Sade Eastmond

Abstract High-control groups, variously termed cults, cultic groups, or coercive organizations, recruit, isolate, and exploit members through documented mechanisms of undue influence, and women are disproportionately targeted and harmed within them. This article synthesizes peer-reviewed cultic-studies literature, the trial and sentencing records of two adjudicated New York federal prosecutions (United States v. Raniere, E.D.N.Y. 2019; United States v. Lawrence Ray, S.D.N.Y. 2022),...

Abstract Reproductive coercion (the deliberate interference with a partner's contraceptive use, pregnancy decisions, and reproductive autonomy) constitutes a distinct and durable form of violence against women that remains poorly recognized by the legal, healthcare, and public-safety institutions responsible for women's protection in New York City. This article synthesizes peer-reviewed epidemiological research, national surveillance data, New York State legislative records, and...

Abstract Dangerous men are rarely identified by a single dramatic behavior; they reveal themselves through accumulating patterns of entitlement, boundary violation, manipulation, and control. This article argues that spotting these men is a learnable, evidence-based skill, and provides a comprehensive framework for doing so in the New York City context, where the NYPD responded to 249,077 domestic incident reports in 2024 and 95% of reported rapes were committed by someone the victim knew....