The New York Times did a good job describing ISIS (ISIL, Daeshite) recruitment of a cognitively limited 23yo woman. She’s not explicitly described as adult special needs, but she has a fatal alcohol syndrome diagnosis and limited employment options. She’s not that different from the kids and adults we care for.
Unsurprisingly her ISIL recruiter is not terribly high functioning himself.
It reminds me of the relatively harmless cults of the 1970s, but in those cults there wasn’t a lot of upside to special needs recruitment The cults wanted fundraisers; a certain amount of psychological disability was a feature, but special needs was too much. ISIL may have more use for people with cognitive disabilities.
It’s not at the top of the worry list, but if you care for a special needs teen or adult with a net connection (smartphone, etc) you can probably add ISIL to the long list of predators of vulnerable adults. Not the top of the list, but something to watch for.
Yay connectivity.
PS. I’ve long wondered what Richard (“shoe bomber”) Reid’s IQ is, and whether he’d fall in the sub 70 range of diminished responsibility.
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