Educational tool only. All groups exist on a spectrum of control. Individual experiences vary. Based on publicly available reports, ex-member accounts, court records, and expert analyses — not medical or legal advice.
3 posts on CLCI Hub. See all posts.
The 2023 Danny Masterson conviction (30 years to life), Leah Remini's August 2023 lawsuit against Scientology and David Miscavige, Mike Rinder's *A Billion Years* memoir, and the post-2019 ex-member YouTube wave together produced more pressure on the Church of Scientology in three years than the previous twenty combined. What the BITE framework predicts about Scientology's trajectory through 2030.
When a parent decides to leave a high-control group, the most-cited fear is loss of access to their children. This post covers what the case law actually says, how religious 'courts' interact with civil custody, the specific patterns documented in JW, FLDS, Hasidic, and Scientology custody cases, and the practical pre-exit planning that survivors and family-law attorneys cite as load-bearing.
Three landmark prosecutions — Peoples Temple in 1978, FLDS through the 2000s, and NXIVM in 2017–2020 — set the precedents most modern coercive-control cases turn on. This post explains what each case established and how those rulings shape investigations today.