’s Name
Part 1 of 2
Religious cult leader, previously charged
with sexual abuse, is again leading the flock.
Connecticut Public Radio / WNPR
All Cults Are Not Created Equal
This hour, we hear from experts whose relationships to cults are as varied as the cults themselves: From an investigative journalist revisiting the 1978 Jonestown massacre, to a British professor raised in a cult called the Exclusive Brethren, to a Canadian writer still struggling from having left the Hare Krishnas.
GUESTS:
- Jeff Guinn – Former investigative journalist and author of The Road To Jonestown: Jim Jones And Peoples Temple
- Rebecca Stott – Broadcaster, professor of literature and creative writing, and author of In The Days of Rain: A Daughter, A Father, A Cult
- Eric – Montreal-based writer, and former member of the Hare Krishnas
Colin McEnroe and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired on June 15, 2017.
According to His Highness A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder of The International Society for Krishna Consciousness: A woman likes a man who is very expert at rape. Rape means without consent.
Sept. 28, 2018
Jonestown Part 3: Jim Jones was ‘a predator,’
ex-members allege
Former Peoples Temple members said Jones became extreme, manipulating his congregants with blackmail and administering humiliating beatings to those who displeased him.
From WITHOUT CONSCIENCE: The Disturbing World of Psychopaths Among Us, by Robert D. Hare, PhD, 1993
Psychopathic Violence â Cold-blooded and âCasualâ
Even more troubling than their heavy involvement in crime is the evidence that both male and female psychopaths are much more likely to be violent and aggressive than are other individuals. Of course, violence is not uncommon in most offender populations, but psychopaths still manage to stand out. They commit more than twice as many violent and aggressive acts, both in and out of prison, as do other criminals.
Troubling yes, but not surprising. While most of us have strong inhibitions about physically injuring others, psychopaths typically do not. For them, violence and threats are handy tools to be used when they are angered, defied, or frustrated, and they give little thought to the pain and humiliation experienced by the victims. Their violence is callous and instrumental â used to satisfy a simple need, such as sex, or to obtain something he or she wants â and the psychopathâs reactions to the event are much more likely to be indifference, a sense of power, pleasure or smug satisfaction than regret at the damage done. Certainly nothing to lose any sleep over.
Psychopaths often come across as arrogant, shameless braggarts â self-assured, opinionated, domineering, and cocky. They love to have power and control over others and seem unable to believe that other people have valid opinions different from theirs. They appear charismatic or âelectrifyingâ to some people.
Psychopaths have a narcissistic and grossly inflated view of their self-worth and importance, a truly astounding egocentricity and sense of entitlement, and see themselves as the center of the universe, as superior beings who are justified in living according to their own rules.
Psychopaths are seldom embarrassed about their legal, financial, or personal problems. Rather, they see them as temporary setbacks, the results of bad luck, unfaithful friends, or an unfair and incompetent system.
Psychopaths feel that their abilities will enable them to become anything they want to be. Given the right circumstances â opportunity, luck, willing victims â their grandiosity can pay off spectacularly. For example, the psychopathic entrepreneur âthinks big,â but itâs usually with someone elseâs money.
. . . the psychopath carries out his evaluation of a situation â what he will get out of it and at what cost â without the usual anxieties, doubts, and concerns about being humiliated, causing pain, sabotaging future plans, in short, the infinite possibilities that people of conscience consider when deliberating possible actions.
Sexual Violence
Rape provides a good example of the callous, selfish, and instrumental use of violence by psychopaths.
Perhaps half of the repeat or serial rapists are psychopaths. Their acts are the result of a potent mixture, uninhibited expression of sexual drives and fantasies, desire for power and control, and a perception of the victims as objects of pleasure or satisfaction.
WhaleRider â October 18, 2016 â Fellowship of Friends Discussion blog
‘Studies show psychopaths really do make some people feel queasy. Why? The researchers suspect it might be an evolutionary response to an âintraspecies predatorâ.
This is another one all the sources agreed on. Donât listen to the excuses, rationalizations or outright lies. Donât listen to what they say they will do. Pay attention to what they do.’
bakadesuyo.com/2016/10/how-to-deal-with-psychopaths/
Sexual sadism disorder
9 Megalomaniacal Facts About Narcissism
By Jordan Rosenfeld â Feb. 9, 2017
July 28, 2022
Seven Traits of Megalomaniacs
The Psychosexual Exploitation
of Women in Cults
By Janja Lalich
Megyn Kelly TODAY
June 2018
Children Of God Cult Survivor
Speaks Out About Life Since Her Escape
“This cult was about control. And controlling somebody’s sexuality is one of the best ways to control somebody. Sexual abuse is always about power — it’s not about lust. So, if you control someone’s sexuality, you control the most intimate part of their soul. And then, after that, you can ask them to do all kinds of things.”
2022
Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey
This docuseries examines the rise of Warren Jeffs in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and his shocking criminal case.
India: Gurus Gone Bad | 101 East
August 22, 2018
He called himself a Messenger of God. As one of Indiaâs most powerful gurus, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh claimed to have 60 million devotees. Politicians lined up to secure his support. Disciples showered him with money in exchange for his blessing.
But the spiritual leader was far from holy. In August 2017, he was convicted of sexually assaulting two female followers, blowing the lid on a seedy underworld of rape and accusations of murder and mass castration within the walls of his ashram.
Dec. 9, 2021
Idealising the predator
How did certain French intellectuals get away with
preying upon young girls, shamelessly, in public
and over decades?
By Lily Dunn
A British writer of fiction and nonfiction. She is the author of the novel Shadowing the Sun (2008), and her essays have appeared in Granta. Her debut nonfiction, Sins of My Father: A Daughter, a Cult, a Wild Unravelling, is forthcoming in 2022. She is co-editor, with Zoe Gilbert, of A Wild and Precious Life: A Recovery Anthology (2020). She lives in the UK.
Edited by Marina Benjamin
In January 2020, Le consentement (Consent) by Vanessa Springora was published, a memoir exposĂ© of Gabriel Matzneff, a well-known and much-respected French writer, but also a shameless predator of teen girls and preteen boys. Springora charts her two-year relationship with Matzneff, which began in 1986, when she was 14 and he 49, and critiques the cultural landscape that allowed it to happen, the complicity of her mother, and the intellectual and artistic circles that revolved around the Parisian neighbourhood of Saint-Germain-des-PrĂ©s where they lived. A year later, there was another astonishing exposĂ©, La familia grande (2021) by Camille Kouchner â the daughter of Franceâs former foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner â documenting the incestuous relationship between her stepfather, the academic and politician Olivier Duhamel, and Kouchnerâs twin brother, then aged 14.
Springora and Kouchner broke years of silence with these testimonies, laying bare the sexual violations these men committed, and landing a bomb right into the centre of the French elite who had allowed them to escape blame for so long. The bomb site is still smoking. Yet, barely two years ago, Matzneff was given safe refuge in his own country, where the authorities chose to turn a blind eye to his unashamed paedophilia â clear to anyone with eyes to see, given that he wrote up his exploits in widely published books. He was a recipient of a writerâs allowance by the Centre national du livre (National Centre of the Book), and in 1995 the minister of culture awarded him the Order of Arts and Letters in recognition of his contribution to the arts and literature. In 2013, he was awarded the Renaudot, one of Franceâs most prestigious literary awards (his friends were on the panel). But, paradoxically, this award was also the first unravelling, finally driving an outraged Springora out of hiding.
August 19, 2016
Edwin Mora | Washington, D.C.
Islamic State Keeps Price List for
Selling Sex Slaves
âIn the Name of Allahâ
The savage jihadi group Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) maintains a detailed store-like price list for selling Christian and Yazidi girls, including 1 year olds, as sex slaves âin the name of Allahâ to Turkish, Syrians, and Gulf Arabs, according to a document submitted to the U.S. State Department as evidence of the brutal practice.
April 15, 2022
Angelina Jolie Talks to Activist Nadia Murad
About Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War
The UN Security Council met this week as chilling reports emerge of rape and sexual violence being used against women and children during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. One of the speakers was Nobel Laureate and justice campaigner Nadia Murad, who recently launched the Murad Code, a global code of conduct focused on gathering information about conflict-based sexual violence.
Raised in the ancient faith and traditions of the Yazidi people, Murad grew up the youngest of 11 children in Kocho, Iraq. She enjoyed history at school, loved playing with makeup, and dreamed of opening a hair salon one day. Instead, in 2014, her hometown was captured by the Islamic State. Fourteen members of Muradâs family, including her beloved mother, were among the hundreds of citizens who were massacred. Two of her brothers were wounded but managed to pull themselves out of the mass graves ISIS dug for their victims. Murad and the other women and girls of Kocho were abducted and held as sex slaves. She endured months of captivity before she escaped and found refuge in Germany. Since then, she has dedicated herself to securing justice for the Yazidi people, rebuilding what ISIS destroyed, and protecting other women and children against the use of rape as a weapon of war.
June 7, 2023
A STARTLING film about the evils of sex trafficking in America
âCONTRALANDâ is a compelling crime documentary film that educates adults about the evils of sex trafficking in America. Itâs the brainchild of Craig âSawmanâ Sawyerâa former decorated member of the elite Navy SEAL Team Six. The documentary begins with actress Nancy Stafford greeting the audience with horrifying statistics about sex trafficking in the United States. Sex trafficking is a 38-billion-dollar industry that turns children into âcontrabandâ.
This frightening documentary film shows how Sawyer and his team travel to Utah, Connecticut and Arizona and work in tandem with law enforcement agencies in sex sting operations, which led to 22 arrests. They host stings that lure predators only to arrest them for engaging in the desire to exchange sex with minors for money.
Craig Sawyer says heâs only scratched the surface and plans to make more documentaries about human trafficking in America. Share, like and leave your comment below, help us raise awareness about this cruelty.
Dec. 27, 2022
Nearly 300 sue over alleged sexual abuse
at L.A. County juvenile halls and camps
By Richard Winton | Staff Writer
For five decades, boys and girls in Los Angeles County juvenile camps and detention halls have suffered repeated sexual assaults at the hands of probation and detention officers, according to a lawsuit filed by nearly 300 former detainees.
Page after page of the 359-page lawsuit filed Dec. 20 details allegations of systemic failures and horrific scenes of sexual abuse that lawyers say went unchecked by the L.A. County Probation Department, which operates the camps and halls.
Attorneys for the 279 plaintiffs say some of the boys and girls were victimized by more than one officer, and some officers are accused of being serial abusers, repeatedly finding new victims among those sent to the facilities over the years.
The lawsuit states that not only were the plaintiffs minors, they also were incarcerated, which marks the abuse under the âcolor of authority.â
The alleged assaults, dating from the 1970s through 2018, spanned a wide swath of L.A. Countyâs once vast and now mostly shuttered juvenile hall system, from Camp Scott and Camp Kenyon Scudder â girls facilities â to the Challenger Memorial Youth Center and the Los Padrinos, Central and Barry J. Nidorf juvenile halls.
What really happens when you report a rape
Sexual assault and rape have never been more widely spoken about. But in the current climate, what does it really take to report it? These 15 people want to tell
youâŠ
as told to Laura Silverman ~ October 22, 2020
With bleak new statistics from the Victims’ Commissioner, Dame Vera Baird QC, highlighting that just 14% of rape victims believed they would receive justice by reporting the crime to the police, we take a look at what the process is really like.
Survivorsâ voices are often lost amid the noise: the blare of social media, the low-fi grumble of the legal system in action, the squeal of headlines and the chatter on our TV screens.
But these 15 people know what it takes to cut through that noise. They know what it takes to look stark statistics â like the fact that only 1.5% of rape cases reported in England and Wales lead to the suspect being charged or summoned to court (compared to 14% four years ago) â in the eye and do it anyway. Some saw convictions, others are the human faces of the other 98.5%. The decision to report an assault is a hugely personal one. Some go to the police straight away, others later, others not at all â but what does it feel like to go through the process? We asked. And these are their stories.
MEN ON RAPE: What They Have To Say About Sexual Violence, by Timothy Beneke, St. Martinâs Press, 1982
A selection of interviews with men from every walk of American life provides original insights into, and disturbing revelations about the male attitude toward sexual violence in modern society.
Chapter 8
An Advocate for Rape Victims Responds
âThe underlying assumption in these interviews is that if somehow women would change their behavior, men might stop raping.â ~ Adrea Rechtin
July 12, 2015
Opinion Rape and sexual assault
The Cosby accusers were taught to be silent.
We must learn to hear rape victims
If we want to end rape culture and stop hurting rape victims, loved ones canât continue sending messages of silence
By Ijeoma Oluo
There are millions of women and men waiting until it is safe to tell their story of sexual abuse. This week in New York Magazine, 35 women came forward to share their stories of being allegedly assaulted by Bill Cosby. The article features a picture of the women staring us in the face, daring us to confront our complicity in this. It also included an empty chair for the women who have yet to come forward. Chances are, someone you love is waiting to feel safe enough to take a seat in that chair, and share their story.
I began working with Lindy West on I Believe You Itâs Not Your Fault, a blog that collects stories of sexual assault and abuse survivors, over a year ago. The project started as a simple way for adult women to get messages of love and support to young women who werenât being heard, who werenât being believed. The deluge of messages from women and men of all ages and ethnicities showed us that this problem is so much bigger than we could have imagined.
The same messages that people send Cosbyâs accusers: âYou waited too long to report itâ, âYou just want attentionâ, âYou are trying to ruin himâ are messages that victims of sexual assault and abuse hear every single day. They hear it from their families, friends, pastors, teachers and the police. And since the very day that interest in the Cosby allegations fired up again, theyâve had to hear it on Facebook, Twitter and on the nightly news. Every comment blaming Cosbyâs accusers for what was done to them has done immeasurable harm to all victims of sexual violence.
November 29, 2017
Ronan Farrow on exposing Harvey Weinstein
At 29, Ronan Farrow wasn’t even born when Harvey Weinstein is alleged to have begun sexually harassing and assaulting women. Yet Farrow was able to stand up to the movie producer’s powerful legal and PR machine, publishing explosive exposes about Weinstein in The New Yorker. Correspondent Erin Moriarty talks with the journalist, and with New Yorker editor David Remnick, to find out why the accusations against Weinstein (and so many other public figures of late) are coming out now.
February 1, 2018
Rose McGowan describes alleged rape
by Harvey Weinstein: Nightline Part 1
McGowan says the alleged rape happened during Sundance in 1997. An attorney for Weinstein said he “denies Rose McGowan’s allegations of non-consensual sexual contact.”
WEINSTEIN
FRONTLINE investigates how Harvey Weinstein allegedly sexually harassed and abused dozens of women over four decades. With allegations going back to Weinstein’s early years, the film examines the elaborate ways he and those around him tried to silence his accusers.
This documentary originally premiered on March 2, 2018. An updated version of this documentary was released March 21, 2023, and is now streaming above.
FEATURES
What Happens If Someone Breaks a
Non-Disclosure Agreement?
March 2, 2018 article by Nicole Einbinder
What Hollywood Knew
About Harvey Weinstein
March 2, 2018 article by Anjali Tsui
N.Y. Governor Orders Investigation Into
DA’s Handling of Weinstein Case
March 20, 2018 article by Leila Miller
Megyn Kelly TODAY
May 25, 2018
Rose McGowan On Harvey Weinstein’s Arrest
Actress Rose McGowan, one of Harvey Weinsteinâs earliest accusers, joins Megyn Kelly TODAY only 90 minutes after the disgraced Hollywood mogul surrendered to authorities in New York on sex-crime charges. âItâs real, itâs surreal, itâs both,â she says. âI actually didnât believe this day would come.â
September 4, 2018
Rose McGowan on being in a cult,
sexual harassment and shaving her head
“The linchpin moment is your encounter with Harvey Weinstein. Can you tell us about that?”
“That’s not something I usually talk about. In the book, it’s very much part of what was done to me by the complicity machine in Hollywood and how it took a very sweet, young girl and destroyed a big part of her, that I then had to learn how to survive because sexual assault – what it does to us is – it’s a form of murder, I believe.”
April 14, 2019
Rose McGowan – Be Brave
Part 1/2
After an acting career in Hollywood that spanned two decades, she went public with allegations of abuse against Harvey Weinstein. This became central in exposing systemic harassment in the entertainment industry, that shook the world and led to the #MeToo movement. Her book BRAVE chronicles her journey from childhood to Hollywood, and her mission to reclaim her life, and encourage people to question the power structures around them.
February 25, 2019
Harvey Weinstein: The fall of the king of Hollywood
“Personally, I think he enjoyed the switch which is: Then, he comes out – he’s naked – it’s a whole different tone, the energy is different – it’s much more aggressive and angry – and he watches us…the prey — OK, now what are you going to do? I think he loved the power struggle. I think he loved to watch in our faces – the fear – that’s what I truly believe… When you’re kind of almost hunted and treated like a piece of meat, that does something to you.” ~ Louisette
“It’s difficult to explain…but he is a master predator.” ~ Melissa
October 21, 2019
Ronan Farrow discusses his harrowing book,
Catch and Kill, with Sunny Hostin
In a dramatic account of violence and espionage, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Ronan Farrow exposes serial abusers and a cabal of powerful interests hell-bent on covering up the truth, at any cost, in Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators. In 2017, a routine network television investigation led Ronan Farrow to a story only whispered about: one of Hollywoodâs most powerful producers was a predator, protected by fear, wealth, and a conspiracy of silence. As Farrow drew closer to the truth, shadowy operatives, from high-priced lawyers to elite war-hardened spies, mounted a secret campaign of intimidation, threatening his career, following his every move, and weaponizing an account of abuse in his own family. This is the untold story of the exotic tactics of surveillance and intimidation deployed by wealthy and connected men to threaten journalists, evade accountability, and silence victims of abuse. And itâs the story of the women who risked everything to expose the truth and spark a global movement.
December 20, 2019
Lysette Anthony alleges she was raped
on two occasions by the Hollywood
producer Harvey Weinstein.
It is not about sex, it is about domination and control. Thatâs what the British actress tells us tonight, as she makes new allegations . . .
She is one of around 80 women alleging harassment, sexual assault or rape by Harvey Weinstein. He has always denied having non-consensual sex. He faces a criminal trial in the New Year centered around the allegations of two of the women. We put Ms Anthonyâs new claims to him today and his representative told us that âallegations are not certainties.â They said that Mr Weinstein has the right to due process and the presumption of innocence in his upcoming trial. Our exclusive â and at times harrowing â extended interview with Lysette Anthony includes graphic details concerning her allegations which some people may find distressing.
May 30, 2022
HARVEY WEINSTEINâS LAST CAMPAIGN
How the Hollywood producer lost control of the story
during his criminal trial in New York.
By Ken Auletta
PBS
June 21, 2022
Weinstein (full documentary)
The inside story of how Harvey Weinstein allegedly sexually harassed and abused dozens of women, and the elaborate ways he tried to silence his accusers. (Aired 2018)
March 26, 2019
Michael Jacksonâs life showed us
the journey from abused to abuser
The maltreatment he suffered was devastating but not sexual. Did that help fans believe in his harmless, âlost boyâ persona?
By Hadley Freeman
Jimmy Savile. Harvey Weinstein. R Kelly. Kevin Spacey. We are not exactly short these days of celebrities accused of exploiting their fame to mask predatory behaviour. Yet the Michael Jackson case is different. And thatâs not just because he is, still, so passionately defended by some â including, most recently, Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross â while he also, simultaneously, did so little to mask his predatoriness.
In his lifetime, he talked happily about sharing his bed with little boys, and was rarely photographed more than six feet away from one, even after he was publicly accused â four times â of child sexual abuse (by Jordy Chandler, Gavin Arvizo and two boys who accused him of molestation during the Arvizo trial â Chandler and one of the boys received financial payouts). But with every other high-profile story of child abuse, the adult predator is presented solely as just that: an adult predator, a fully formed, inexplicable monster.
With Jackson we have, uniquely, witnessed an entire life of abuse played out in front of our eyes, in which the once-adorable little boy, whose father notoriously physically abused him, grew up to become himself the most notorious abuser in modern music.
July 13, 2019
Jeffrey Epstein Was a Sex Offender.
The Powerful Welcomed Him Anyway.
By Jodi Kantor, Mike McIntire and Vanesa Friedman
[Update: A federal judge denied Jeffrey Epstein bail.]
A strange thing happened when Jeffrey Epstein came back to New York City after being branded a sex offender: His reputation appeared to rise.
In 2010, the year after he got out of a Florida jail, Katie Couric and George Stephanopoulos dined at his Manhattan mansion with a British royal. The next year, Mr. Epstein was photographed at a âbillionaireâs dinnerâ attended by tech titans like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. A page popped up on Harvard Universityâs website lauding his accomplishments, and superlative-filled news releases described his lofty ambitions as he dedicated $10 million to charitable causes.
. . .Over a decade ago, when Mr. Epstein was very publicly accused of sexually abusing girls as young as 14, he minimized the legal consequences with high-powered lawyers, monetary settlements that silenced complaints, and a plea deal that short-circuited an F.B.I. investigation and led to the resignation announcement on Friday of a Trump cabinet official who had overseen the case as a prosecutor. Socially, Mr. Epstein carried out a parallel effort, trying to preserve his reputation as a financier, philanthropist and thinker.
âIâm not a sexual predator, Iâm an âoffender,ââ Mr. Epstein told The New York Post in 2011. âItâs the difference between a murderer and a person who steals a bagel.â
August 18, 2019
Exploring the life and death of Jeffrey Epstein
2022
Ghislaine Maxwell: Filthy Rich
Stories from survivors frame this documentary detailing the sex-trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, a socialite and accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein.
May 16, 2021
Former models expose the ugly truth
of the beauty industry
First there was Harvey Weinstein, and then Jeffrey Epstein, two men so corrupted by their own power and money they thought it entitled them to sexually abuse any woman or teenager they lusted after. Now one of the icons of the world of modelling stands similarly accused of being a sex fiend. His name might not be familiar to those outside the beauty industry, but for decades Frenchman GĂ©rald Marie, now aged 70, was the super-agent who decided, or torpedoed, the careers of supermodels. He even married one of the most famous of them all, Linda Evangelista. But a 60 MINUTES global investigation has uncovered more than a dozen former models with shocking accusations about him. They say heâs a predator who ritually abused and raped young women â including minors. As Tara Brown reports, the women are now demanding that GĂ©rald Marie be held accountable for his depravity, and it seems prosecutors in France are finally taking notice.
(crime and psychology)
June 15, 2022
The Case of Kevin Spacey: An Open Secret
June 11, 2024
Kevin Spacey Breaks Down As He
Faces Debt of Millions
Kevin Spaceyâs acting career was at its apex in 2017, starring in Ridley Scottâs All the Money in the World after decades of successes and accolades; including two oscar wins. But when allegations were made by Anthony Rapp, his life came to an abrupt halt and he was cut from Scottâs movie. In the seven years since the first accusations came out, Kevin has barely worked and faced a slew of criminal charges; charges that have ultimately amounted to ânot guiltyâ across the board.
Spacey Joins Piers Morgan Uncensored, opening up about this tumultuous period in his life. They talk about his career, the allegations and the aftermath. Lastly, Kevin reveals how the legal bills heâs paid have left him millions in debt, while still staying hopeful for the future.
BuzzFeed News
October 19, 2016
A high-profile defense attorney from Florida, Cheney Mason, is now representing âJane Doe,â the plaintiff in a New York federal civil court case where she is accusing Donald Trump of raping her in the â90s when she was 13 years old, according to court documents filed Monday.
October 2, 2018
EXCLUSIVE – Stormy Daniels Details Sex with Donald Trump
In Stormy’s first interview for her new book Full Disclosure, she talks about meeting Donald Trump in Lake Tahoe, the details of the night they spent together in his hotel room, demonstrates how she spanked him with a magazine, witnessing a phone call he had with Hillary Clinton, reveals what she found in his bathroom, why she prayed for death during sex with him, and picks which mushroom resembles Trump’s penis the most from a line-up Jimmy provided for her.
September 11, 2020
Donald Trump Is Waiting for You in First Class
âI Moved on Her Very Heavilyâ: Part 3
Story by E. Jean Carroll
In her 2019 memoir, What Do We Need Men For?, E. Jean Carroll accused Donald Trump of rape, in a Bergdorfâs dressing room in the mid-1990s. After the president denied ever meeting her and dismissed her story as a Democratic plot, she sued him for defamation. Carroll was not, of course, the first woman to say that Trump had sexually harassed or assaulted her, but unlike so many other powerful men, the president has remained unscathed by the #MeToo reckoning. So in the run-up to the November 3 election, Carroll is interviewing other women who alleged that Trump suddenly and without consent âmoved onâ them, to cite his locution in the Access Hollywood tape. âIâm automatically attracted to beautifulâI just start kissing them, itâs like a magnet ⊠And when youâre a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab âem by the pussy.â
Carrollâs lawsuit took a dramatic turn this week, when the Justice Department intervened in an attempt to take over the presidentâs defense, asserting that Trump was acting in his official capacity when he claimed not to know Carroll. Meanwhile, a White House spokesperson denied all of the womenâs allegations, calling them âdecades-old false statementsâ that had been âthoroughly litigated in the last election and rejected by the American people.â Read Part 1 and Part 2 here.
May 5, 2023
The E. Jean Carroll witness decision
that could haunt Donald Trump
Should the jury be entitled to hear from any of Trumpâs other accusers? That was the weighty question Judge Lewis A. Kaplan had to decide.
By Carol C. Lam, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California
On Thursday, E. Jean Carroll officially rested her case. This means a jury in New York City will soon be asked to decide whether Donald Trump raped, and then later defamed, the former magazine columnist and media personality. The general public will draw its own conclusions about the civil lawsuit, a remarkable event not only because Trump is the former president of the United States, but also because he is a presidential candidate once again. But because jurors are instructed to reach their decision only on the evidence they see or hear in the trial, the decisions U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan makes about what evidence comes in â and what does not â are of enormous importance.
This week, the jury heard from four key witnesses likely to be top of mind for the jurors when they begin their deliberations. Two women â Lisa Birnbach and Carol Martin â testified that Carroll talked to them shortly after the attack in 1996 and that her account back then was consistent with her testimony at trial. This evidence is important corroboration of Carrollâs testimony â that is, it was introduced to show that the rape allegation was not a recent fabrication. (Trump has denied Carrollâs claims, calling them a âscam.â)
But Judge Kaplanâs more fraught decision was whether to allow Carrollâs legal team to introduce evidence from two other witnesses: Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff.
Dozens of women have publicly accused Trump of sexual misconduct of some kind, up to and including assault. Trump was never indicted on criminal charges for any of these alleged acts, and the statute of limitations has expired on most of them. (He also claims he has never forced himself on any woman.) The battery (i.e., rape) claims that were in Carrollâs lawsuit were made possible only by a temporary 2022 law that extended the statute of limitations for sexual assault lawsuits. In that sense, it is an alternative means of holding Trump accountable outside a criminal courtroom. Given the unusual situation, should the jury be entitled to hear from any of Trumpâs other accusers? That was the weighty question Kaplan had to decide.
He did so in a 23-page opinion. Kaplan ruled that Leeds, who said Trump sexually attacked her when she was seated next to him on a plane, and Stoynoff, a reporter for People magazine who said Trump sexually assaulted her while she was at Mar-a-Lago covering a story, should be allowed to testify.
Oct. 24, 2024
Former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model says
Trump groped her to show off for Jeffrey Epstein
In her first on-camera interview about the allegation, with CNN Thursday, Stacey Williams offered her most detailed public account of the alleged encounter, which she said occurred outside Trumpâs office in Trump Tower in the early 1990s when she was in her 20s andâŻwas briefly dating Epstein. CNN has spoken to three friends of Williams,âŻwho each said that she told them about the incident with Trump and Epstein, in 2006, in 2015 and in 2018, respectively.
Jan. 30, 2024
Stories behind the rich and powerful
named in the Jeffrey Epstein court files
The Epstein files – the latest on who knew what in the biggest sex trafficking ring in history. His elite circle of the wealthy and powerful on notice as thousands of damning new court documents are unsealed.
May 30, 2023
âI will never call my rapist father a womanâ
Sexual predators are finding new ways to hide
By Julie Bindel, an investigative journalist, author, and feminist campaigner. Her latest book is Feminism for Women: The Real Route to Liberation. She also writes on Substack.
âI have no respect for those criminal sex offenders who want to make life easier for themselves,â says Ceri-Lee Galvin. âMy father wasnât dysphoric about his male genitals when he was abusing me.â
Ceri-Lee is a bright and confident 24-year-old who juggles taking care of her young child with training to be a paramedic. In contrast to the loving family and happy life she now has, her childhood was pure hell. For nine bleak years, she was sexually abused and raped by her father, an ordeal that began when she was just eight years old.
But Clive Bundy, the man that subjected Ceri-Lee to unimaginable hurt and terror, has recently discarded his old life and now identifies as a woman. Ceri-Lee has felt compelled to speak out, in condemnation of a justice system that helps dangerous sexual predators to evade detection and to potentially target other child victims in female-only facilities.
In 2016, Bundy was arrested by police that had been monitoring his activities online. When they searched his laptop, they found numerous child abuse images, including a record of his abuse of Ceri-Lee. Bundy was jailed for 15 years but served half of that sentence, before being released a few weeks ago on licence.
Prior to his release, Bundy announced his decision to leave prison as a woman, stating that he has changed his name to Claire Fox.
It may not be coincidence that his chosen name is that of a high-profile campaigner who has used her seat in the House of Lords to argue that transgender activism endangers free speech and womenâs rights.
Last month, Baroness Fox asked â in an online article entitled âA âTransâ Paedophile Stole My Nameâ â why Bundy chose to troll her in this way. âI can only speculate. One commentator suggests that sex offenders, specifically paedophiles, select the names of well-known people so that an internet search will only turn up the famous person, and not them.â
May 31, 2023
Actor Danny Masterson Found Guilty of Raping 2 Women
Prosecutors had said Scientology officials protected the âThat â70s Showâ actor for years after he drugged and sexually assaulted the women.
By Drusilla Moorhouse
A jury has found âThat â70s Showâ actor Danny Masterson guilty of raping two women at his Hollywood Hills home in the early 2000s, according to The Associated Press.
The jury was not able to come to a verdict on an additional count of rape involving a third woman.
This was the second trial for the 47-year-old actor and Scientologist . . .
The original trial ended on Nov. 30, 2022, with the jury deadlocked on all counts after extended deliberations, which had to be restarted when two jurors got COVID.
Masterson pleaded not guilty to the charges and didnât testify in his own defense in either trial.
The judge ruled that more evidence related to Scientology could be heard in this second trial â allowing former Scientology official Claire Headley to testify as an expert witness to push back on church denials about its policies and principles, which critics have described as controlling and abusive.
The women, who are no longer Scientologists, testified that the church barred them from reporting the assaults to police, blamed them for the alleged rapes, and harassed, intimidated and stalked them. Headley, who sued the church in 2009 after years of rising through the ranks of its Sea Org religious order, testified that âit is policy that you do not call policeâ without âspecific authorizationâ â and that âby the laws of Scientology, it would be a high crimeâ to report a fellow Scientologist to the police without permission.
May 17, 2023
Horrifying Details About Woody Allen
Abusing His Kids
September 6, 2023
‘Vastly worse than other scandals’:
new film explores sexual abuse in Boy Scouts
In a Netflix documentary, survivors of sexual abuse and the whistleblower who spoke out share harrowing testimonies.
By Adrian Horton
Michael Johnson first learned about the âineligible volunteer filesâ on day one of his time with the Boy Scouts of America. Hired in 2010 as the organizationâs first youth protection officer, Johnson, a longtime criminal investigator from Plano, Texas, who specialized in sex crimes, was tasked with recommending policies to keep its million members safe from sexual abuse by Scoutmasters, adult volunteers or fellow Scouts. The Boy Scouts, now known as Scouts BSA, had long failed to do this; the âineligible volunteer filesâ, also known as the âperversion filesâ or âP-filesâ, were a private set of documents containing the names of known sexual abusers within the organization dating back to at least 1919 â evidence that the Boy Scouts, an institution associated with Rockwellian harmony and explicitly based in the ideals of leadership and courage, has long been aware of its unique vulnerabilities to sexual abuse.
Johnson attempted to address these vulnerabilities, namely the low barriers to entry for volunteering and the unsupervised overnight trips. But he kept running into barriers, either from higher-ups at the Boy Scouts of America, headquartered in Irving, Texas, or its religious partners, the Catholic church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, better known as the Mormon church, which severed ties with the Scouts in 2018 after it began admitting female, transgender and gay youths. Early in his tenure, Johnson asked for a standards of care document and was told there wasnât one, even though the Scouts had officially advised on youth-serving organizationsâ standard of care for the CDC.
The institution, he concluded, came first. âItâs a beautiful brand. BSA conjures up parades and apple pie, the American flag and all that,â Johnson says in Scouts Honor: the Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America, a new Netflix documentary. As youth protection officer, Johnson says, he was primarily expected to âmarket the image of safetyâ.
The Scouts were aware that safety was a real problem for its young members. As the 94-minute documentary recounts through interviews with survivors, investigative journalists and experts on the archival record, there were numerous instances in which P-file names simply moved towns and volunteered with the Scouts again. The patterns of abuse stretch back decades; survivors of every generation â millennial, gen X, boomer â recount their experiences, and the punishing burden of shame. When the Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy protection in the 2020, after several states changed their civil statutes of limitations for sex crimes and thus opened up a flood of potential litigation, the organization established a trust for compensation to victims of sexual abuse. Some 82,209 men filed claims, the largest case of child sexual abuse involving a single organization in US history.
âThis was absolutely completely staggering. Many orders of magnitude more claims came forward against the Boy Scouts than ever came forward against the Catholic church,â said the filmâs director, Brian Knappenberger. âI just felt like this had to be directly addressed head on in a longer formâ than the short film he was working on prior to the bankruptcy.
2023
In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal
This docuseries examining the chilling true stories of four Korean leaders, claiming to be prophets, exposes the dark side of unquestioning belief.
Youth@UrsulineAcademy
June 27, 2018
When “Yes” Means “No”, the Truth
about Consent | Joyce Short
Sexual assault happens, on average, every 96 seconds, and you can help change that. In her raw, ground breaking talk, Ms. Short, an author and sexual assault survivor, suggests new laws against sexual assault that can reshape our moral reasoning, address the problems the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements raised, and make the world a safer place.
30 Years Since the First Call
Since 1994 RAINN has helped nearly 5 million survivors and their loved ones.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN’s National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). Free. Confidential. 24/7.
