Cults 7 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes
Charismatic leaders who control their followers, and the abuse that happens inside closed groups.
- Season 4 · Episode 24
Perfect
A teenage girl found dead in an alley leads the squad to a fertility doctor whose shelter for runaways is a cult using girls in a fake human-cloning scheme.
- Season 6 · Episode 7
Charisma
A pregnant 12-year-old leads the squad to a cult whose leader escapes after a massacre of children and goes after the girl’s trust fund.
- Season 9 · Episode 11
Streetwise
The murder of a debutante in Central Park leads the detectives to a homeless “street family” whose self-appointed father punishes disrespect with death.
- Season 19 · Episode 20
The Book of Esther
A starved young woman found on a commuter train leads Rollins to a family ruled by an apocalyptic father, and a police siege of their home ends in deaths.
- Season 20 · Episode 5
Accredo
An Accredo member is found raped and murdered in a SoHo loft, and the trail leads from her abusive ex to the self-help group’s charismatic male leader.
- Season 21 · Episode 8
We Dream of Machine Elves
Young women are found drugged with huge doses of DMT after being sexually assaulted, and the trail leads to a radical psychiatrist and his devoted followers.
- Season 27 · Episode 13
Corrosive
When Carisi’s mentor is shot after a student accuses him of rape online, SVU finds a manipulative father running his son’s dorm room like a cult.
More themes: Crimes
- Blackmail & Extortion
- Child Abuse & Neglect
- Child Murders
- Child Sexual Abuse
- Con Artists
- Date Rape & Consent
- Domestic Violence
- Gang Rape
- Grooming
- Gun Violence
- Hate Crimes
- Hostage Standoffs
- Human Trafficking
- Incest
- Kidnapping & Abduction
- Male Victims
- Murder for Hire
- Online Predators
- Prison Rape
- Prostitution & Sex Work
- Serial Killers
- Serial Rapists
- Stalking & Voyeurism
- Statutory Rape
- Vigilantes & Revenge
- War Crimes