Juvenile Sects - Focus of Police Attention

• NCJ Number: 69854
• Journal: DEUTSCHE POLIZEI Dated: (September 1978) Pages: 29-32
• Author(s): W Becker
• Date Published: 1978
• Length: 4 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: German
• Country: West Germany (Former)

Annotation

Juvenile religious sects represented in West Germany, reasons for their attractiveness to juveniles, and police measures to prevent their undue influence on impressionable youth are described.

Abstract

Sects in question include the Hare Krishna movement, the Moon Unification Church, the Children of God, the Scientology Church, and Transcendental Meditation movement. Characteristics common to all of these sects are their non-German origins, their youth orientation, their failure to include young people in their actual management despite ostensible community service goals, their intolerance of other ideas, their use of fraudulent methods and begging to obtain new members and money; and their attractiveness to emotionally disturbed, unstable individuals. Other common features are the radical separation of members from families and past histories; the expectation of unconditional obedience to a command chain from above, the requirement that members abandon their professions so that they are without social security, the sects' financial status outside control of the financial authorities, and the ostensible sexual control over members. Young people are often attracted to sects as a means of escaping personal crises and alienation from the sociocultural norms of their parents. Such juveniles frequently lack satisfactory role models, find no transcending values in their lives, and have no personal ties because of shortcomings in our society. Possible control measures to be employed by police involve application of specific laws, e.g., collective legal action for criminal violations or for fraud perpetrated against members, and prosecution for formation of a criminal group, for sexual abuse of persons unable to resist, or for kidnapping minors. Preventive education in schools, vocational institutions, and youth groups is encouraged. While sects should be taken seriously, their dangers should not be exaggerated. --in German.