In 2010, I interviewed a 15-year-old client with strong ties to Sureño gang members. As he dodged questions, I raised my voice and said, “Keep it real, okay? Be straight with me, or we’ll be here a long time!” Sighing, he agreed.
I attempted to establish a baseline for what he would do for his gang, but it became obvious he would do anything.
I asked about killing and human trafficking. “Would you be willing to engage in these, even if it meant murder or kidnapping a girl and taking her from her family?”
He tightened his jaw, looked down, and responded while staring at the ground. “You said, ‘Keep it real.’ I will. I’d do it if that was the order.”
Shaking my head in disbelief, I managed two words in my reply: “Really? Why?”
He raised his head defiantly and pointed toward me. “Nothing is off limits. Someone should have been looking out for who got killed or kidnapped. That’s on them, not me.”
Years later, he was arrested for second-degree murder.
How does a child come to see the world this way? He was selected and indoctrinated through what I’ve come to call a predatory child onboarding network, or PCON. We must understand how these networks operate to counter them and protect children.
The Predation Vulnerability Pathway
The term PCON describes networks that target vulnerable children, onboard them into the group, exploit their vulnerabilities, and exercise control through various forms of fear, extortion, abuse, and isolation.
Examples of organizations and networks that may function as PCONs include gangs, human traffickers, fraud crews, extremists, terrorists, leaderless resistance hubs, organized crime groups, online grooming communities, and, more recently, 764 and related Nihilistic Violent Extremists.
My view does not claim that children who do illegal things are not responsible. Instead, it focuses on how and why they take the journey. It names the corrupting influences and influencers that shape them. I see a contest between positive mentoring and criminal or extremist mentoring. The reach of these PCON groups is global, and the number of participants in these types of illicit activities continues to grow. Wherever a child is dehumanized and viewed as an opportunity for the group, our communities will remain vulnerable.
Often, exploitation is not a single event, ideology, or moment in time. It’s a pathway. It draws a child into a dark world where curiosity, alienation, affinity, and purpose are used to ensnare. The pathway offers certainty and identity in a world that can feel increasingly anarchic and arbitrary. PCON groups see the opportunity to capture the minds and hearts of children in an effort to further their criminal, extremist, commercial, and other illicit interests.
I see the work of countering these predatory groups as part of the message of Proverbs 24:11-12: “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.” The challenge for our villages is this: how do we enhance value by creating a place for all of us?
Recognizing the Pathway in a Child’s Life
Years ago, I worked with a team helping a 16-year-old girl who was abusing methamphetamine. Problems persisted at home, and both her mother and father were incarcerated. She began to run away from her grandmother’s place and developed an affinity for a group of young men. When we began to ask questions, she remained highly secretive about where she went, what she was doing, and who she was with.
She felt an obligation to protect them. With time and patience, our suspicions turned to evidence. We uncovered her communication with the group and the name of the ringleader. The messages exchanged revealed that they offered her escapism through drug use. Soon, the men began to exploit her through trafficking.
The pathway was clear in this case. She was alienated from healthy support. We invited her to receive help and let her know it was always available. We responded to her alienation by asking open-ended questions, building rapport, and assessing how deeply she had become involved with the group. She concluded she needed help. Initially, she refused to describe the parties. But during her time in detention, as she reflected on her experiences and became sober, she eventually mentioned a nickname of a party that we recognized. Over time, as we discussed our concerns and the opportunity for her to regain control of her own life, she told us what we needed to know and exposed how she had been used.
Her experience illustrates the pathway: isolated from healthy supports, she bonded with the group, felt obligated to protect them, and suffered exploitation on their behalf.
The table below illustrates the pattern.
Predation Vulnerability Pathway Stages
| Stage | Signs | Key Questions | Responses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alienation | When curiosity, isolation, distrust, trauma, unmet needs, or lack of belonging move children away from healthy connections. | What need has the network explored, exposed, or exploited? | Offer support and invite participation and connection. Make others aware of your concerns. Create a monitoring team of adults, including professionals, and keep them informed. |
| Affinity | Look for signs of the youth speaking or dressing differently. Look for a new sense of identity, belonging, or invulnerability. New friend groups or gifts should be monitored. | What network is meeting the youth’s needs or desires? What is the youth giving this network, and what is the cost? | Use open-ended questions to challenge and provide counternarratives to the message of obligation. Update the monitoring team. |
| Obligation | Look for signs of secrecy, gifts, pressure, and loyalty tests. Also note increased risk-taking. | Who has compelled the child, and on what pressures, extortion, or ideas? | Expose manipulation candidly but with care. Provide clear instructions and build a strategy for a healthy connection. Update the monitoring team. |
| Utility | This is the stage of deep entrenchment where the child is actively used for labor, recruiting, transport, violent activities, and building status for the group. | What does the child provide, and who are the beneficiaries? | Report the network’s harm to law enforcement. Update the monitoring team. Remain available for the child. |
Developing a Samaritan Response
Knowing how the predatory pathway works, what can an ordinary person do to help? The parable of the Good Samaritan provides a helpful framework.
In the parable, the Good Samaritan approaches a wounded man, tends his injuries, and then arranges for ongoing care. That combination of assuming responsibility, providing immediate help, and then creating sustained improvement is the kind of Samaritan response we should pursue.
A Samaritan response begins when ordinary people recognize warning signs and share them with those in a position to provide sustained help. It’s care and caution in action. A Samaritan response is not passive. It means offering availability to listen and help. Wisdom and courage are required, and Proverbs 11:14 tells us there is safety when groups of wise people come together.
We can avoid taking this task on alone. Each network has pressure points that can be found, exposed, and rationally discussed with the youth and others. We can disrupt these networks by targeting the pressure points.
| Pressure Point | Network Weakness | Samaritan Response |
|---|---|---|
| Exposure | PCON members expose themselves to youth in hidden ways and rely on secrecy and the normalization of criminal or extremist behavior. | Samaritans see patterns, name manipulation, share their concerns with the youth and others, and expose the networks. |
| Relationship Exploitation | These networks view hearts and minds as a competition for unearned trust. They pretend to value relationships but build them on deception, fear, and false hope. | Samaritans model a steady, trustworthy presence and make it known that healthy adult relationships are always available. |
| Mentoring Battlefield | Mentoring and indoctrination become a means to an end for the group, offering false identity, status, protection, and purpose. | Samaritans are open, brave, and adaptive in how they reach youth and offer tangible pathways for young people to achieve success incrementally. |
| Protection | These networks promise protection and ensure that there are real threats once the child joins, whether through exposure, threats, rivals, or law enforcement. | Healthy adults point out that protection is always available from trustworthy adults and professionals. |
| Opportunity | PCON members are opportunistic, and they seek ways to channel curiosity, unmet need, and lack of resources into usefulness for their ends. | Samaritans offer opportunities to help young people develop into healthy, well-rounded citizens who contribute to their communities. |
Help in Action
What might a Samaritan response look like in practice?
Suppose that Tom notices the young man who has been mowing his lawn no longer pays attention to detail and is distracted and distant. He seems uninterested in conversation before receiving his pay and is wearing long-sleeved clothing in extreme heat. When the young man reaches for his money, Tom sees initials cut into his arm.
Tom shows concern and asks questions, but the young man is dismissive. Tom lets him know that he is available to help and that, because he is concerned about the injuries, he will pass the information along to his mother and school officials. Tom asks, “Whose initials are those?” The child is silent.
Tom suspects self-harm. He has heard about dangerous groups, like 764, that actively exploit young people online and drive them toward this type of behavior and other acts that make them feel shame and isolation. Keeping the door of communication open, Tom tells him, “See you next week.” This models the steady relationship that is needed in the young man’s life. When the youth appears next week, Tom invites him and his mother to a barbecue and offers to take a more active role in Tom’s life. These steps are important because Tom has countered three pressure points the predatory group has: exposure, relationship exploitation, and the mentoring battlefield. At the barbecue, Tom models protection as someone the youth can turn to. He shows a sincere interest in creating opportunities for the youth and can help connect Tom to other resources and trusted adults, thereby countering PCON aims.
PCON is not only a proposed framework that helps people identify and intervene; it is a call to action. Everywhere we turn, we see youth anger, angst, aimlessness, and confusion channeled to nefarious ends. The networks behind them have accepted the mentoring challenge of adding them to their ranks. A Samaritan response calls us to shake off our slumber and apathy. A child in danger is never someone else’s problem. It’s ours.
