6 who went missing may be tied to a cult. Here's how social media draws people in.

 

6 who went missing may be tied to a cult. Here's how social media draws people in.

 

Minnah Arshad Jeanine Santucci USA TODAY Jan. 21, 2024

In an era when almost anyone can reach millions on the internet, where is the line drawn between a social media influencer and an influential leader who draws followers to something more sinister?

Six people are missing out of Missouri after investigators believe they were sucked into what appears to be a “spiritual cult” on social media called the University of Cosmic Intelligence. The group is run by convicted child molester Rashad Jamal....

Jamal is currently in prison on child molestation and cruelty to children convictions. Authorities say he built up an online following of hundreds of thousands of followers on platforms including YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, and shares his theories about Black and Latino people being gods and goddesses, while people of other races and ethnicities are not from this planet. He also shares conspiracy theories in his videos about government controlling the weather and elites and politicians being “reptilian shapeshifters” who drink blood.
The missing people became increasingly isolated from family members, quit their jobs and were seen engaged in nude meditations outdoors, according to the Berkeley Police Department in Missouri.

The “pot of odd beliefs that’s bubbling outside of mainstream society” has always existed, said Stephen Kent, emeritus professor at the University of Alberta’s sociology department. But experts say with the internet and the dominance of social media, people have easier access to them, and targeted content can drag them further in.

What is a cult?
What sets cults apart from other organized groups is they operate to benefit only a leader, and their authoritarian structures leave no room for critical thinking, according to Dr. Steven Hassan, a renowned cult expert with firsthand experience escaping the Unification Church. Hassan founded the Freedom of Mind Resource Center to help other survivors heal.

Cult leaders, Hassan said, construct authoritarian rulings that benefit only themselves either financially or by fueling their narcissistic beliefs. They become tyrannical, with no allowance for free will or anyone else's needs.
“If you can create uncertainty, doubt and fear, it makes people’s minds more susceptible to an authoritarian voice,” Hassan said.

Dr. Janja Lalich, a professor emerita of sociology at California State University, Chico and founder of the Lalich Center on Cults and Coercion, was also in what she describes as a political cult. She said in a Wired video that cults have four common characteristics: a leader who is charismatic and a narcissist, a transcendent belief system “that gives you the answer to everything,” a system of control that dictates things like how followers live or what they wear, and a system of influence that draws on emotions such as fear or grief to get followers to comply.

“Probably 99% (of cult leaders) are con artists and they know exactly what they’re doing. Some of them may eventually become delusional because they get away with so much for so long,” Lalich said in the video.

 

Jamal told USA TODAY in a lengthy statement provided by his publicist, Nataé Robinson, that his YouTube and other social media posts are intended to share his opinions "ranging from metaphysics to quantum physics to marine biology, Topography, Philosophy, Religion, Black History, World History, Yoga Meditation and Crystal healing." "I want to categorically state that I am not a cult leader. ... I am not involved in any form of cult activities, and my teachings are focused on enlightenment, not control," the statement said....

“The dangers depend upon how one uses the internet and information,” Kent said.
Hassan suspects other agents are also at work. “If you look at (Jamal's) YouTube, how did he get so many followers? Was it really organic, or were there bad actors amplifying it, or was it just algorithms of YouTube trying to make money?” Hassan said....

Police in Berkeley, Missouri, have said the missing people were followers of Jamal on social media, shared his content and referenced his teachings. Their behaviors included engaging in polygamy, changing their names to "a spiritual God or Goddess" and "referring to their mother as a 'shell' that brought their spirit into the universe," police said.

It's possible the missing people never had any in-person contact with Jamal, Kent said, because the social media influencer has been imprisoned and was previously living in a different state. But that doesn't mean they were not among his followers, Kent said.

“That’s one of the consequences of the internet: People can feel like they know a leader even if a leader doesn’t know them,” he said.

While cults are often thought to only attract a fringe group of people, Hassan warned virtually anyone is susceptible, though cult leaders may take advantage of weak moments. They use behavioral tactics to gradually rope people in, such as sleep deprivation, manipulative language and instilling irrational fears to prevent recruits from leaving or fighting back. And in the age of the internet, recruiting a wide breadth of people is made even easier for cult leaders, Hassan said....

Lalich said in the Wired video that people on the outside of a cult should make sure to be a "safe haven" for anyone who might be involved in a cult to know they can go to. "It's not easy to leave a cult," Lalich said in the Wired video. "It's one of the hardest things someone's ever going to do."

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/01/20/cults-online-social-media-missing-people/72281211007/ 

Utah bill aims to define ritualistic sexual abuse of minors, Kenya death cult leader charged after hundreds found dead in forest

Utah bill aims to define ritualistic sexual abuse of minors, Kenya death cult leader charged after hundreds found dead in forest                              

 

Utah bill aims to define ritualistic sexual abuse of minors by Jim Spiewak, KUTVTue, January 23rd 2024 SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — A new bill seeks to define "ritualistic sexual abuse" of children, a term that sparked public interest and grabbed headlines last year after a public spat between the Utah County Sheriff and a former Utah County Attorney over ongoing ritualistic investigations. Survivor Brett Bluth, who said he was ritually abused by a therapist over twenty years ago, helped write House Bill 196. He described how religious practices were exploited to facilitate the abuse.

"I have struggled with that very thing for many years." The bill aims to clearly define ritualistic sexual abuse, specifying it as an act that commemorates or celebrates an important event in a religious, cultural, social, or institutional context, which is then used to sexually abuse a child. "It's particularly heinous when a perpetrator uses a familiar component in our society, or culture or religion to coerce a child, to trick a child into coming closer," Bluth said.

Rep. Ken Ivory (R – Salt Lake County), is sponsoring the bill. Bluth said the fact that the bill has been filed shows how far this issue has come, saying, "This is the first time those words 'ritual abuse' are going to be brought into this building (State Capitol) in Utah history." If passed, the legislation would focus only on the sexual abuse of minors.
https://kmyu.tv/news/local/utah-bill-aims-to-define-ritualistic-sexual-abuse-of-minors-utah-county-sheriff-former-attorney-therapist-religious-practices 

Kenya death cult leader charged after hundreds found dead in forest
Self-proclaimed pastor arrested over deaths of more than 200 people, most of whom had died of hunger Agence France-Presse in Nairobi Tue 23 Jan 2024

Paul Nthenge Mackenzie (centre) is alleged to have incited his acolytes to starve to death in order to ‘meet Jesus’. A Kenyan court has charged a cult leader and dozens of suspected accomplices with manslaughter over the deaths of more than 200 people. Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and 94 other suspects, including his wife, pleaded not guilty to 238 counts of manslaughter, according to court documents seen by AFP.

Mackenzie, who was last week also charged with terrorism, is alleged to have incited his acolytes to starve to death in order to “meet Jesus” in a case that provoked horror across the world. He was arrested last April after bodies were discovered in the Shakahola forest near the Indian Ocean. Autopsies revealed that the majority of the 429 victims had died of hunger. Others, including children, appeared to have been strangled, beaten or suffocated.
The site of a mass grave in Shakahola outside the coastal town of Malindi after the exhumation of bodies. The 238 victims mentioned in Tuesday’s hearing were killed between January 2021 and September 2023 at Shakahola, court documents said.

The grisly case, dubbed the “Shakahola forest massacre”, led the government to flag the need for tighter control of fringe denominations. Police and residents carry the exhumed bodies of victims of Paul Mackenzie Nthenge’s religious cult through the village of Shakahola last week.

 

Questions have been raised about how Mackenzie managed to evade law enforcement despite having a history of extremism and previous legal cases. A Senate commission of inquiry reported in October that the father of seven had faced charges in 2017 for extreme preaching. He was acquitted of charges of radicalisation in 2017 for illegally providing school teaching after rejecting the formal educational system that he claimed was not in line with the Bible.

In 2019, he was also accused of having links to the death of two children believed to have been starved, suffocated and then buried in a shallow grave in Shakahola. He was released on bail pending that trial, which is ongoing.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/23/kenya-death-cult-leader-charged-after-hundreds-found-dead-in-forest

Survivorship January Notes - Survivorship Trafficking and Extreme Abuse Online Conference 2024 pre-registration open

                                

Survivorship January/February 2024 Notes are available for free online at https://survivorship.org/notes-and-journal Information includes new speaker information at the May 2024 conference and low prices until March 1st.

The Survivorship Trafficking and Extreme Abuse Online Conference 2024

Survivor Conference - Saturday and Sunday May 4 - 5, 2024

Clinician's Conference - Friday May 3, 2024

https://survivorship.org/the-survivorship-trafficking-and-extreme-abuse-online-conference-2024

Please write info@survivorship.org if you would like to get on our conference mailing list.

Special Low Prices:

Register and pay before March 1, 2024:

Fri: $125 - clinician’s conference

Sat: $75 - $50 low income survivors

Sun: $75 - $50 low income survivors

Conference Speakers

Ritual Abuse, Sex Trafficking and Mind Control Neil Brick

This presentation will explain how ritual abuse, mind control, and different suggestive techniques work to control sex trafficking survivors (Karriker, 2008). The presenter will describe different historical examples of how mind control and ritual abuse have been used. Legal cases will also be discussed from various parts of the world (McGonigle, 1999; New York Times, 1988). Research studies, like the Extreme Abuse Survivors Survey, will be presented, as well as examples of different cults and their techniques (Hassan, 2018).

Mental health diagnoses, like Dissociative Identity Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and their origins in sex trafficking survivors will be explained. The presenter will discuss his personal experiences of being in a cult as a child experiencing torture, sexual abuse, and mind control techniques. The forced development of these diagnoses and their symptoms will be connected to how they are used to control sex trafficking survivors. Ways to expose and prevent ritual abuse, mind control, and sex trafficking will be discussed. Finally, there will be a discussion of the future of advocacy efforts to stop ritual abuse, sex trafficking, and mind control.

Masonic Ritual Abuse: Its Characteristics, Prevalence and Expression in Western Art and Culture. Dr. Lynn Brunet

This presentation will examine the subject of Masonic ritual abuse. Based on the presenter’s personal experience and accumulated art historical research over the last two decades it asks a series of questions about its prevalence, how it is similar and different to other forms of ritual abuse, how it is expressed in art and culture and what its implications are for us today. Freemasonry is sometimes described as the ‘cult of the establishment’ and there is a great deal of material available about it and its rituals that can enable research into its practices, which is not necessarily the case for other cults.

The research, to date, suggests that the children of Freemasons are particularly vulnerable to abuse, but while they might be struggling internally with something inexplicably profound, disturbing or terrifying, they may not necessarily appear at a therapist’s office as many of them are encouraged by their abusers to express their trauma in creative ways. Driven to obsessively release the effects of the trauma, this can become a lifelong way of coping, resulting in the creation of cultural artefacts that are imbued with the traces of cruel ritual practices without the creators themselves being consciously aware of their source.

Uses of Art Therapy, Sensory Awareness and EMDR in Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)  Patricia Quinn

This presentation will describe the fluid uses of art therapy, Sensory Awareness and EMDR in treating Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). The didactic portion will entail justification for using each modality, the benefit if the client being able to choose a treatment modality themselves, and examples of their clinical use with two clients with very different levels of access to memories of their past trauma. This effective, responsive healing approach will be useful for all counselors and therapists working in a variety of settings. The general descriptions of client responses may contain triggering content. The presentation contains a calming experiential that combines a body-based relaxation and use of art to counter-act traumatic memory.

 

Holocaust Drama - The Zone of Interest, Barbarossa Operation - Goebbels - Der Untermensch

 

                                           

 

- In his post as Commander of Auschwitz, Rudolph was ultimately responsible for the killing of nearly one million Jews and others held in the camp.... In inviting viewers to the perpetrator’s side of the wall, he invites us to reflect on our similarities with these people, to see that we are all capable of such evil....insisting...he was simply following orders.

 

-  The Barbarossa operation was accompanied by an intense propaganda campaign coordinated by Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda of the Reich.  One of the most notorious pamphlets was Der Untermensch ("The sub-human")

 

The Real-Life Inspiration Behind The Zone of Interest’s Chilling Holocaust Tale
By Armani Syed January 12, 2024

 

The Höss villa in southern Poland is an idyllic two-story building with a garden landscaped to perfection. It is also located in the shadows of Auschwitz, the largest and deadliest concentration camp of the Third Reich. The former house of Nazi Commandant Rudolf Höss, who served as Camp Commandant of Auschwitz from May 1940 to December 1943, shared the home with his wife Hedwig, and their two children. And the building is the locus of the action in Jonathan Glazer’s insidious Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest, his first film in the decade since Under the Skin (2013), and the winner of the Grand Prix and FIPRESCI prize at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.

The film, adapted from Martin Amis’ 2014 novel of the same name and releasing nationwide in the U.S. on Jan. 12, depicts the domestic bliss of the Höss family, who have built their Eden on genocidal foundations. And it never contrasts this utopia with the victims of the Holocaust on the other side of the wall. Instead, we stay with its perpetrators. The film opens with a family enjoying a lake-side picnic, the sunshine ripe. But in the home setting, we learn that Rudolf (Christian Friedel) is at the forefront of exterminating European Jews. Hedwig (Sandra Hüller), who chillingly dubs herself “Queen of Auschwitz,” runs a strict household that she places above all else—even her husband. The family tries its best to drown out the sounds of screams, cries, and gunshots, but the atrocities taking place beyond the wall are undeniable, and seep in through the cracks....

Instead, we are offered a detailed and frankly mundane insight into their domestic routine; the children play, the husband and wife reminisce about old memories, and Hedwig dolls herself up with lipstick and clothing taken from Jewish women. We come no closer to knowing these perpetrators, yet their lives don’t appear dramatically different from our own.
“Typically we may think of Nazis and people who commit atrocities as monsters and therefore not us, not humans[…] which actually teaches us nothing,” says Glazer. “It leaves us feeling a very safe distance, imagining that none of us are capable of that.” In inviting viewers to the perpetrator’s side of the wall, he invites us to reflect on our similarities with these people, to see that we are all capable of such evil.

By spending time on this side of the wall, we come to see how effortlessly the Höss couple compartmentalize the material success they’ve built on suffering. “They were ordinary people who managed to separate their brains in such a way that that wasn't troubling them,” says Oddy. “They sort of reveled in the nouveau riche lifestyle that they'd carved out for themselves on the back of this and didn't bat an eyelid.”....

In his post as Commander of Auschwitz, Rudolph was ultimately responsible for the killing of nearly one million Jews and others held in the camp. After the war ended, he lived under a false identity before British intelligence tracked him down and arrested him. Rudolph testified in the Nuremberg Trials—a joint tribunal ordered by France, the Soviet Union, the U.K., and the U.S. between 1945 and 1946—before he was tried in Poland and hanged on April 16, 1947 at the site of his crimes.

Rudolph never admitted guilt for his actions, insisting until the end—in a refrain that became hauntingly familiar as the justification of so many other Nazis—that he was simply following orders.... https://time.com/6554425/the-zone-of-interest-true-story/

 

Auschwitz Exhibition @auschwitzxhibit
The Barbarossa operation was accompanied by an intense propaganda campaign coordinated by Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda of the Reich.
One of the most notorious pamphlets was Der Untermensch ("The sub-human"), published in 1942 by the SS & displayed in @auschwitzxhibit

https://twitter.com/auschwitzxhibit/status/1747000785102159874

 

How NYC gun arrest uncovered a huge pedophile Satanic cult

 

How NYC gun arrest uncovered a huge pedophile Satanic cult

 

describes crimes

 

By Social Links for Olivia Land Published Sep. 28, 2023 The arrest of a Queens man on gun charges two years ago has led federal authorities to the discovery of a Satanic pedophile extortion cult that targets minors over the internet, a report said Thursday.

Investigators uncovered the heinous group, named 764, while probing disturbing social media posts made by Angel Almeida, 23, who was busted in November 2021 and charged with being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, according to court documents and a report from The Guardian.

In February, Brooklyn federal prosecutors announced they had filed a superseding indictment against Almeida, adding charges related to child exploitation and enticement of minors.

Prior to Almeida’s arrest, the FBI followed anonymous tips that allegedly linked him to social media accounts containing vile posts about child sex abuse — including one Instagram profile, “@necropedocell,” that featured a photo of what appeared to be a child bound and gagged.

A post on another of Almeida’s alleged Instagram profiles showed him posing with ammunition strapped to his chest, in front of a black flag bearing the logo of the Order of Nine Angels (O9A), which prosecutors described as “a worldwide Satanist … group which embraces elements of neo-Nazism and white supremacy.” When authorities searched Almeida’s home, they allegedly found hundreds of files containing child sex abuse material on four different devices — as well as books related to O9A and Satanism, according to court documents.

 

They also found a “blood covenant,” an O9A drawing of a hooded figure surrounded by the group’s symbols and smeared with what appears to be blood, the filings state.
On Sept. 12, the FBI issued a public notice about 764, a “violent online group” that is “deliberately targeting minor victims on publicly available messaging platforms to extort them into recording or livestreaming acts of self-harm and producing child sexual abuse material.”

Sources told the Guardian the cult is believed to be an offshoot of O9A — and that law enforcement discovered the group through the investigation in Almeida’s case....Members of 764 are thought to “use threats, blackmail and manipulation” to get vulnerable youth — particularly LGBTQ+ minors, racial minorities and those with mental health issues — to record acts of self-harm, animal abuse, sex acts and suicide, the FBI warning states.

 
The group targets victims through platforms like Roblox, Discord and Twitch, as well as curated Soundcloud playlists and the encrypted messaging app Telegram, researchers told the Guardian.

There are likely thousands of 764 members, with hundreds more active members trawling these platforms regularly, they added....
https://nypost.com/2023/09/28/nyc-mans-gun-arrest-unveils-satanic-pedophile-cult/

Feds bust leader of neo-Nazi cult - offshoot of the satanic group 764 to groom and exploit kids, Abuse at Northern California nonproft

 

Feds bust leader of neo-Nazi cult - offshoot of the satanic group 764 to groom and exploit kids.  "upon his arrest, admitted to law enforcement that he is the creator of "Cultist," a splinter group of the satanic anarchist organization known as "764," that targets children and uses child sexual abuse material and videos of animal cruelty, self-harm, and other extreme acts of violence."

 

- Feds bust leader of neo-Nazi cult who used Discord and Telegram to groom and exploit children

 

- Six men allege ‘rampant, unceasing sexual abuse’ at secluded Northern California nonprofit

 

Feds bust leader of neo-Nazi cult who used Discord and Telegram to groom and exploit children Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert Dec 18, 2023

Kalana Limkin was arrested Friday in Hawaii for possession of child pornography as part of an FBI investigation into an online satanic cult using social media platforms Discord and Telegram to recruit victims.
The leader of an online cult was arrested Thursday for possession of child sexual abuse material.
Kalana Limkin, prosecutors say, founded an offshoot of the satanic group 764 to groom and exploit kids.
Limkin shared child abuse images and recruited victims via Telegram and Discord, per court filings.
The leader of a racist pedophile cult was arrested late last week following a seven-month-long investigation by the FBI into a network of Telegram and Discord servers dedicated to spreading neo-Nazi ideology and exploiting children, according to court documents reviewed by Business Insider.

The initial complaint, which the court unsealed on December 15, indicates Kalana Limkin of Hawaii has been the subject of a criminal investigation since May and, upon his arrest, admitted to law enforcement that he is the creator of "Cultist," a splinter group of the satanic anarchist organization known as "764," that targets children and uses child sexual abuse material and videos of animal cruelty, self-harm, and other extreme acts of violence to "accelerate chaos in society."

"The group functions together as a coordinated unit by using Discord and Telegram as vessels to desensitize vulnerable populations through sharing extreme gore and child sexual abuse material ("CSAM"), with the purpose of breaking down societal norms and normalizing explicit material to corrupt minors and groom them towards future violence," according to a motion to detain Limkin without bail while he awaits trial....
Limkin is accused in the complaint of posting at least six images of child sexual abuse material on Discord servers, as well as exploiting a minor he first met through the now-defunct site Omegle, which shuttered earlier this year, just days after it settled a civil claim regarding sexual abuse on the platform.
Per the complaint, Limkin showed the girl a graphic video of sexual abuse against a child, asked her for photos of herself in her underwear, and told her he had a collage of pictures of girls he had manipulated into cutting his name into their bodies.

During an interview with law enforcement, the complaint indicates Limkin admitted to "asking minor females to send him nude photographs of themselves and receiving child pornography links and images via his Discord server, 'Cultist.'" Per court documents, he also admitted to having child pornography files that were stored in his phone and truck....

A network of exploitative online cults

The 764 group that Limkin based his Cultist faction on is itself an offshoot of The Order of Nine Angles (O9A), which, according to the complaint, "espouses the belief that society must be destroyed from within. O9A encourages members to engage in criminal acts, including violence, sexual assault, murder, and terrorism, to accelerate and cause the demise of Western society."

"O9A advocates 'culling,' a form of human sacrifice, to eliminate Jews, people of color, and others deemed to be inferior under their Social Darwinist views, as well as rape and sexual assault as a means of asserting domination, breaking social norms, and propagating the expansion of the white race," according to the complaint against Limkin. "O9A embraces terrorism, including radical Islamic jihadist ideology and the violent tactics of jihadist groups, such as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham ("ISIS") and al Qaeda, as a means to accelerate the decline of Western society and to attack Jewish people in particular."
The FBI warned the public about 764 and similar groups in September, saying they use online platforms to target youth between the ages of 8 and 17 — especially LGBTQ+ youth and racial minorities — using blackmail, threats, and manipulation to get them to record or live-stream self-harm, sex acts, "and/or suicide," adding that members circulated the footage to further extort and control their victims.

In their motion to deny bail, prosecutors indicated the weight of the evidence against Limkin is "substantial."
"The defendant has in fact confessed to the crime of possessing child pornography. Further, he admitted to being the creator of 'Cultist,' which he acknowledged promotes self-harm and cutting," the motion reads. "The defendant also admitted that he had asked minor females to send him nude photographs of themselves. This evidence demonstrates the United States' case against the defendant is formidable, making the defendant's conviction quite likely."....
https://www.businessinsider.com/feds-bust-nazi-cult-telegram-discord-grooming-exploit-children-2023-12 

 

Six men allege ‘rampant, unceasing sexual abuse’ at secluded Northern California nonprofit By Andrew J. Campa Dec. 21, 2023

They were searching for spiritual awakening and enlightenment. Instead, the six men were subject to “rampant, unceasing sexual abuse” by their spiritual guide, in concert with members of a controversial religious group and workers at an award-winning Northern California winery, the men allege in court documents.

The unnamed plaintiffs filed a lawsuit Friday in Yuba County against the Fellowship of Friends — a nonprofit religious group described by some as a cult — along with its founder and spiritual teacher, Robert Earl Burton, and its Renaissance Vineyard and Winery.

Fellowship of Friends bills itself as an organization that helps members reach their true potential, an upscale throwback to the erstwhile Bay Area communes that separated participants from society so they could pursue self-realization. Former Fellowship members, however, allege the group is really a cult of personality masquerading as a nonprofit, and that its true purpose is to satisfy Burton’s sexual needs. Their civil complaint seeks damages for 15 alleged violations, including gender violence, human trafficking, sexual assault and battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The plaintiffs are also asking for a trial by jury....
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-12-21/six-men-allege-sexual-abuse-fellowship-of-friends 
 

Catholic priest sentenced to life for sex trafficking boys, Understanding Human Trafficking

 

Catholic priest sentenced to life for sex trafficking boys, manipulating opioid addictions Eduardo Cuevas USA TODAY Nov. 19, 2023

An Ohio priest was sentenced to life in prison Friday after he was convicted of grooming three boys and taking advantage of their opioid addictions to force them into commercial sex, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

In May, a federal jury in Toledo found the Rev. Michael Zacharias, a Roman Catholic clergy member, guilty of five counts of sex trafficking in allegations that spanned 15 years, from July 2005 to August 2020. Prosecutors said he abused his role as a teacher and priest at a Toledo parish school to groom the three boys into adulthood, force them into sex and enable their addictions to pain medications and heroin later in life.
“Michael Zacharias used his position as a trusted spiritual leader and role model for young boys and their families to exploit them in the most insidious ways, coercing his victims from childhood and beyond to engage in commercial sex with him,” said Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, in a statement.
Testimony and evidence at trial showed Zacharias developed relationships with the victims' families when they were young to gain their trust, prosecutors said. As the victims got older, he exploited their fears, their housing instability and their criminal records to force them into commercial sex....
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/11/18/catholic-priest-life-sentence-sex-trafficking-ohio/71639846007/

 

Understanding Human Trafficking
“Trafficking in persons,” “human trafficking,” and “modern slavery” are umbrella terms – often used interchangeably – to refer to a crime whereby traffickers exploit and profit at the expense of adults or children by compelling them to perform labor or engage in commercial sex. When a person younger than 18 is used to perform a commercial sex act, it is a crime regardless of whether there is any force, fraud, or coercion involved.

The United States recognizes two primary forms of trafficking in persons: forced labor and sex trafficking. The basic meaning of these forms of human trafficking and some unique characteristics of each are set forth below, followed by several key principles and concepts that relate to all forms of human trafficking....

International Labour Organization

The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation, in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), released Global Estimates of Modern Slavery in September 2022. This report estimates that, at any given time in 2021, approximately 27.6 million people were in forced labor. Of these, “17.3 million are exploited in the private sector, 6.3 million in forced commercial sexual exploitation, and 3.9 million in forced labour imposed by state.” The definition of forced labor used in this report is based on ILO Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), which states in Article 2.1 that forced labor is “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.”

This report also estimates that 49.6 million people were in “modern slavery” at any given time in 2021, but this figure includes both the estimate for forced labor and an estimate for forced marriage. Consistent with current implementation of U.S. law, it is recommended to use only the 27.6 million estimate when referring to human trafficking. While some instances of forced marriage may meet the international or U.S. legal definition of human trafficking, not all cases do. Note further that the term “modern slavery” is not defined in international or U.S. law.
https://www.state.gov/humantrafficking-about-human-trafficking/