Wait, question, why are we calling it RAMCOA & OEA?? Don't those phrases have like SUPER antisemitic connotations???
I'm not gonna sit here & deny that ritual & organized abuse don't happen, that's naive at best & ward worthy at worst; but the mind control part of RAMCOA..?
Idk, call me crazy, but I think it'd be better not to use an acronym that's just a rebrand of SRA & just say it as it is
RAMCOA and OEA in and of themselves exist to disconnect survivors of both from SRA/the satanic panic, which has antisemitic connotations. I don’t speak *for* RAMCOA survivors, but I am a child sex trafficking survivor so here’s my piece. If a RAMCOA survivor has anything to add, correct, or clarify, please do!
We are very much calling it what it is. It’s a matter of specificity.
Organized extreme abuse includes anything from cults, a massive variety of trafficking situations, torture (by the UN definition), and any trauma that involves abuse that is thought out, planned, and executed by a perpetrator (either by themselves in a hierarchy or by a group of individuals). This can be a CSEM/CSAM ring, forced prostitution of an adult/pimping, a cult, or even extreme abuse in a family unit. While terms like trafficking and exploitation can define some of these experiences, ultimately the definition of trafficking and exploitation vary by your country (ex. iirc australia requires trafficking to have smuggling across state lines). There’s also the issue that simpler labels don’t emphasize the extreme intent to harm. Take the family unit for example: a child who has been tortured by their father while being undocumented to their country might not have been trafficked. Their abuse might still have been organized; same goes for network abuse without exploitation or trafficking, ex. sexual torture in a cult. OEA is a label for that.
While OEA is more commonly used now, RAMCOA is more specific and many survivors use that to describe their experiences.
Due to the nature of trafficking, it’s common for it to happen in closed spaces. Institutional abuse is a great example—staff members/teachers organize and arrange the abuse, exploitation, and trafficking of children at a school, church, daycare, etc. It’s easy to see how a perpetrator can get away with harming the victims because of a hierarchy (principal, teacher, student) that creates order. The children are taught from a young age that the perpetrator is a trusted person and regardless of whether or not they continue to believe that, going to another trusted adult in the institution means running into another abuser. Doing so might result in the harm of other children in the network. The child may be taught to fear outsiders, that the abusers know what is best for them, or even that their abuse is part of the curriculum. This is OEA.
Say the school is religious. The principal is a high ranking, trusted member of the community. His word is that of God. The group follows the BITE Model of Authoritarian Control, which is used to identify recognizing manipulation in organized groups, cults, and abusive relationships (which is subject to confirmation bias and is not a legitimate, peer reviewed tool, but it is useful regardless). Adults and children under the leadership of are heavily regulated in their daily actions, including being allowed to talk to outsiders about the group. Information is distorted—anyone outside the group is wrong, dangerous, and not to be trusted. The word of God that is preached, regardless from what holy book, is complete fact and not up for interpretation. Creating irrational fear about the last few letters is key and unstable reactions (praise one moment and anger the next) create dependency on higher ups.
In some of these situations, psychological abuse is not enough. Physical torture is used, which obviously in cases of young children can induce dissociation. Abusers in the group may take elements of the religion that exists as law to frighten children, ex. wearing costumes of religious figures during abuse. This assists in the thought control and creates thought crime—“you will go to Hell” might not be a believable threat to a child, but memories of being in “Hell” and the pain it induced will. The child may begin to harm themselves instead of being punished and in many cases, this is a trained reaction by the perpetrator. Like in the earlier example, they might have to play their role as thought-crime punisher to another victim. Dissociation is inevitable and is taken advantage of. A child who is incredibly dissociative and forced to act like a character is the same as “if I act like [abuser], maybe [abuser] won’t punish me” is the same for both cases of CDD. This doesn’t even begin to shine light on the sexual abuse, exploitation, trafficking, and more that happens in these cases. This is RAMCOA and OEA, but obviously there’s a big difference between example A and B.
The BITE model used to analyze organized groups covers the control of behavior, information, thoughts, and emotions. This is what people consider “mind control,” and RAMCOA is just an extreme example of it.
Note that RAMCOA is not a “worse” version of OEA, just more specific to describe a particular experience. Both groups can and do use physical, psychological, and sexual torture. One just takes advantage of dissociation and has “religious” elements. OEA can also be on the fence of RAMCOA in situations like example A where one child is forced to abuse another, but no ritual abuse takes place.
Hopefully this explains it a little better :)
TL;DR: RAMCOA is a specific label of OEA, and both are updated term to show distinction between genuine abuse survivors and those of the satanic panic. Labels like trafficking, torture, and exploitation are not enough in some cases of OEA or RAMCOA either by personal or legal definition. MC in RAMCOA is the extreme enforcement of the four concepts in the BITE model.
