Please watch the Video “Human Traffiking: Facts about” –> http://www.somaly.org/video/

And here watch what happens in the United States when it comes to “Child Traffiking” –>

1/5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxZtWYb4IEs

2/5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw5JiGGFiNM&feature=related

3/5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0NzhmC_-IU&feature=related

4/5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECKGJL_JMtw&feature=related [Cambodia]

5/5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkSwvCP4aa4

I think that the wives in these situations should get less time then their partners but I don’t think they should be forgiven. Victims of domestic violence have to take responsibility for the choices they made in life in order to move forward as a surivor. Mrs.’s Garrido and Hooker will take a long time though to move forward if they ever are capable of doing so behind bars. We can only hope that they will get intense psychological treatment and a comprehensive assessment into their psyche. I have empathy for all women who have been victims of abuse of any kind. The longer you stay with a batterer the less you have control of your mind and the further the violence can escalate. That is if you are still alive at the end.

The batterer was responsible for ruining the lives of all these women and yes the wives had no real control over this but they still must face consequenses just as people with a mental illness do in a psychiatric hospital. I mean putting these vulnerable wives on the street will set them free (to attract other batterers) and inside they will have treatment. It sounds strange but do we have any other resources? As a social worker I am well aware that the system is not perfect but all there is.

“there is absolutely no cure for pedophilia”
great going Sherlock, there’s no cure for strait or gay ether, but that doesn’t mean every gay is a raving sex maniac looking for same sex people to abuse. you know i saw a woman today on the street that i found incredibly attractive, but for some reason i didn’t follow her home, or rape her on her door step, i didn’t even speak to her, why? because of empathy. i have no desire to do anything that would hurt her or even make her feel uncomfortable, because it in fact would hurt me more, THAT is what is missing in child molesters, and that can be cured, there are plenty of people who successfully abstain from sex in the world, for whichever reason.. but there will be no cure while we are hell bent on revenge instead of justice, punishment instead of correction.

your story’s are of the worst of the worst cases, which happen once or twice every 20 years or so on earth, that is not an epidemic, that’s the exception to the rule, there are some crimes that we couldn’t stop even if we lived under a police state with half our population in prison. nice dig at the Scots btw, its ironic that the compassion shown releasing a dying man from prison is very similar to the compassion that is lacking the child molesters, and apparently in you as well.

Did you know that in our beloved country that there are more animal shelters for abused and unwanted animals than for battered women and children? Politicians in this country need to do some serious moral soul searching and start advocating for those that can not advocate for themselves.

May God surround these victims and protect them from future harm and heal them from past abuse.

I went through 7 years of severe battering/domestic violence, with two children (abuse started during pregnancy with the first), in front of Berkeley liberals (my relatives), home-based fellowships (pastor who married us, others), a variety of churches, employers, 2 oby/gyns (who delivered 2nd daughter), police officers (who came to the home when neighbors called), many many colleagues (in music) and I cannot tell you HOW many other individuals knew what this man was doing to me in front of our kids, and for no reason. We were sent to joint counseling by a well-known pastor in the Bay Area (in fact, his church is thriving), this guy was suicidal and was collecting weapons; I had a close call, and they didn’t want to hear about it. We had to flee the home overnight, it just didn’t seem to “register.” ** I am an Oberlin grad and I didn’t break easy, but religious drill & family of origin denial helped (and the “Woman, Submit!” stuff wasn’t evident in advance, FYI if anyone is feeling superior and self-righteous about this around here. I reported to doctors, and worked a variety of jobs (if you’re in these situations you WILL work and support your abuser).

I cannot imagine how Jaycee survived, but she DID. Where were those babies delivered?

It’s been almost 10 years since getting out and I still do not feel safe and am still experiencing occasional (and warning) stalkings. My children were taken — I call it “hostage” on an overnight visitation exchange almost a year after I’d begun warning the courts that a kidnapping was imminent and asked for a 2nd restraining order. The person who helped take them hostage (we talked recently, but this doesn’t mean she came clean) is a self-reported incest victim, and was targeted around a church recovery group EXPLICITLY for the purpose of getting my girls away from me. My own family was involved in betrayal, and my heart remains in my mouth as all contact is cut off. Bonding happens in part when children or others are forced to partake or witness abuse of someone related to them, and induced to take a side. AN elderly mother is involved in this case, that has every appearance (to my reading of it) as a basic family “gang” or cult. . . . . . In my case, the control had an order to it, and looking back, I see the premeditation; Shut down: 1. transportation 2. bank account 3. credit 4. former associations with inspiring or positive activities 5. physical attacks, at first severe (for shock effect) and 6. You name it. 7. Constant rotation of jobs, so no real source of income, or credibility can build up. . . .

You don’t “buy” the story if you’re the target, you just have to figure out how to survive, especially with children. I went to a family violence law center (secretly) and got a restraining order through them, but they made some serious mistakes that left it open to being harassed and hounded afterwards, including through a series of jobs. UNbelievable but common.

Post-divorce, similar activities happened, just involving more people. My PTSD started returning in full force around 2005 (and I didn’t even LIVE with the guy!), as both of us fully realized WHICH local agencies weren’t going to enforce. . . . . .

Unless you have faced this full in the face, you just don’t “get” how it can happen, and how different it looks from the other side. I haven’t experienced anything like what I hear of some of these cases, but in quality no escape is no escape, threat is threat, and dead is dead, and I was personally warned never to oppose this person or he WOULD escalate til he won. No limit was mentioned.

CHILD-STEALING: Many mothers, we are now “noncustodial” know how little a custody order means, and we work hard to get out of trauma from total cutoff of contact with our kids that we raised.

Some women now realize they were targeted to start with because they were fertile and he wanted kids. Particularly immigrant women brought over for this purpose, or you will see a large difference in age.

The general public will, in general, not be helping any of these (and I include my two daughters, neither of who will now talk with me, and one who remains in the household, they were told I would retaliate; they were taken suddenly and no one rescued them, and they have several family and family-like members controlling there futures, whereabouts, and so forth. You cannot help us unless you realize this COULD be anyone and stop thinking that some social status means squat. it doesn’t.

The other thing is, please do go to my site, and also visit “http://www.nafcj.net” and understand some of the $$ behind this, and the degradation of due process in the courts. It’s a matter of getting vocabulary, half the time, to understand the “child trafficking” means, child for money, no matter the context. Everyone wants to reform the courts (that’s stuck in them) but few really examine the role the child support agency plays — esp. in California — in taking due process out of the courtroom and putting it in the hands of professionals with too little supervision and too much power. I had to get totally out of my comfort zone to get free, and I’m still there.

Why I am gradually becoming more and more feminist. I identify as a Christian feminist, and I steer clear of churches (was thrown out of one by a “women don’t speak” group -recently — for speaking entirely in order, but apparently with the wrong attitude). I have watched them “Drill” young men how to dominate women, as my ex also flew in someone to help him intimidate me. it didn’t work, but he tried. What intimidated me was the weapons in the home.

http://familycourtmatters.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/obama-chesler-ali-darwish-and-me-on-islamicchristia-violence-against-women/

You have to look beyond the religious divides, while realizing that yes, religion DOES lead to honor killings and wife-killings and so forth. But they come just as nasty under “atheism,” it’s a criminal intent issue. Also, WATCH OUT for professions that deal primarily with children, elderly and disabled, there are plenty of these sorts working in them; the Garridos were, I heard.

Thank you Dr. Chesler, you are one of my role models, and keep on writing. Other generations need to know what happened.

If the public would spend less time trying to purge its conscience (and on commentary) and MORE on analysis — and listen to people who’ve been through this, even though we don’t always write so well — it might help put a dent in it. I don’t see many organizations that are, it’s individuals that must. Get informed. That’s what I did when I got out, and that’s a process. This has occupied almost 20 yrs of my own adult life, and it doesn’t just go away.

SF Bay Area