Best questions for ex-cult member survey about legal concerns

Here are some of the best questions for an ex-cult member survey about legal concerns, plus tips on structuring them for richer insights. You can build powerful, AI-driven surveys in seconds with Specific — just generate your survey here and start collecting valuable feedback right away.

Best open-ended questions for ex-cult member survey about legal concerns

Open-ended questions let ex-cult members share experiences in their own words, giving you a window into the real challenges they face. They're especially valuable for sensitive topics like legal disputes, as they surface details that multiple-choice might miss. Use them to uncover the nuanced context around legal struggles, reintegration, and psychological impact.

1. Can you describe any legal issues you have faced since leaving the group?

2. What was the biggest challenge you experienced when trying to access legal support?

3. How did your former group respond when you pursued legal action or threatened to do so?

4. Were there specific aspects of the group’s structure or beliefs that complicated your legal journey?

5. Describe any experiences you’ve had with custody disputes or family law issues after leaving.

6. How has financial strain, if any, affected your ability to seek legal help?

7. What fears or concerns made you hesitate to take legal action?

8. You mentioned defamation or slander by the group — how did this affect you legally or personally?

9. Looking back, what legal resources or information would have helped you most during your transition?

10. How has ongoing psychological trauma played a role in your ability to pursue justice?

Open-ended formats help capture unique situations, like protracted custody battles or intimidation tactics — problems that affect a significant portion of ex-cult members according to recent studies. About 20% of ex-cult members report ongoing psychological trauma, further complicating legal proceedings [1].

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for ex-cult member survey about legal concerns

Single-select multiple-choice questions are great when you need to quantify common challenges or start a conversation. They lower the barrier for ex-cult members to respond, especially on stressful topics, and you can follow up based on their selection to dig deeper into the context or reasoning.

Question: What type of legal issue was most significant for you after leaving your group?

• Child custody dispute

• Defamation or libel claims

• Financial exploitation

• Threats or intimidation

• Other

Question: How would you rate your ability to find legal support when you needed it?

• Very easy

• Somewhat easy

• Difficult

• Impossible

Question: Did you experience any financial loss or hardship as a result of leaving the group?

• Yes, significant

• Yes, minor

• No

• Not sure

When to follow up with "why?" If someone chooses "Difficult" when rating their ability to find legal support, ask “Why was it difficult?” This opens the door to their story — perhaps stigma, intimidation, or lack of resources played a role. A thoughtful follow-up like this reveals not just what happened, but why.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? “Other” is crucial when you’re not sure if your list covers every scenario. If an ex-cult member picks "Other" for their legal issue, a follow-up can capture specifics nobody expected — for example, property disputes or immigration challenges — surfacing unexpected trends over time.

NPS-style question: should you use it for ex-cult member legal concerns?

NPS (Net Promoter Score) is a classic way to measure loyalty or satisfaction. In the ex-cult legal context, you can use an NPS-type question to understand how likely people are to recommend certain legal resources or advocacy organizations, or to gauge confidence in the justice system post-exit. For this group, considering the emotional stakes and frequent retribution from cults (such as threats and intimidation [5]), an NPS measure can highlight systemic gaps or organizations worth championing. To quickly build a tailored NPS survey, try this preset NPS survey builder.

The power of follow-up questions

With ex-cult member feedback, context is everything. That’s why we rely on automated follow-up questions — they cut through ambiguity, clarify responses in real time, and turn a static form into a real conversation. For example, our platform’s AI instantly probes for details based on each reply, surfacing deeper layers that a simple form would miss. Learn more in our deep dive on automated follow-up questions.

• Ex-cult member: “I lost custody after leaving.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you share more about how the group influenced the custody process?”

Without this, responses often lack the depth needed to improve support services or track systemic issues.

How many followups to ask? In most cases, 2–3 follow-ups per answer yield rich context without fatiguing the respondent. You can configure before launching — Specific lets you set the number of follow-ups, and smart logic ensures that once you’ve learned what you need, the survey moves on.

This makes it a conversational survey: Each reply feels like a natural exchange. Respondents open up more when the process flows like a dialogue instead of a static form.

AI survey analysis, open-ended text, instant insights: Even a flood of detailed stories is easy to process with AI. Our approach lets you analyze every response and find patterns fast, no matter how much unstructured text you collect.

Automated follow-ups are a next-generation upgrade — try generating your own survey and experience how the conversation flows.

How to prompt ChatGPT or GPTs for ex-cult member legal concerns surveys

Here’s how to use AI prompts to come up with strong questions for an ex-cult survey on legal issues. Start simple, then layer in detail for stronger results.

First, a basic prompt for brainstorming:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Ex-Cult Member survey about Legal Concerns.

To improve the quality of AI-generated questions, always give more context. For instance:

Ex-Cult Members face unique legal challenges — everything from financial exploitation to custody battles and intimidation by former groups. My goal is to understand their experiences so that support services and advocacy can improve. Generate 10 insightful open-ended questions for a survey.

After brainstorming, organize your list with a categorization prompt:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Find the categories that matter most to your survey goal — for example, “Financial Exploitation”, “Custody Disputes”, “Barriers to Justice” — then dig deeper:

Generate 10 questions for categories Financial Exploitation, Custody Disputes, and Barriers to Justice.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey is an interactive, chat-like experience where the respondent feels like they’re talking to a real person. Unlike old-school forms, conversational AI surveys use smart follow-ups and natural language to create a flow that encourages honesty and detail.

When designing an AI survey, the difference is striking:

Why use AI for ex-cult member surveys? Collecting feedback from people who’ve experienced complex trauma or retribution requires an approach that’s deeper than forms. An AI survey example adapts in real time, showing empathy via natural follow-ups. This means more people share, you get fewer “unclear” responses, and rich insights surface quickly. With Specific, you enjoy a best-in-class conversational survey experience, making participation intuitive for both creators and respondents.

For a complete walkthrough, read our guide on how to create a survey for ex-cult member legal concerns.

See this legal concerns survey example now

Explore a new level of feedback: craft your own ex-cult legal concerns conversational survey and uncover critical insights with ease through smart follow-ups and instant AI-powered analysis.