International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 9, 2018 21
parlors, through human watch as armed guards
around a work site, and by other means.
302F
303
3. Labor and Profit Motives
Both traffickers and cult leaders are known to
exploit their victims for profit. Labor traffickers,
for example, may force their victims to endure
up to eighteen-hour workdays, often under
grueling conditions, only to have their earnings
taken by the trafficker at the end of the day.
303F
304
Sex traffickers force their victims to engage in
sexual activities for the trafficker’s income.
304F
305
Harsh conditions can be inflicted as punishment
for those who are noncompliant with the
rules.
305F
306 Similarly, cults need to survive
somehow and leaders often rely upon the labor
of followers, including the children.
306F
307 Some
cults run businesses as a means of income, such
as the pyramid schemes described above.
307F
308
Both traffickers and cult leaders also use
economics to coerce their victims. For example,
traffickers may overcharge a person for
something (such as passage to the United
States), such that the person is left with a debt to
the trafficker that is impossible to pay down and
requires the person to remain under the
trafficker’s control.
308F
309 Similarly, cult victims
may have turned over mortgages and life savings
to their ringleaders, such that they do not feel
they can afford to leave the group.
309F
310
Viewed more broadly, cults and trafficking rings
are similar in that they both function as
businesses. When the dogma of cults is stripped
away, it is clear that their leaders run a
business—whether it is a church in a U.S. rural
or urban town,
310F
311 a Jonestown in a developing
country that housed a 1,000 people,
311F
312 or an
303 See HYLAND &SREEHARSHA, supra note 240, at 23.
304 Id. at 24.
305 Id. at 23.
306 Id. at 24.
307 See HASSAN, supra note 40.
308 Id.
309 HYLAND &SREEHARSHA, supra note 240, at 29−30.
310 See id. at 41.
311 See Emancipation, supra note 230. When interviewing subjects
for that article, the religious cults were described by the former
members as businesses.
312 See supra Part I.
overcrowded apartment in Manhattan
312F
313 —just
like traffickers run a business. Cults are
organizations that must be managed their
members are fed and sheltered, have jobs, and
provide some form of education for their
young.
313F
314 The devotee, in some way, contributes
to the economic functioning of the cult.
314F
315 As
one former cultist expressed:
I now understand that I was used as a tool to
serve the leader’s need for increased
membership and therefore increased income. I
was in a community that valued spirituality over
materialism with double standards. As ‘co-
workers,’ most of us lived very modestly, giving
whatever we could to support the leader’s
lifestyle.
315F
316
4. Fraudulent Recruitment
The tactics of traffickers are much like those of
cult recruiters. Both use fraud as a recruitment
tool to deceive their target. Some traffickers lure
in victims with the pretense of a friendship,
romance, or mentorship, but the end result could
be a prostitution ring.
316F
317 Some traffickers
promise jobs and assistance with emigration to
another town or country sometimes traffickers
even seal their alleged agreement in writing or
by verbal contract.
317F
318 Traffickers use traditional
forms of publicity such as ads in the newspaper
or other promotions and word-of-mouth.
318F
319
What trafficked victims are not told, however, is
that traffickers may have created false
identifications for them which can later be used
to coerce the victims (who fear the trafficker
will report the false identification to
authorities).
319F
320 Trafficked victims are also not
313 See supra Part I.
314 See supra Part I.
315 See supra Part I.
316 Colleen Russell, Touched: Disconfirming Pathogenic Beliefs of
Thought Reform Through the Process of Acting, 9 INT’L CULTIC
SUTD. ASS’N 106, 112 (2010) (recollecting Eckankar in Southern
California).
317 HYLAND &SREEHARSHA, supra note 240, at 25.
318 Id. at 24.
319 Id. Ellen Barry, A Town Where Human Trafficking Corrupts
All, N.Y. TIMES, July 24, 2015, at A1 (describing a “predatory
operation of considerable scale” where traffickers use high-
pressure tactics in a pyramid scheme).
320 HYLAND &SREEHARSHA, supra note 240, at 26.
parlors, through human watch as armed guards
around a work site, and by other means.
302F
303
3. Labor and Profit Motives
Both traffickers and cult leaders are known to
exploit their victims for profit. Labor traffickers,
for example, may force their victims to endure
up to eighteen-hour workdays, often under
grueling conditions, only to have their earnings
taken by the trafficker at the end of the day.
303F
304
Sex traffickers force their victims to engage in
sexual activities for the trafficker’s income.
304F
305
Harsh conditions can be inflicted as punishment
for those who are noncompliant with the
rules.
305F
306 Similarly, cults need to survive
somehow and leaders often rely upon the labor
of followers, including the children.
306F
307 Some
cults run businesses as a means of income, such
as the pyramid schemes described above.
307F
308
Both traffickers and cult leaders also use
economics to coerce their victims. For example,
traffickers may overcharge a person for
something (such as passage to the United
States), such that the person is left with a debt to
the trafficker that is impossible to pay down and
requires the person to remain under the
trafficker’s control.
308F
309 Similarly, cult victims
may have turned over mortgages and life savings
to their ringleaders, such that they do not feel
they can afford to leave the group.
309F
310
Viewed more broadly, cults and trafficking rings
are similar in that they both function as
businesses. When the dogma of cults is stripped
away, it is clear that their leaders run a
business—whether it is a church in a U.S. rural
or urban town,
310F
311 a Jonestown in a developing
country that housed a 1,000 people,
311F
312 or an
303 See HYLAND &SREEHARSHA, supra note 240, at 23.
304 Id. at 24.
305 Id. at 23.
306 Id. at 24.
307 See HASSAN, supra note 40.
308 Id.
309 HYLAND &SREEHARSHA, supra note 240, at 29−30.
310 See id. at 41.
311 See Emancipation, supra note 230. When interviewing subjects
for that article, the religious cults were described by the former
members as businesses.
312 See supra Part I.
overcrowded apartment in Manhattan
312F
313 —just
like traffickers run a business. Cults are
organizations that must be managed their
members are fed and sheltered, have jobs, and
provide some form of education for their
young.
313F
314 The devotee, in some way, contributes
to the economic functioning of the cult.
314F
315 As
one former cultist expressed:
I now understand that I was used as a tool to
serve the leader’s need for increased
membership and therefore increased income. I
was in a community that valued spirituality over
materialism with double standards. As ‘co-
workers,’ most of us lived very modestly, giving
whatever we could to support the leader’s
lifestyle.
315F
316
4. Fraudulent Recruitment
The tactics of traffickers are much like those of
cult recruiters. Both use fraud as a recruitment
tool to deceive their target. Some traffickers lure
in victims with the pretense of a friendship,
romance, or mentorship, but the end result could
be a prostitution ring.
316F
317 Some traffickers
promise jobs and assistance with emigration to
another town or country sometimes traffickers
even seal their alleged agreement in writing or
by verbal contract.
317F
318 Traffickers use traditional
forms of publicity such as ads in the newspaper
or other promotions and word-of-mouth.
318F
319
What trafficked victims are not told, however, is
that traffickers may have created false
identifications for them which can later be used
to coerce the victims (who fear the trafficker
will report the false identification to
authorities).
319F
320 Trafficked victims are also not
313 See supra Part I.
314 See supra Part I.
315 See supra Part I.
316 Colleen Russell, Touched: Disconfirming Pathogenic Beliefs of
Thought Reform Through the Process of Acting, 9 INT’L CULTIC
SUTD. ASS’N 106, 112 (2010) (recollecting Eckankar in Southern
California).
317 HYLAND &SREEHARSHA, supra note 240, at 25.
318 Id. at 24.
319 Id. Ellen Barry, A Town Where Human Trafficking Corrupts
All, N.Y. TIMES, July 24, 2015, at A1 (describing a “predatory
operation of considerable scale” where traffickers use high-
pressure tactics in a pyramid scheme).
320 HYLAND &SREEHARSHA, supra note 240, at 26.
