Scholarly Source

Texas A&M students have a great opportunity since they can search and access hundreds and thousands of scholarly articles that are available a mouse-click away. The university subscribes to many online journals that are peer-reviewed and publish continually evolving ideas and experiments about medicine and social issues.Scholarly articles are usually found in renowned journals such as Science, are peer reviewed,have multiple references from other scholars, and use terms relating to the field that is being talked about. For students, the only way to find articles through TAMU is through the library website at library.tamu.edu. From here, you can search for a specific article, database, book, or journal. 


I decided to type in the topic of human trafficking and found over 200 articles. Not all articles I found were considered peer reviewed. One way to check this is when following the link to the actual article. Although it's hard to see, the yellow note on the right-hand side says peer reviewed. 

In an article talking about torture in human trafficking, Lee Schwecke talks about Ritual Abuse-Torture, how it affects its victims, and what can be done to help them recover. RAT takes many forms and includes many violent acts. Alcohol and drugs can be used to gain control over victims, and it's common that victims are threatened in order to keep silent. There is an association between trafficking and RAT. "Human trafficking victims 
may be subjected to any of the tactics used with RAT victims to ensure traffickers’ power and control and maintenance of compliance and silence," notes Schwecke. Often times, people who are tortured and abused refuse to talk because they are threatened to stay silent or do not want to revisit painful memories if they are ever taken from that environment. Treatment is addressed as well. Special care and consideration must be given in order for patients to open up about their past and cope with everything that has happened instead of resorting to other outlets such as anger, anxiety, and self-destructive behaviors. Through this, the author is addressing an issue and its prevention. How can professionals identify these people and how can they help them? What are the resources available? We need to be proactive in helping them overcome.


Schwecke, Lee H. "Beyond Childhood Sexual Abuse: Ritual Abuse-Torture and Human Trafficking." Journal of psychosocial nursing and mental health services 49.1 (2011): 8,8-10. PsycINFO. Web. 30 Oct. 2011.