A Recent Trend of Racketeering Prosecutions and Civil Suits Against New Religious Movements and "Cults"

ABSTRACT: With the present-day American legal system, an important phenomenon has coalesced: Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) laws have begun regularly surfacing in prosecutions and civil suits against new religious movements and groups popularly identified as "cults." As an aid to future research, this article enumerates and details all known cases as of April 2025. These include scattered predecessors, but most importantly the article addresses the major burst of contemporary activity that began in 2016, involving groups such as NXIVM and the R. Kelly "sex cult." Contextually, this trend forms an expanded application of RICO. It also forms a distinct historic episode wherein this specific law impacts new religious movements. In general, these cases qualify as social control efforts, and RICO requirements emphasize practices and beliefs in a way that might raise religious freedom concerns. Such groups also encourage scholars to consider the value of the recently-proposed category of "criminal religious movements."