• Susan Raine, PhD

    Canada   Dr. Susan Raine is Associate Professor at MacEwan University in Edmonton. She teaches courses on religion, culture, deviance, and conspiracy theories. Her research centers on alternative religious movements, including Scientology, Heaven’s Gate, and the Children of God/The Family. She has explored topics such as self-identity, sexuality, surveillance, and the use of science fiction narratives. More recently, her work focuses on grooming for sexual abuse within religious and ideological systems.

    Canada

Narcissistic sexual redation: Keith Raniere’s grooming strategies in NXIVM

Volume 2, 2021

Susan Raine, PhD
This article examines how NXIVM leader Keith Raniere groomed women for sexual exploitation through both group teachings and personal relationships. Drawing on research by Sinnamon and Lalich, it analyzes Raniere’s coercive tactics and explores the

Reinventing the self: NXIVM’s promises, secrets, and lies

Volume 2, 2021

Susan Raine, PhD
This article analyzes NXIVM through the lens of Susie Scott’s reinventive institution theory, highlighting how the group promised self-transformation while embedding coercive power structures. By comparing NXIVM’s subgroups—ESP, Jness, SOP, and DOS—the study reveals how

The grooming of children for sexual abuse in religious settings: Unique characteristics and select case studies

Volume 3, 2022

Susan Raine, PhD
This article examines how religious authority, obedience, and spiritual fear enable child sexual grooming, using cross-faith case studies to show how abuse dynamics in religious settings differ from secular contexts.