720 ILCS 5/12-6.5 – Compelling Organization Membership of Persons
This law makes it a serious crime to threaten or hurt someone to make them join or stay in any group or organization.
This Illinois law says it’s a felony to use threats, violence, or other illegal actions to make someone join or stop someone from leaving a group or organization. Harming or threatening a minor this way is punished even more severely.
If a person knowingly threatens to hurt someone, actually hurts them or their family, or does anything else illegal to make that person join or stay in an organization, or to stop them from leaving it, that person commits a Class 2 felony.
If someone 18 or older does these same things to a person under 18–such as threatening, hurting, or using illegal pressure to make the minor join or stay in a group–it becomes a Class 1 felony, which is more serious than a Class 2 felony.
Probation: Anyone found guilty under this law cannot get probation, a conditional discharge, or a sentence where they only serve time occasionally; they must serve prison time.
Contact us online or call (314) 900-HELP to talk with a Southern Illinois criminal defense lawyer.
