Editing Deprogramming (section)

== Use of violence ==
Deprogramming became a controversial practice due to the violent and illegal nature of some of its methods. Various academics have commented on the practice. Sociologist [[Anson D. Shupe]] and others wrote that deprogramming is comparable to [[exorcism]] in both methodology and manifestation.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shupe |first1=Anson D. |last2=Spielmann |first2=Roger |last3=Stigall |first3=Sam |date=July 1977 |title=Deprogramming: The New Exorcism |journal=[[American Behavioral Scientist]] |volume=20 |issue=6 |pages=941–956 |doi=10.1177/000276427702000609 |s2cid=220680074}}</ref> Professor of Sociology and Judicial Studies [[James T. Richardson]] described deprogramming as a "private, self-help process whereby participants in unpopular new religious movements (NRMs) were forcibly removed from the group, incarcerated, and put through radical resocialization processes that were supposed to result in their agreeing to leave the group."<ref name="richardson">{{cite journal |last1=Richardson |first1=James T. |year=2011 |title=Deprogramming: from private self-help to governmental organized repression |journal=[[Crime, Law and Social Change]] |volume=55 |issue=4 |pages=321–336 |doi=10.1007/s10611-011-9286-5 |s2cid=145343864}}</ref> Law professor [[Douglas Laycock]], author of ''Religious Liberty: The Free Exercise Clause'', wrote:

<blockquote>Beginning in the 1970s, many parents responded to the initial conversion with "deprogramming." The essence of deprogramming was to physically abduct the convert, isolate him and physically restrain him, and barrage him with continuous arguments and attacks against his new religion, threatening to hold him forever until he agreed to leave it.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Laycock |first=Douglas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bEiwxUad97IC |title=Religious Liberty, Volume 2: The Free Exercise Clause |date=2011 |publisher=[[Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing]] |isbn=978-0-8028-6522-9 |volume=2 |location=Grand Rapids, MI |pages=746 |language=en}}
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Deprogrammers generally operated on the presumption that the people they were paid to extract from religious organizations were victims of mind control or brainwashing. Since the theory was that such individuals were incapable of rational thought, extreme measures were thought to be justified for their own good, up to and including the use of criminal violence. Ted Patrick was eventually tried and convicted of multiple felonies relating to kidnapping and false imprisonment of deprogramming subjects.<ref name=":2" />

Violence of one degree or another is common to all anecdotal accounts of deprogramming. There are numerous testimonies from people who describe being threatened with a gun, beaten, denied food and sleep, and sexually assaulted.<ref name="Barker 2002">[[Eileen Barker|Barker, Eileen]] (2002). "Watching for Violence: A Comparative Analysis of the Roles of Five Types of Cult-Watching Groups". In ''Cults, Religion, and Violence'', edited by [[David G. Bromley]] and [[J. Gordon Melton]], 123–48. Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]].</ref> In these accounts, the deprogramming usually begins with the victim being forced into a vehicle and taken to a place where they are isolated from everyone but their captors. Told that they would not be released until they renounce their beliefs, they are then subjected to days and sometimes weeks of verbal, emotional, psychological, and/or physical pressure until the demands of their abductors are satisfied.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=LeMoult |first=John E. |date=1978 |title=Deprogramming Members of Religious Sects |url=https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2305&context=flr |journal=[[Fordham Law Review]] |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=599–640}}</ref>

According to sociologist [[Eileen Barker]], "One does not have to rely on the victims for stories of violence: Ted Patrick, one of the most notorious deprogrammers used by CAGs [cult-awareness groups] (who has spent several terms in prison for his exploits) openly boasts about some of the violence he employed." A number of other prominent members of "cult-awareness groups" have been convicted of violent crimes committed in the course of deprogrammings.<ref name="Barker 2002"/>

[[Carol Giambalvo]], who worked for the Cult Awareness Network in the 1980s (later advocating for "voluntary exit counseling" and "thought reform consultation") said that although abductions certainly occurred, the more common practice was to forcefully detain people in their own homes, or in a cabin or motel room. Giambalvo tells of "horror stories" of restraint, beatings, use of handcuffs and weapons, sexual abuse, and even rape, although she claims that these were only used in a minority of cases and that deprogramming "helped to free many individuals".<ref name="Giambalvo 1998">{{Cite web |last=Giambalvo |first=Carol |date=1998 |title=From Deprogramming to Thought Reform Consultation |url=https://www.spiritualabuseresources.com/articles/from-deprogramming-to-thought-reform-consultation |access-date=2022-09-05 |website=[[International Cultic Studies Association]]}}</ref>