Fascinating & essential. Is it your contention that sexual &/or emotional predation is a recent phenomenon in recovery? Or has exacerbated of late?

I do have a background in 12 step, both as a nurse working in etoh & opiate recovery programs & a member. In the 80s I attended regular AA meetings, but could never find it in myself to work the program properly. I didn't realize until much later that alcohol isn't my obsession. Drugs are.

I've written here & elsewhere about the impact 12 step programs have on addiction recovery, particularly their emphasis on abstinence, which I think is deadly for some.

It killed our only child in 2019. He'd been abstinent for more than a year when a single slip, under the most understandable of circumstances killed him.

I'm not abstinent myself & plan & don't plan to be.

But I also realize that for alcoholics abstinence might be the only realistic option.

I've seen examples of the community-based shame you refer to. It is deadly. Predation, however, is a curse on a whole different level. I really don't know what to say, save that the notion horrifies me. Thanks for bringing this to the fore.