By Kenneth V. Lanning, Supervisory Special Agent
Behavioral Science Unit
National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime

1992 FBI Report --Satanic Ritual Abuse By Kenneth V. Lanning,
Supervisory Special Agent Behavioral Science Unit National Center for
the Analysis of Violent Crime

Introduction

Since 1981 I have been assigned to the Behavioral Science Unit at the
FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and have specialized in studying all
aspects of the sexual victimization of children. The FBI Behavioral
Science Unit provides assistance to criminal justice professionals in
the United States and foreign countries. It attempts to develop
practical applications of the behavioral sciences to the criminal
justice system. As a result of training and research conducted by the
Unit and its successes in analyzing violent crime, many professionals
contact the Behavioral Science Unit for assistance and guidance in
dealing with violent crime, especially those cases considered different,
unusual, or bizarre. This service is provided at no cost and is not
limited to crimes under the investigative jurisdiction of the FBI.

In 1983 and 1984, when I first began to hear stories of what sounded
like satanic or occult activity in connection with allegations of sexual
victimization of children (allegations that have come to be referred to
most often as "ritual" child abuse,) I tended to believe them. I had
been dealing with bizarre, deviant behavior for many years and had long
since realized that almost anything is possible. Just when you think
that you have heard it all, along comes another strange case.

The idea that there are a few cunning, secretive individuals in
positions of power somewhere in this country regularly killing a few
people as part of some satanic ritual or ceremony and getting away with
it is certainly within the realm of possibility. But the number of
alleged cases began to grow and grow. We now have hundreds of victims
alleging that thousands of offenders are abusing and even murdering tens
of thousands of people as part of organized satanic cults, and there is
little or no corroborative evidence. The very reason many "experts" cite
for believing these allegations (i.e. many victims, who never met each
other, reporting the same events,) is the primary reason I began to
question at least some aspects of these allegations.

I have devoted more than seven years part-time, and eleven years
full-time, of my professional life to researching, training, and
consulting in the area of the sexual victimization of children. The
issues of child sexual abuse and exploitation are a big part of my
professional life's work. I have no reason to deny their existence or
nature. In fact I have done everything I can to make people more aware
of the problem. Some have even blamed me for helping to create the
hysteria that has led to these bizarre allegations. I can accept no
outside income and am paid the same salary by the FBI whether or not
children are abused and exploited - and whether the number is one or one
million. As someone deeply concerned about and professionally committed
to the issue, I did not lightly question the allegations of hundreds of
victims child sexual abuse and exploitation.

In response to accusations by a few that I am a "satanist" who has
infiltrated the FBI to facilitate cover-up, how does anyone (or should
anyone have to) disprove such allegations? Although reluctant to dignify
such absurd accusations with a reply, all I can say to those who have
made such allegations that they are wrong and to those who heard such
allegations is to carefully consider the source.

The reason I have taken the position I have is not because I support or
believe in "satanism," but because I sincerely believe that my approach
is the proper and most effective investigative strategy. I believe that
my approach is in the best interest of victims of child sexual abuse. It
would have been easy to sit back, as many have, and say nothing publicly
about this controversy. I have spoken out and published on this issue
because I am concerned about the credibility of the child sexual abuse
issue and outraged that, in some cases, individuals are getting away
with molesting children because we can't prove they are satanic devil
worshippers who engage in brainwashing, human sacrifice, and cannibalism
as part of a large conspiracy.

There are many valid perspectives from which to assess and evaluate
victim allegations of sex abuse and exploitation. Parents may choose to
believe simply because their children make the claims. The level of
proof necessary may be minimal because the consequences of believing are
within the family. One parent correctly told me, "I believe what my
child needs me to believe."

Therapists may choose to believe simply because their professional
assessment is that their patient believes the victimization and
describes it so vividly. The level of proof necessary may be no more
than therapeutic evaluation because the consequences are between
therapist and patient. No independent corroboration may be required.

A social worker must have more real, tangible evidence of abuse in order
to take protective action and initiate legal proceedings. The level of
proof necessary must be higher because the consequences (denial of
visitation, foster care) are greater.

The law enforcement officer deals with the criminal justice system. The
levels of proof necessary are reasonable suspicion, probable cause, and
beyond a reasonable doubt because the consequences (criminal
investigation, search and seizure, arrest, incarceration) are so great.
This discussion will focus primarily on the criminal justice system and
the law enforcement perspective. The level of proof necessary for taking
action on allegations of criminal acts must be more than simply the
victim alleged it and it is possible. This in no way denies the validity
and importance of the parental, therapeutic, social welfare, or any
other perspective of these allegations.

When, however, therapists and other professionals begin to conduct
training, publish articles, and communicate through the media, the
consequences become greater, and therefore the level of proof must be
greater. The amount of corroboration necessary to act upon allegations
of abuse is dependent upon the consequences of such action. We need to
be concerned about the distribution and publication of unsubstantiated
allegations of bizarre sexual abuse. Information needs to be
disseminated to encourage communication and research about the
phenomena. The risks, however, of intervenor and victim "contagion" and
public hysteria are potential negative aspects of such dissemination.
Because of the highly emotional and religious nature of this topic,
there is a greater possibility that the spreading of information will
result in a kind of self- fulfilling prophecy.

If such extreme allegations are going to be disseminated to the general
public, they must be presented in the context of being assessed and
evaluated, at least, from the professional perspective of the
disseminator and at best, also from the professional perspective of
relevant others. This is what I will attempt to do in this discussion.
The assessment and evaluation of such allegations are areas where law
enforcement, mental health, and other professionals (anthropologists,
folklorists, sociologists, historians, engineers, surgeons, etc.) may be
of some assistance to each other in validating these cases individually
and in general.

Historical Overview

In order to attempt to deal with extreme allegations of what constitute
child sex rings, it is important to have an historical perspective of
society's attitudes about child sexual abuse. I will provide a brief
synopsis of recent attitudes in the United States here, but those
desiring more detailed information about such societal attitudes,
particularly in other cultures and in the more distant past, should
refer to Florence Rush's book The Best Kept Secret: Sexual Abuse of
Children (1980) and Sander J. Breiner's book Slaughter of the Innocents
(1990.)

Society's attitude about child sexual abuse and exploitation can be
summed up in one word: denial. Most people do not want to hear about it
and would prefer to pretend that child sexual victimization just does
not occur. Today, however, it is difficult to pretend that it does not
happen. Stories and reports about child sexual victimization are daily
occurrences.

It is important for professionals dealing with child sexual abuse to
recognize and learn to manage this denial of a serious problem.
Professionals must overcome the denial and encourage society to deal
with, report, and prevent sexual victimization of children.

Some professionals, however, in their zeal to make American society more
aware of this victimization, tend to exaggerate the problem.
Presentations and literature with poorly documented or misleading claims
about one in three children being sexually molested, the $5 billion
child pornography industry, child slavery rings, and 50,000
stranger-abducted children are not uncommon. The problem is bad enough;
it is not necessary to exaggerate it. Professionals should cite
reputable and scientific studies and note the sources of information. If
they do not, when the exaggerations and distortions are discovered,
their credibility and the credibility of the issue are lost.

"Stranger Danger"

During the 1950s and 1960s the primary focus in the literature and
discussions on sexual abuse of children was on "stranger danger" - the
dirty old man in the wrinkled raincoat. If one could not deny the
existence of child sexual abuse, one described victimization in
simplistic terms of good and evil. The "stranger danger" approach to
preventing child sexual abuse is clear-cut. We immediately know who the
good guys and bad guys are and what they look like.

The FBI distributed a poster that epitomized this attitude. It showed a
man, with his hat pulled down, hiding behind a tree with a bag of candy
in his hands. He was waiting for a sweet little girl walking home from
school alone. At the top it read: "Boys and Girls, color the page,
memorize the rules." At the bottom it read: "For your protection,
remember to turn down gifts from strangers, and refuse rides offered by
strangers." The poster clearly contrasts the evil of the offender with
the goodness of the child victim.

The myth of the child molester as the dirty old man in the wrinkled
raincoat is now being reevaluated, based on what we now know about the
kinds of people who victimize children. The fact is a child molester can
look like anyone else and even be someone we know and like.

There is another myth that is still with us and is far less likely to be
discussed. This is the myth of the child victim as a completely innocent
little girl walking down the street minding her own business. It may be
more important to dispel this myth than the myth of the evil offender,
especially when talking about the sexual exploitation of children and
child sex rings. Child victims can be boys as well as girls, and not all
victims are little "angels."

Society seems to have a problem dealing with any sexual abuse case in
which the offender is not completely "bad" or the victim is not
completely "good." Child victims who, for example, simply behave like
human beings and respond to the attention and affection of offenders by
voluntarily and repeatedly returning to the offender's home are
troubling. It confuses us to see the victims in child pornography
giggling or laughing. At professional conferences on child sexual abuse,
child prostitution is almost never discussed. It is the form of sexual
victimization of children most unlike the stereotype of the innocent
girl victim. Child prostitutes, by definition, participate in and often
initiate their victimization.

Furthermore child prostitutes and the participants in child sex rings
are frequently boys. One therapist recently told me that a researcher's
data on child molestation were misleading because many of the child
victims in question were child prostitutes. This implies that child
prostitutes are not "real" child victims. In a survey by the Los Angeles
Times, only 37 percent of those responding thought that child
prostitution constituted child sexual abuse (Timnik, 1985.) Whether or
not it seems fair, when adults and children have sex, the child is
always the victim.

Intrafamilian Child Sexual Abuse

During the 1970s, primarily as a result of the women's movement, society
began to learn more about the sexual victimization of children. We began
to realize that most children are sexually molested by someone they know
who is usually a relative - a father, step-father, uncle, grandfather,
older brother, or even a female relative. Some mitigate the difficulty
of accepting this by adopting the view that only members of
socio-economic groups other than theirs engage in such behavior.

It quickly became apparent that warnings about not taking gifts from
strangers were not good enough to prevent child sexual abuse.
Consequently, we began to develop prevention programs based on more
complex concepts, such as good touching and bad touching. the "yucky"
feeling, and the child's right to say no. These are not the kinds of
things you can easily and effectively communicate in fifty minutes to
hundreds of kids packed into a school auditorium. These are very
difficult issues, and programs must he carefully developed and
evaluated.

In the late 1970s child sexual abuse became almost synonymous with
incest, and incest meant father-daughter sexual relations. Therefore,
the focus of child sexual abuse intervention became father-daughter
incest. Even today, the vast majority of training materials, articles,
and books on this topic refer to child sexual abuse only in terms of
intrafamilial father-daughter incest.

Incest is, in fact, sexual relations between individuals of any age too
closely related to marry. It need not necessarily involve an adult and a
child, and it goes beyond child sexual abuse. But more importantly child
sexual abuse goes beyond father-daughter incest. Intrafamilial incest
between an adult and child may be the most common form of child sexual
abuse, but it is not the only form.

The progress of the 1970s in recognizing that child sexual abuse was not
simply a result of "stranger danger" was an important breakthrough in
dealing with society's denial. The battle, however, is not over. The
persistent voice of society luring us back to the more simple concept of
"stranger danger" may never go away. It is the voice of denial.

Return to "Stranger Danger"

In the early 1980s the issue of missing children rose to prominence and
was focused primarily on the stranger abduction of little children.
Runaways, throwaways, noncustodial abductions, nonfamily abductions of
teenagers - all major problems within the missing children's issue -
were almost forgotten. People no longer wanted to hear about good
touching and bad touching and the child's right to say "no." They wanted
to be told, in thirty minutes or less, how they could protect their
children from abduction by strangers. We were back to the horrible but
simple and clear-cut concept of "stranger danger."

In the emotional zeal over the problem of missing children, isolated
horror stories and distorted numbers were sometimes used. The American
public was led to believe that most of the missing children had been
kidnapped by pedophiles - a new term for child molesters. The media,
profiteers, and well-intentioned zealots all played big roles in this
hype and hysteria over missing children.

The Acquaintance Molester

Only recently has society begun to deal openly with a critical piece in
the puzzle of child sexual abuse - acquaintance molestation. This seems
to be the most difficult aspect of the problem for us to face. People
seem more willing to accept a father or stepfather, particularly one
from another socio-economic group, as a child molester than a parish
priest, a next-door neighbor, a police officer, a pediatrician, an FBI
agent, or a Scout leader. The acquaintance molester, by definition, is
one of us. These kinds of molesters have always existed, but our society
has not been willing to accept that fact.

Sadly, one of the main reasons that the criminal justice system and the
public were forced to confront the problem of acquaintance molestation
was the preponderance of lawsuits arising from the negligence of many
institutions.

One of the unfortunate outcomes of society's preference for the
"stranger danger" concept is what I call "say no, yell, and tell" guilt.
This is the result of prevention programs that tell potential child
victims to avoid sexual abuse by saying no, yelling, and telling. This
might work with the stranger hiding behind a tree. Adolescent boys
seduced by a Scout leader or children who actively participate in their
victimization often feel guilty and blame themselves because they did
not do what they were "supposed" to do. They may feel a need to describe
their victimization in more socially acceptable but sometimes inaccurate
ways that relieve them of this guilt.

While American society has become increasingly more aware of the problem
of the acquaintance molester and related problems such as child
pornography, the voice calling us back to "stranger danger" still
persists.

Satanism: A New Form of "Stranger Danger"

In today's version of "stranger danger," it is the satanic devil
worshipers who are snatching and victimizing the children. Many who
warned us in the early 1980s about pedophiles snatching fifty thousand
kids a year now contend they were wrong only about who was doing the
kidnapping, not about the number abducted. This is again the desire for
the simple and clear-cut explanation for a complex problem.

For those who know anything about criminology, one of the oldest
theories of crime is demonology: The devil makes you do it. This makes
it even easier to deal with the child molester who is the "pillar of the
community." It is not his fault; it is not our fault. There is no way we
could have known; the devil made him do it. This explanation has
tremendous appeal because, like "stranger danger," it presents the
clear-cut, black-and-white struggle between good and evil as the
explanation for child abduction, exploitation, and abuse.

In regard to satanic "ritual" abuse, today we may not be where we were
with incest in the 1960s, but where we were with missing children in the
early 1980s. The best data now available (the 1990 National Incidence
Studies on Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children in
America) estimate the number of stereotypical child abductions at
between 200 and 300 a year, and the number of stranger abduction
homicides of children at between 43 and 147 a year. Approximately half
of the abducted children are teenagers. Today's facts are significantly
different from yesterday's perceptions, and those who exaggerated the
problem, however well-intentioned, have lost credibility and damaged the
reality of the problem.

Law Enforcement Training

The belief that there is a connection between satanism and crime is
certainly not new. As previously stated, one of the oldest theories
concerning the causes of crime is demonology. Fear of satanic or occult
activity has peaked from time to time throughout history. Concern in the
late 1970s focused primarily on "unexplained" deaths and mutilations of
animals, and in recent years has focused on child sexual abuse and the
alleged human sacrifice of missing children. In 1999 it will probably
focus on the impending "end of the world."

Today satanism and a wide variety of other terms are used
interchangeably in reference to certain crimes. This discussion will
analyze the nature of "satanic, occult, ritualistic" crime primarily as
it pertains to the abuse of children and focus on appropriate law
enforcement responses to it. Recently a flood of law enforcement
seminars and conferences have dealt with satanic and ritualistic crime.
These training conferences have various titles, such as "Occult in
Crime," "Satanic Cults," 'Ritualistic Crime Seminar," "Satanic
Influences in Homicide," "Occult Crimes, Satanism and Teen Suicide," and
"Ritualistic Abuse of Children."

The typical conference runs from one to three days, and many of them
include the same presenters and instructors. A wide variety of topics
are usually discussed during this training either as individual
presentations by different instructors or grouped together by one or
more instructors.

Typical topics covered include the following:

    * Historical overview of satanism, witchcraft, and paganism from
    ancient to modern times.

    * Nature and influence of fantasy role-playing games, such as
    "Dungeons and Dragons."

    * Lyrics, symbolism, and influence of rock and roll, Heavy Metal,
    and Black Metal music.

    * Teenage "stoner" gangs, their symbols, and their vandalism. 

    * Teenage suicide by adolescents dabbling in the occult. 

    * Crimes committed by self-styled satanic practitioners, including
    grave and church desecrations and robberies, animal mutilations, and
    even murders.

    * Ritualistic abuse of children as part of bizarre ceremonies and
    human sacrifices.

    * Organized, Traditional, or Multigenerational satanic groups
    involved in organized conspiracies, such as taking over day care
    centers, infiltrating police departments, and trafficking in human
    sacrifice victims.

    * The "Big Conspiracy" theory, which implies that satanists are
    responsible for such things as Adolph Hitler, World War II,
    abortion, illegal drugs, pornography, Watergate, and Irangate, and
    have infiltrated the Department of Justice, the Pentagon, and the
    White House.

During the conferences, these nine areas are linked together through the
liberal use of the word "satanism" and some common symbolism
(pentagrams, 666, demons, etc.) The implication often is that all are
part of a continuum of behavior, a single problem or some common
conspiracy. The distinctions among the different areas are blurred even
if occasionally a presenter tries to make them. The information
presented is a mixture of fact, theory, opinion, fantasy, and paranoia,
and because some of it can be proven or corroborated (symbols on rock
albums, graffiti on walls, desecration of cemeteries, vandalism, etc.,)
the implication is that it is all true and documented. Material produced
by religious organizations, photocopies and slides of newspaper
articles, and videotapes of tabloid television programs are used to
supplement the training and are presented as "evidence" of the existence
and nature of the problem.

All of this is complicated by the fact that almost any discussion of
satanism and the occult is interpreted in the light of the religious
beliefs of those in the audience. Faith, not logic and reason, governs
the religious beliefs of most people. As a result, some normally
skeptical law enforcement officers accept the information disseminated
at these conferences without critically evaluating it or questioning the
sources.

Officers who do not normally depend on church groups for law enforcement
criminal intelligence, who know that media accounts of their own cases
are notoriously inaccurate, and who scoff at and joke about tabloid
television accounts of bizarre behavior suddenly embrace such material
when presented in the context of satanic activity. Individuals not in
law enforcement seem even more likely to do so. Other disciplines,
especially therapists, have also conducted training conferences on the
characteristics and identification of "ritual" child abuse. Nothing said
at such conferences will change the religious beliefs of those in
attendance. Such conferences illustrate the highly emotional nature of
and the ambiguity and wide variety of terms involved in this issue.

Definitions

The words "satanic," "occult," and "ritual" are often used
interchangeably. It is difficult to define "satanism" precisely. No
attempt will be made to do so here. However, it is important to realize
that, for some people, any religious belief system other than their own
is "satanic." The Ayatollah Khomeini and Saddam Hussein referred to the
United States as the "Great Satan." In the British Parliament a
Protestant leader called the Pope the Antichrist. In a book titled
_Prepare For War_ (1987,) Rebecca Brown, M.D. has a chapter entitled "Is
Roman Catholicism Witchcraft?" Dr. Brown also lists among the "doorways"
to satanic power and/or demon infestation the following: fortune
tellers, horoscopes, fraternity oaths, vegetarianism, yoga,
self-hypnosis, relaxation tapes, acupuncture, biofeedback, fantasy
role-playing games, adultery, homosexuality, pornography, judo, karate,
and rock music. Dr. Brown states that rock music "was a carefully
masterminded plan by none other than Satan himself " (p. 84.) The ideas
expressed in this book may seem extreme and even humorous. This book,
however, has been recommended as a serious reference in law enforcement
training material on this topic. In books, lectures, handout material,
and conversations, I have heard all of the following referred to as
satanism:

-- Church of Satan
-- Ordo Templi Orientis
-- Temple of Set
-- Demonology
-- Witchcraft
-- Occult
-- Paganism
-- Santeria
-- Voodoo
-- Rosicrucians
-- Freemasonry
-- Knights Templar
-- Stoner Gangs
-- Heavy Metal Music
-- Rock Music
-- KKK
-- Nazis
-- Skinheads
-- Scientology
-- Unification Church
-- The Way
-- Hare Krishna
-- Rajneesh
-- Religious Cults
-- New Age
-- Astrology
-- Channeling
-- Transcendental Meditation
-- Holistic Medicine
-- Buddhism
-- Hinduism
-- Mormonism
-- Islam
-- Orthodox Church
-- Roman Catholicism

At law enforcement training conferences, it is witchcraft, santeria,
paganism, and the occult that are most often referred to as forms of
satanism. It may be a matter of definition, but these things are not
necessarily the same as traditional satanism. The worship of lunar
goddesses and nature and the practice of fertility rituals are not
satanism. Santeria is a combination of 17th century Roman Catholicism
and African paganism.

Occult means simply "hidden." All unreported or unsolved crimes might be
regarded as occult, but in this context the term refers to the action or
influence of supernatural powers, some secret knowledge of them, or an
interest in paranormal phenomena, and does not imply satanism, evil,
wrongdoing, or crime. Indeed, historically, the principal crimes
deserving of consideration as "occult crimes" are the frauds perpetrated
by faith healers, fortune tellers and "psychics" who for a fee claim
cures, arrange visitations with dead loved ones, and commit other
financial crimes against the gullible.

Many individuals define satanism from a totally Christian perspective,
using this word to describe the power of evil in the world. With this
definition, any crimes, especially those which are particularly bizarre,
repulsive, or cruel, can be viewed as satanic in nature. Yet it is just
as difficult to precisely define satanism as it is to precisely define
Christianity or any complex spiritual belief system.

What is Ritual?

The biggest confusion is over the word "ritual." During training
conferences on this topic, ritual almost always comes to mean "satanic"
or at least "spiritual." "Ritual" can refer to a prescribed religious
ceremony, but in its broader meaning refers to any customarily-repeated
act or series of acts. The need to repeat these acts can be cultural,
sexual, or psychological as well as spiritual.

Cultural rituals could include such things as what a family eats on
Thanksgiving Day, or when and how presents are opened at Christmas. The
initiation ceremonies of fraternities, sororities, gangs, and other
social clubs are other examples of cultural rituals.

Since 1972 I have lectured about sexual ritual, which is nothing more
than repeatedly engaging in an act or series of acts in a certain manner
because of a sexual need. In order to become aroused and/or gratified, a
person must engage in the act in a certain way. This sexual ritual can
include such things as the physical characteristics, age, or gender of
the victim, the particular sequence of acts, the bringing or taking of
specific objects, and the use of certain words or phrases. This is more
than the concept of M.O. (Method of Operation) known to most police
officers. M.O. is something done by an offender because it works. Sexual
ritual is something done by an offender because of a need. Deviant acts,
such as urinating on, defecating on, or even eviscerating a victim, are
far more likely to be the result of sexual ritual than religious or
"satanic" ritual.

From a criminal investigative perspective, two other forms of ritualism
must be recognized. The _Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders_ (DSM-III-R) (APA, 1987) defines "Obsessive- Compulsive
Disorder" as "repetitive, purposeful, and intentional behaviors that are
performed in response to an obsession, or according to certain rules or
in a stereotyped fashion" (p. 247.) Such compulsive behavior frequently
involves rituals. Although such behavior usually involves noncriminal
activity such as excessive hand washing or checking that doors are
locked, occasionally compulsive ritualism can be part of criminal
activity.

Certain gamblers or firesetters, for example, are thought by some
authorities to be motivated in part through such compulsions. Ritual can
also stem from psychotic hallucinations and delusions. A crime can be
committed in a precise manner because a voice told the offender to do it
that way or because a divine mission required it.

To make this more confusing, cultural, religious, sexual, and
psychological ritual can overlap. Some psychotic people are preoccupied
with religious delusions and hear the voice of God or Satan telling them
to do things of a religious nature. Offenders who feel little, if any,
guilt over their crimes may need little justification for their
antisocial behavior. As human beings, however, they may have fears,
concerns, and anxiety over getting away with their criminal acts. It is
difficult to pray to God for success in doing things that are against
His Commandments.

A negative spiritual belief system may fulfill their human need for
assistance from and belief in a greater power or to deal with their
superstitions. Compulsive ritualism (e.g., excessive cleanliness or fear
of disease) can be introduced into sexual behavior. Even many "normal"
people have a need for order and predictability and therefore may engage
in family or work rituals. Under stress or in times of change, this need
for order and ritual may increase.

Ritual crime may fulfill the cultural, spiritual, sexual, and
psychological needs of an offender. Crimes may be ritualistically
motivated or may have ritualistic elements. The ritual behavior may also
fulfill basic criminal needs to manipulate victims, get rid of rivals,
send a message to enemies, and intimidate co-conspirators. The leaders
of a group may want to play upon the beliefs and superstitions of those
around them and try to convince accomplices and enemies that they, the
leaders, have special or "supernatural" powers.

The important point for the criminal investigator is to realize that
most ritualistic criminal behavior is not motivated simply by satanic or
any religious ceremonies. At some conferences, presenters have attempted
to make an issue of distinguishing between "ritual," "ritualized," and
"ritualistic" abuse of children. These subtle distinctions, however,
seem to be of no significant value to the criminal investigator.

What is "Ritual" Child Abuse?

I cannot define "ritual child abuse" precisely and prefer not to use the
term. I am frequently forced to use it (as throughout this discussion)
so that people will have some idea what I am discussing. Use of the
term, however, is confusing, misleading, and counterproductive. The
newer term "satanic ritual abuse" (abbreviated "SRA") is even worse.
Certain observations, however, are important for investigative
understanding. Most people today use the term to refer to abuse of
children that is part of some evil spiritual belief system, which almost
by definition must be satanic.

Dr. Lawrence Pazder, coauthor of Michelle Remembers, defines "ritualized
abuse of children" as "repeated physical, emotional, mental, and
spiritual assaults combined with a systematic use of symbols and secret
ceremonies designed to turn a child against itself, family, society, and
God" (presentation, Richmond, Va., May 7,1987.) He also states that "the
sexual assault has ritualistic meaning and is not for sexual
gratification."

This definition may have value for academics, sociologists, and
therapists, but it creates potential problems for law enforcement.
Certain acts engaged in with children (i.e. kissing, touching, appearing
naked, etc.) may be criminal if performed for sexual gratification. If
the ritualistic acts were in fact performed for spiritual
indoctrination, potential prosecution can be jeopardized, particularly
if the acts can be defended as constitutionally protected religious
expression. The mutilation of a baby's genitals for sadistic sexual
pleasure is a crime. The circumcision of a baby's genitals for religious
reasons is most likely not a crime. The intent of the acts is important
for criminal prosecution.

Not all spiritually motivated ritualistic activity is satanic. Santeria,
witchcraft, voodoo, and most religious cults are not satanism. In fact,
most spiritually- or religiously-based abuse of children has nothing to
do with satanism. Most child abuse that could be termed "ritualistic" by
various definitions is more likely to be physical and psychological
rather than sexual in nature. If a distinction needs to be made between
satanic and nonsatanic child abuse, the indicators for that distinction
must be related to specific satanic symbols, artifacts, or doctrine
rather than the mere presence of any ritualistic element.

Not all such ritualistic activity with a child is a crime. Almost all
parents with religious beliefs indoctrinate their children into that
belief system. Is male circumcision for religious reasons child abuse?
Is the religious circumcision of females child abuse? Does having a
child kneel on a hard floor reciting the rosary constitute child abuse?
Does having a child chant a satanic prayer or attend a black mass
constitute child abuse? Does a religious belief in corporal punishment
constitute child abuse? Does group care of children in a commune or cult
constitute child abuse? Does the fact that any acts in question were
performed with parental permission affect the nature of the crime? Many
ritualistic acts, whether satanic or not, are simply not crimes. To open
the Pandora's box of labeling child abuse as "ritualistic" simply
because it involves a spiritual belief system means to apply the
definition to all acts by all spiritual belief systems. The day may come
when many in the foref ront of concern about ritual abuse will regret
they opened the box.

When a victim describes and investigation corroborates what sounds like
ritualistic activity, several possibilities must be considered. The
ritualistic activity may be part of the excessive religiosity of
mentally disturbed, even psychotic offenders. It may be a misunderstood
part of sexual ritual. The ritualistic activity may be incidental to any
real abuse. The offender may be involved in ritualistic activity with a
child and also may be abusing a child, but one may have little or
nothing to do with the other.

The offender may be deliberately engaging in ritualistic activity with a
child as part of child abuse and exploitation. The motivation, however,
may be not to indoctrinate the child into a belief system, but to lower
the inhibitions of, control, manipulate, and/or confuse the child. In
all the turmoil over this issue, it would be very effective strategy for
any child molester deliberately to introduce ritualistic elements into
his crime in order to confuse the child and therefore the criminal
justice system. This would, however, make the activity M.O. and not
ritual.

The ritualistic activity and the child abuse may be integral parts of
some spiritual belief system. In that case the greatest risk is to the
children of the practitioners. But this is true of all cults and
religions, not just satanic cults. A high potential of abuse exists for
any children raised in a group isolated from the mainstream of society,
especially if the group has a charismatic leader whose orders are
unquestioned and blindly obeyed by the members. Sex, money, and power
are often the main motivations of the leaders of such cults.

What Makes a Crime Satanic, Occult, or Ritualistic?

Some would answer that it is the offender's spiritual beliefs or
membership in a cult or church. If that is the criterion, why not label
the crimes committed by Protestants, Catholics, and Jews in the same
way? Are the atrocities of Jim Jones in Guyana Christian crimes?

Some would answer that it is the presence of certain symbols in the
possession or home of the perpetrator. What does it mean then to find a
crucifix, Bible, or rosary in the possession or home of a bank robber,
embezzler, child molester, or murderer? If different criminals possess
the same symbols, are they necessarily part of one big conspiracy?

Others would answer that it is the presence of certain symbols such as
pentagrams, inverted crosses, and 666 at the crime scene. What does it
mean then to find a cross spray painted on a wall or carved into the
body of a victim? What does it mean for a perpetrator, as in one recent
case profiled by my Unit, to leave a Bible tied to his murder victim?
What about the possibility that an offender deliberately left such
symbols to make it look like a "satanic" crime?

Some would argue that it is the bizarreness or cruelness of the crime:
body mutilation, amputation, drinking of blood, eating of flesh, use of
urine or feces. Does this mean that all individuals involved in lust
murder, sadism, vampirism, cannibalism, urophilia, and coprophilia are
satanists or occult practitioners? What does this say about the bizarre
crimes of psychotic killers such as Ed Gein or Richard Trenton Chase,
both of whom mutilated their victims as part of their psychotic
delusions? Can a crime that is not sexually deviant, bizarre, or
exceptionally violent be satanic? Can white collar crime be satanic?

A few might even answer that it is the fact that the crime was committed
on a date with satanic or occult significance (Halloween, May Eve, etc.)
or the fact that the perpetrator claims that Satan told him to commit
the crime. What does this mean for crimes committed on Thanksgiving or
Christmas? What does this say about crimes committed by perpetrators who
claim that God or Jesus told them to do it? One note of interest is the
fact that in handout and reference material I have collected, the number
of dates with satanic or occult significance ranges from 8 to 110.

This is compounded by the fact that it is sometimes stated that
satanists can celebrate these holidays on several days on either side of
the official date or that the birthdays of practitioners can also be
holidays. The exact names and exact dates of the holidays and the
meaning of symbols listed may also vary depending on who prepared the
material. The handout material is often distributed without identifying
the author or documenting the original source of the information. It is
then frequently photocopied by attendees and passed on to other police
officers with no one really knowing its validity or origin.

Most, however, would probably answer that what makes a crime satanic,
occult, or ritualistic is the motivation for the crime. It is a crime
that is spiritually motivated by a religious belief system. How then do
we label the following true crimes?

    * Parents defy a court order and send their children to an
    unlicensed Christian school.

    * Parents refuse to send their children to any school because they
    are waiting for the second coming of Christ.

    * Parents beat their child to death because he or she will not
    follow their Christian belief.

    * Parents violate child labor laws because they believe the Bible
    requires such work.

    * Individuals bomb an abortion clinic or kidnap the doctor because
    their religious belief system says abortion is murder.

    * A child molester reads the Bible to his victims in order to
    justify his sex acts with them.

    * Parents refuse life-saving medical treatment for a child because
    of their religious beliefs.

    * Parents starve and beat their child to death because their
    minister said the child was possessed by demonic spirits.

Some people would argue that the Christians who committed the above
crimes misunderstood and distorted their religion while satanists who
commit crimes are following theirs. But who decides what constitutes a
misinterpretation of a religious belief system? The individuals who
committed the above-described crimes, however misguided, believed that
they were following their religion as they understood it. Religion was
and is used to justify such social behavior as the Crusades, the
Inquisition, Apartheid, segregation, and recent violence in Northern
Ireland, India, Lebanon and Nigeria.

Who decides exactly what "satanists" believe? In this country, we cannot
even agree on what Christians believe. At many law enforcement
conferences The _Satanic Bible_ is used for this, and it is often
contrasted or compared with the Judeo-Christian Bible. The _Satanic
Bible_ is, in essence, a short paperback book written by one man, Anton
LaVey, in 1969.

To compare it to a book written by multiple authors over a period of
thousands of years is ridiculous, even ignoring the possibility of
Divine revelation in the Bible. What satanists believe certainly isn't
limited to other people's interpretation of a few books. More
importantly it is subject to some degree of interpretation by individual
believers just as Christianity is. Many admitted "satanists" claim they
do not even believe in God, the devil, or any supreme deity. The
criminal behavior of one person claiming belief in a religion does not
necessarily imply guilt or blame to others sharing that belief. In
addition, simply claiming membership in a religion does not necessarily
make you a member.

The fact is that far more crime and child abuse has been committed by
zealots in the name of God, Jesus, Mohammed, and other mainstream
religion than has ever been committed in the name of Satan. Many people,
including myself, don't like that statement, but the truth of it is
undeniable.

Although defining a crime as satanic, occult, or ritualistic would
probably involve a combination of the criteria set forth above, I have
been unable to clearly define such a crime. Each potential definition
presents a different set of problems when measured against an objective,
rational, and constitutional perspective. In a crime with multiple
subjects, each offender may have a different motivation for the same
crime. Whose motivation determines the label for the crime? It is
difficult to count or track something you cannot even define.

I have discovered, however, that the facts of so-called "satanic crimes"
are often significantly different from what is described at training
conferences or in the media. The actual involvement of satanism or the
occult in these cases usually turns out to be secondary, insignificant,
or nonexistent. Occult or ritual crime surveys done by the states of
Michigan (1990) and Virginia (1991) have only confirmed this
"discovery." Some law enforcement officers, unable to find serious
"satanic" crime in their communities, assume they are just lucky or
vigilant and the serious problems must be in other jurisdictions. The
officers in the other jurisdictions, also unable find it, assume the
same.

Multidimensional Child Sex Rings

Sometime in early 1983 I was first contacted by a law enforcement agency
for guidance in what was then thought to be an unusual case. The exact
date of the contact is unknown because its significance was not
recognized at the time. In the months and years that followed, I
received more and more inquiries about "these kinds of cases." The
requests for assistance came (and continue to come) from all over the
United States. Many of the aspects of these cases varied, but there were
also some commonalties. Early on, however, one particularly difficult
and potentially significant issue began to emerge.

These cases involved and continue to involve unsubstantiated allegations
of bizarre activity that are difficult either to prove or disprove. Many
of the unsubstantiated allegations, however, do not seem to have
occurred or even seem to be possible. These cases seem to call into
question the credibility of victims of child sexual abuse and
exploitation. These are the most polarizing, frustrating, and baffling
cases I have encountered in more than 18 years of studying the criminal
aspects of deviant sexual behavior. I privately sought answers, but said
nothing publicly about those cases until 1985.

In October 1984 the problems in investigating and prosecuting one of
these cases in Jordan, Minnesota became publicly known. In February
1985, at the FBI Academy, the FBI sponsored and I coordinated the first
national seminar held to study "these kinds of cases." Later in 1985,
similar conferences sponsored by other organizations were held in
Washington, D.C.; Sacramento, California; and Chicago, Illinois. These
cases have also been discussed at many recent regional and national
conferences dealing with the sexual victimization of children and
Multiple Personality Disorder. Few answers have come from these
conferences. I continue to be contacted on these cases on a regular
basis. Inquiries have been received from law enforcement officers,
prosecutors, therapists, victims, families of victims, and the media
from all over the United States and now foreign countries. I do not
claim to understand completely all the dynamics of these cases. I
continue to keep an open mind and to search for answers to the questions
and solutions to the problems they pose. This discussion is based on my
analysis of the several hundred of "these kinds of cases" on which I
have consulted since 1983.

Dynamics of Cases

What are "these kinds of cases?" They were and continue to be difficult
to define. They all involve allegations of what sounds like child sexual
abuse, but with a combination of some atypical dynamics. These cases
seem to have the following four dynamics in common: (1) multiple young
victims, (2) multiple offenders, (3) fear as the controlling tactic, and
(4) bizarre or ritualistic activity.

---- (1) Multiple Young Victims

In almost all the cases the sexual abuse was alleged to have taken place
or at least begun when the victims were between the ages of birth and
six. This very young age may be an important key to understanding these
cases. In addition the victims all described multiple children being
abused. The numbers ranged from three or four to as many as several
hundred victims.

---- (2) Multiple Offenders

In almost all the cases the victims reported numerous offenders. The
numbers ranged from two or three all the way up to dozens of offenders.
In one recent case the victims alleged 400-500 offenders were involved.
Interestingly many of the offenders (perhaps as many as 40-50 percent)
were reported to be females. The multiple offenders were often family
members and were described as being part of a cult, occult, or satanic
group.

---- (3) Fear as Controlling Tactic

Child molesters in general are able to maintain control and ensure the
secrecy of their victims in a variety of ways. These include attention
and affection, coercion, blackmail, embarrassment, threats, and
violence. In almost all of these cases I have studied, the victims
described being frightened and reported threats against themselves,
their families, their friends, and even their pets. They reported
witnessing acts of violence perpetrated to reinforce this fear. It is my
belief that this fear and the traumatic memory of the events may be
another key to understanding many of these cases.

---- (4) Bizarre of Ritualistic Activity

This is the most difficult dynamic of these cases to describe. "Bizarre"
is a relative term. Is the use of urine or feces in sexual activity
bizarre, or is it a well-documented aspect of sexual deviancy, or is it
part of established satanic rituals? As previously discussed, the
ritualistic aspect is even more difficult to define. How do you
distinguish acts performed in a precise manner to enhance or allow
sexual arousal from those acts that fulfill spiritual needs or comply
with "religious" ceremonies? Victims in these cases report ceremonies,
chanting, robes and costumes, drugs, use of urine and feces, animal
sacrifice, torture, abduction, mutilation, murder, and even cannibalism
and vampirism. All things considered, the word "bizarre" is probably
preferable to the word "ritual" to describe this activity.

When I was contacted on these cases, it was very common for a prosecutor
or investigator to say that the alleged victims have been evaluated by
an "expert" who will stake his or her professional reputation on the
fact that the victims are telling the "truth." When asked how many cases
this expert had previously evaluated involving these four dynamics, the
answer was always the same: none! The experts usually had only dealt
with one-on-one intrafamilial sexual abuse cases. Recently an even more
disturbing trend has developed. More and more of the victims have been
identified or evaluated by experts who have been trained to identify and
specialize in satanic ritual abuse.

Characteristics of Multidimensional Child Sex Rings

As previously stated, a major problem in communicating, training, and
researching in this area is the term used to define "these kinds of
cases." Many refer to them as "ritual, ritualistic, or ritualized abuse
of children cases" or "satanic ritual abuse (SRA) cases." Such words
carry specialized meanings for many people and might imply that all
these cases are connected to occult or satanic activity. If ritual abuse
is not necessarily occult or satanic, but is "merely" severe, repeated,
prolonged abuse, why use a term that, in the minds of so many, implies
such specific motivation?

Others refer to these cases as "multioffender/multivictim cases." The
problem with this term is that most multiple offender and victim cases
do not involve the four dynamics discussed above.

For want of a better term, I have decided to refer to "these kinds of
cases" as "multidimensional child sex rings." Right now I seem to be the
only one using this term. I am, however, not sure if this is truly a
distinct kind of child sex ring case or just a case not properly
handled.

Following are the general characteristics of these multidimensional
child sex ring cases as contrasted with more common historical child sex
ring cases [see my monograph Child Sex Rings: A Behavioral Analysis]
(1989) for a discussion of the characteristics of historical child sex
ring cases]. [NOTE: Monograph is available in PDF format through the
link given -- flr]

---- (1) Female Offenders

As many as 40-50 percent of the offenders in these cases are reported to
be women. This is in marked contrast to historical child sex rings in
which almost all the offenders are men.

---- (2) Situational Molesters

The offenders appear to be sexually interacting with the child victims
for reasons other than a true sexual preference for children. The
children are substitute victims, and the abusive activity may have
little to do with pedophilia [see my monograph _Child Molesters: A
Behavioral Analysis_ (1987) for a further explanation about types of
molesters]. [NOTE: The monograph is available in PDF format through the
link offered -- flr]

---- (3) Male and Female Victims

Both boys and girls appear to be targeted, but with an apparent
preference for girls. Almost all the adult survivors are female, but day
care cases frequently involve male as well as female victims. The most
striking characteristic of the victims, however, is their young age
(generally birth to six years old when the abuse began.)

---- (4) Multidimensional Motivation

Sexual gratification appears to be only part of the motivation for the
"sexual" activity. Many people today argue that the motivation is
"spiritual" - possibly part of an occult ceremony. It is my opinion that
the motivation may have more to do with anger, hostility, rage and
resentment carried out against weak and vulnerable victims. Much of the
ritualistic abuse of children may not be sexual in nature. Some of the
activity may, in fact, be physical abuse directed at
sexually-significant body parts (penis, anus, nipples.) This may also
partially explain the large percentage of female offenders. Physical
abuse of children by females is well- documented.

---- (5) Pornography and Paraphernalia

Although many of the victims of multidimensional child sex rings claim
that pictures and videotapes of the activity were made, no such visual
record has been found by law enforcement. In recent years, American law
enforcement has seized large amounts of child pornography portraying
children in a wide variety of sexual activity and perversions. None of
it, however, portrays the kind of bizarre and/or ritualistic activity
described by these victims. Perhaps these offenders use and store their
pornography and paraphernalia in ways different from preferential child
molesters (pedophiles.) This is an area needing additional research and
investigation.

---- (6) Control Through Fear

Control through fear may be the overriding characteristic of these
cases. Control is maintained by frightening the children. A very young
child might not be able to understand the significance of much of the
sexual activity but certainly understands fear. The stories that the
victims tell may be their perceived versions of severe traumatic
memories. They may be the victims of a severely traumatized childhood in
which being sexually abused was just one of the many negative events
affecting their lives.

Scenarios

Multidimensional child sex rings typically emerge from one of four
scenarios: (1) adult survivors, (2) day care cases, (3) family/isolated
neighborhood cases, and (4) custody/visitation disputes.

---- (1) Adult Survivors

In adult survivor cases, adults of almost any age - nearly always women
- are suffering the consequences of a variety of personal problems and
failures in their lives (e.g., promiscuity, eating disorders, drug and
alcohol abuse, failed relationships, self- mutilation, unemployment.) As
a result of some precipitating stress or crisis, they often seek
therapy. They are frequently hypnotized, intentionally or
unintentionally, as part of the therapy and are often diagnosed as
suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder. Gradually, during the
therapy, the adults reveal previously unrecalled memories of early
childhood victimization that includes multiple victims and offenders,
fear as the controlling tactic, and bizarre or ritualistic activity.
Adult survivors may also claim that "cues" from certain events in their
recent life "triggered" the previously repressed memories.

The multiple offenders are often described as members of a cult or
satanic group. Parents, family members, clergy, civic leaders, police
officers (or individuals wearing police uniforms,) and other prominent
members of society are frequently described as present at and
participating in the exploitation. The alleged bizarre activity often
includes insertion of foreign objects, witnessing mutilations, and
sexual acts and murders being filmed or photographed. The offenders may
allegedly still be harassing or threatening the victims. They report
being particularly frightened on certain dates and by certain
situations. In several of these cases, women (called "breeders") claim
to have had babies that were turned over for human sacrifice. This type
of case is probably best typified by books like Michelle Remembers
(Smith & Pazder, 1980), Satan's Underground (Stratford, 1988), and
Satan's Children (Mayer, 1991.)

If and when therapists come to believe the patient or decide the law
requires it, the police or FBI are sometimes contacted to conduct an
investigation. The therapists may also fear for their safety because
they now know the "secret." The therapists will frequently tell law
enforcement that they will stake their professional reputation on the
fact that their patient is telling the truth. Some adult survivors go
directly to law enforcement. They may also go from place to place in an
effort to find therapists or investigators who will listen to and
believe them. Their ability to provide verifiable details varies and
many were raised in apparently religious homes. A few adult survivors
are now reporting participation in specific murders or child abductions
that are known to have taken place.

---- (2) Day Care Cases

In day care cases children currently or formerly attending a day care
center gradually describe their victimization at the center and at other
locations to which they were taken by the day care staff. The cases
include multiple victims and offenders, fear, and bizarre or ritualistic
activity, with a particularly high number of female offenders.
Descriptions of strange games, insertion of foreign objects, killing of
animals, photographing of activities, and wearing of costumes are
common. The accounts of the young children, however, do not seem to be
quite as "bizarre" as those of the adult survivors, with fewer accounts
of human sacrifice.

---- (3) Family/Isolated Neighborhood Cases

In family/isolated neighborhood cases, children describe their
victimization within their family or extended family. The group is often
defined by geographic boundary, such as a cul-de-sac, apartment
building, or isolated rural setting. Such accounts are most common in
rural or suburban communities with high concentrations of religiously
conservative people. The stories are similar to those told of the day
care setting, but with more male offenders. The basic dynamics remain
the same, but victims tend to be more than six years of age, and the
scenario may also involve a custody or visitation dispute.

---- (4) Custody/Visitation Dispute

In custody/visitation dispute cases, the allegations emanate from a
custody or visitation dispute over at least one child under the age of
seven. The four dynamics described above make these cases extremely
difficult to handle. When complicated by the strong emotions of this
scenario, the cases can be overwhelming. This is especially true if the
disclosing child victims have been taken into the "underground" by a
parent during the custody or visitation dispute. Some of these parents
or relatives may even provide authorities with diaries or tapes of their
interviews with the children. An accurate evaluation and assessment of a
young child held in isolation in this underground while being
"debriefed" by a parent or someone else is almost impossible. However
well-intentioned, these self-appointed investigators severely damage any
chance to validate these cases objectively.

Why are Victims Alleging Things That do not Seem to be True?

Some of what the victims in these cases allege is physically impossible
(victim cut up and put back together, offender took the building apart
and then rebuilt it); some is possible but improbable (human sacrifice,
cannibalism, vampirism ); some is possible and probable (child
pornography, clever manipulation of victims); and some is corroborated
(medical evidence of vaginal or anal trauma, offender confessions.)

The most significant crimes being alleged that do not seem to be true
are the human sacrifice and cannibalism by organized satanic cults. In
none of the multidimensional child sex ring cases of which I am aware
have bodies of the murder victims been found - in spite of major
excavations where the abuse victims claim the bodies were located. The
alleged explanations for this include: the offenders moved the bodies
after the children left, the bodies were burned in portable
high-temperature ovens, the bodies were put in double- decker graves
under legitimately buried bodies, a mortician member of the cult
disposed of the bodies in a crematorium, the offenders ate the bodies,
the offenders used corpses and aborted fetuses, or the power of Satan
caused the bodies to disappear.

Not only are no bodies found, but also, more importantly, there is no
physical evidence that a murder took place. Many of those not in law
enforcement do not understand that, while it is possible to get rid of a
body, it is even more difficult to get rid of the physical evidence that
a murder took place, especially a human sacrifice involving sex, blood,
and mutilation. Such activity would leave behind trace evidence that
could be found using modern crime scene processing techniques in spite
of extraordinary efforts to clean it up.

The victims of these human sacrifices and murders are alleged to be
abducted missing children, runaway and throwaway children, derelicts,
and the babies of breeder women. It is interesting to note that many of
those espousing these theories are using the long- since-discredited
numbers and rhetoric of the missing children hysteria in the early
1980s. Yet "Stranger-Abduction Homicides of Children," a January 1989
_Juvenile Justice Bulletin_, published by the Office of Juvenile Justice
and Delinquency Prevention of the U.S. Department of Justice, reports
that researchers now estimate that the number of children kidnapped and
murdered by nonfamily members is between 52 and 158 a year and that
adolescents 14 to 17 years old account for nearly two-thirds of these
victims. These figures are also consistent with the 1990 National
Incident Studies previously mentioned.

We live in a very violent society, and yet we have "only" about 23,000
murders a year. Those who accept these stories of mass human sacrifice
would have us believe that the satanists and other occult practitioners
are murdering more than twice as many people every year in this country
as all the other murderers combined.

In addition, in none of the cases of which I am aware has any evidence
of a well-organized satanic cult been found. Many of those who accept
the stories of organized ritual abuse of children and human sacrifice
will tell you that the best evidence they now have is the consistency of
stories from all over America. It sounds like a powerful argument. It is
interesting to note that, without having met each other, the hundreds of
people who claim to have been abducted by aliens from outer space also
tell stories and give descriptions of the aliens that are similar to
each other. This is not to imply that allegations of child abuse are in
the same category as allegations of abduction by aliens from outer
space. It is intended only to illustrate that individuals who never met
each other can sometimes describe similar events without necessarily
having experienced them.

The large number of people telling the same story is, in fact, the
biggest reason to doubt these stories. It is simply too difficult for
that many people to commit so many horrendous crimes as part of an
organized conspiracy. Two or three people murder a couple of children in
a few communities as part of a ritual, and nobody finds out? Possible.
Thousands of people do the same thing to tens of thousands of victims
over many years? Not likely. Hundreds of communities all over America
are run by mayors, police departments, and community leaders who are
practicing satanists and who regularly murder and eat people? Not
likely.

In addition, these community leaders and high-ranking officials also
supposedly commit these complex crimes leaving no evidence, and at the
same time function as leaders and managers while heavily involved in
using illegal drugs. Probably the closest documented example of this
type of alleged activity in American history is the Ku Klux Klan, which
ironically used Christianity, not satanism, to rationalize its activity
but which, as might be expected, was eventually infiltrated by
informants and betrayed by its members.

As stated, initially I was inclined to believe the allegations of the
victims. But as the cases poured in and the months and years went by, I
became more concerned about the lack of physical evidence and
corroboration for many of the more serious allegations. With increasing
frequency I began to ask the question: "Why are victims alleging things
that do not seem to be true?" Many possible answers were considered.

The first possible answer is obvious: clever offenders. The allegations
may not seem to be true but they are true. The criminal justice system
lacks the knowledge, skill, and motivation to get to the bottom of this
crime conspiracy. The perpetrators of this crime conspiracy are clever,
cunning individuals using sophisticated mind control and brainwashing
techniques to control their victims. Law enforcement does not know how
to investigate these cases.

It is technically possible that these allegations of an organized
conspiracy involving taking over day care centers, abduction,
cannibalism, murder, and human sacrifice might be true. But if they are
true, they constitute one of the greatest crime conspiracies in history.
Many people do not understand how difficult it is to commit a conspiracy
crime involving numerous co-conspirators. One clever and cunning
individual has a good chance of getting away with a well- planned
interpersonal crime. Bring one partner into the crime and the odds of
getting away with it drop considerably. The more people involved in the
crime, the harder it is to get away with it. Why? Human nature is the
answer. People get angry and jealous. They come to resent the fact that
another conspirator is getting "more" than they. They get in trouble and
want to make a deal for themselves by informing on others.

If a group of individuals degenerate to the point of engaging in human
sacrifice, murder, and cannibalism, that would most likely be the
beginning of the end for such a group. The odds are that someone in the
group would have a problem with such acts and be unable to maintain the
secret.

The appeal of the satanic conspiracy theory is twofold:

---- (1) First, it is a simple explanation for a complex problem.
Nothing is more simple than "the devil made them do it." If we do not
understand something, we make it the work of some supernatural force.
During the Middle Ages, serial killers were thought to be vampires and
werewolves, and child sexual abuse was the work of demons taking the
form of parents and clergy. Even today, especially for those raised to
religiously believe so, satanism offers an explanation as to why "good"
people do bad things. It may also help to "explain" unusual, bizarre,
and compulsive sexual urges and behavior.

---- (2) Second, the conspiracy theory is a popular one. We find it
difficult to believe that one bizarre individual could commit a crime we
find so offensive. Conspiracy theories about soldiers missing in action
(MIAs,) abductions by UFOs, Elvis Presley sightings, and the
assassination of prominent public figures are the focus of much
attention in this country. These conspiracy theories and allegations of
ritual abuse have the following in common: (1) self-proclaimed experts,
(2) tabloid media interest, (3) belief the government is involved in a
coverup, and (4) emotionally involved direct and indirect
victim/witnesses.

On a recent television program commemorating the one hundredth
anniversary of Jack the Ripper, almost fifty percent of the viewing
audience who called the polling telephone numbers indicated that they
thought the murders were committed as part of a conspiracy involving the
British Royal Family. The five experts on the program, however,
unanimously agreed the crimes were the work of one disorganized but
lucky individual who was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. In many
ways, the murders of Jack the Ripper are similar to those allegedly
committed by satanists today.

If your child's molestation was perpetrated by a sophisticated satanic
cult, there is nothing you could have done to prevent it and therefore
no reason to feel any guilt. I have been present when parents who
believe their children were ritually abused at day care centers have
told others that the cults had sensors in the road, lookouts in the air,
and informers everywhere; therefore, the usually recommended advice of
unannounced visits to the day care center would be impossible.

Alternative Explanations

Even if only part of an allegation is not true, what then is the answer
to the question "Why are victims alleging things that do not seem to be
true?" After consulting with psychiatrists, psychologists,
anthropologists, therapists, social workers, child sexual abuse experts,
and law enforcement investigators for more than eight years, I can find
no single, simple answer. The answer to the question seems to be a
complex set of dynamics that can be different in each case. In spite of
the fact that some skeptics keep looking for it, there does not appear
to be one answer to the question that fits every case. Each case is
different, and each case may involve a different combination of answers.

I have identified a series of possible alternative answers to this
question. The alternative answers also do not preclude the possibility
that clever offenders are sometimes involved. I will not attempt to
explain completely these alternative answers because I cannot. They are
presented simply as areas for consideration and evaluation by child
sexual abuse intervenors, for further elaboration by experts in these
fields, and for research by objective social scientists. The first step,
however, in finding the answers to this question is to admit the
possibility that some of what the victims describe may not have
happened. Some child advocates seem unwilling to do this.

Pathological Distortion

The first possible answer to why victims are alleging things that do not
seem to be true is pathological distortion. The allegations may be
errors in processing reality influenced by underlying mental disorders
such as dissociative disorders, borderline or histrionic personality
disorders, or psychosis. These distortions may be manifested in false
accounts of victimization in order to gain psychological benefits such
as attention and sympathy (factitious disorder.) When such individuals
repeatedly go from place to place or person to person making these false
reports of their own "victimization," it is called Munchausen Syndrome.

When the repealed false reports concern the "victimization" of their
children or others linked to them, it is called Munchausen Syndrome by
Proxy. I am amazed when some therapists state that they believe the
allegations because they cannot think of a reason why the "victim,"
whose failures are now explained and excused or who is now the center of
attention at a conference or on a national television program, would
lie. If you can be forgiven for mutilating and killing babies, you can
be forgiven for anything.

Many "victims" may develop pseudomemories of their victimization and
eventually come to believe the events actually occurred. Noted forensic
psychiatrist Park E. Dietz (personal communication, Nov. 1991) states:

"Pseudomemories have been acquired through dreams (particularly if one
is encouraged to keep a journal or dream diary and to regard dream
content as 'clues' about the past or as snippets of history,)
substance-induced altered states of consciousness (alcohol or other
drugs,) group influence (particularly hearing vivid accounts of events
occurring to others with whom one identifies emotionally such as occurs
in incest survivor groups,) reading vivid accounts of events occurring
to others with whom one identifies emotionally, watching such accounts
in films or on television, and hypnosis. The most efficient means of
inducing pseudomemories is hypnosis.

"It is characteristic of pseudomemories that the recollections of
complex events (as opposed to a simple unit of information, such as a
tag number) are incomplete and without chronological sequence. Often the
person reports some uncertainty because the pseudomemories are
experienced in a manner they describe as 'hazy', 'fuzzy', or 'vague'.
They are often perplexed that they recall some details vividly but
others dimly.

"Pseudomemories are not delusions. When first telling others of
pseudomemories, these individuals do not have the unshakable but
irrational conviction that deluded subjects have, but with social
support they often come to defend vigorously the truthfulness of the
pseudomemories.

"Pseudomemories are not fantasies, but may incorporate elements from
fantasies experienced in the past. Even where the events described are
implausible, listeners may believe them because they are reported with
such intense affect (i.e. with so much emotion attached to the story)
that the listener concludes that the events must have happened because
no one could 'fake' the emotional aspects of the retelling. It also
occurs, however, that persons report pseudomemories in such a
matter-of-fact and emotionless manner that mental health professionals
conclude that the person has 'dissociated' intellectual knowledge of the
events from emotional appreciation of their impact."

Traumatic Memory

The second possible answer is traumatic memory. Fear and severe trauma
can cause victims to distort reality and confuse events. This is a
well-documented fact in cases involving individuals taken hostage or in
life-and-death situations. The distortions may be part of an elaborate
defense mechanism of the mind called "splitting" - The victims create a
clear-cut good-and-evil manifestation of their complex victimization
that is then psychologically more manageable.

Through the defense mechanism of dissociation, the victim may escape the
horrors of reality by inaccurately processing that reality. In a
dissociative state a young child who ordinarily would know the
difference might misinterpret a film or video as reality.

Another defense mechanism may tell the victim that it could have been
worse, and so his or her victimization was not so bad. They are not
alone in their victimization - other children were also abused. Their
father who abused them is no different from other prominent people in
the community they claim also abused them. Satanism may help to explain
why their outwardly good and religious parents did such terrible things
to them in the privacy of their home. Their religious training may
convince them that such unspeakable acts by supposedly "good" people
must be the work of the devil. The described human sacrifice may be
symbolic of the "death" of their childhood.

It may be that we should anticipate that individuals severely abused as
very young children by multiple offenders with fear as the primary
controlling tactic will distort and embellish their victimization.
Perhaps a horror-filled yet inaccurate account of victimization is not
only not a counterindication of abuse, but is in fact a corroborative
indicator of extreme physical, psychological, and/or sexual abuse. I do
not believe it is a coincidence nor the result of deliberate planning by
satanists that in almost all the cases of ritual abuse that have come to
my attention, the abuse is alleged to have begun prior to the age of
seven and perpetrated by multiple offenders.

It may well be that such abuse, at young age by multiple offenders, is
the most difficult to accurately recall with the specific and precise
detail needed by the criminal justice system, and the most likely to be
distorted and exaggerated when it is recalled. In her book Too Scared to
Cry (1990,) child psychiatrist Lenore Terr, a leading expert on psychic
trauma in childhood, states "that a series of early childhood shocks
might not be fully and accurately 'reconstructed' from the dreams and
behaviors of the adult" (p. 5.)

Normal Childhood Fears and Fantasy

The third possible answer may be normal childhood fears and fantasy.
Most young children are afraid of ghosts and monsters. Even as adults,
many people feel uncomfortable, for example, about dangling their arms
over the side of their bed. They still remember the "monster" under the
bed from childhood. While young children may rarely invent stories about
sexual activity, they might describe their victimization in terms of
evil as they understand it. In church or at home, children may be told
of satanic activity as the source of evil. The children may be "dumping"
all their fears and worries unto an attentive and encouraging listener.

Children do fantasize. Perhaps whatever causes a child to allege
something impossible (such as being cut up and put back together) is
similar to what causes a child to allege something possible but
improbable (such as witnessing another child being chopped up and
eaten.)

Misperception, Confusion, and Trickery

Misperception, confusion, and trickery may be a fourth answer. Expecting
young children to give accurate accounts of sexual activity for which
they have little frame of reference is unreasonable. The Broadway play
Madame Butterfly is the true story of a man who had a 15-year affair,
including the "birth" of a baby, with a "woman" who turns out to have
been a man all along. If a grown man does not know when he has had
vaginal intercourse with a woman, how can we expect young children not
to be confused?

Furthermore some clever offenders may deliberately introduce elements of
satanism and the occult into the sexual exploitation simply to confuse
or intimidate the victims. Simple magic and other techniques may be used
to trick the children. Drugs may also be deliberately used to confuse
the victims and distort their perceptions. Such acts would then be M.O.,
not ritual.

As previously stated, the perceptions of young victims may also be
influenced by any trauma being experienced. This is the most popular
alternative explanation, and even the more zealous believers of ritual
abuse allegations use it, but only to explain obviously impossible
events.

Overzealous Intervenors

Overzealous intervenors, causing intervenor contagion, may be a fifth
answer. These intervenors can include parents, family members, foster
parents, doctors, therapists, social workers, law enforcement officers,
prosecutors, and any combination thereof. Victims have been subtly as
well as overtly rewarded and bribed by usually well- meaning intervenors
for furnishing further details. In addition, some of what appears not to
have happened may have originated as a result of intervenors making
assumptions about or misinterpreting what the victims are saying. The
intervenors then repeat, and possibly embellish, these assumptions and
misinterpretations, and eventually the victims are "forced" to agree
with or come to accept this "official" version of what happened.

The judgment of intervenors may be affected by their zeal to uncover
child sexual abuse, satanic activity, or conspiracies. However
"well-intentioned," these overzealous intervenors must accept varying
degrees of responsibility for the unsuccessful prosecution of those
cases where criminal abuse did occur. This is the most controversial and
least popular of the alternative explanations.

Urban Legends

Allegations of and knowledge about ritualistic or satanic abuse may also
be spread through urban legends. In The Vanishing Hitchhiker (1981,) the
first of his four books on the topic, Dr. Jan Harold Brunvand defines
urban legends as "realistic stories concerning recent events (or alleged
events) with an ironic or supernatural twist" (p. xi.) Dr. Brunvand's
books convincingly explain that just because individuals throughout the
country who never met each other tell the same story does not mean that
it is true.

Absurd urban legends about the corporate logos of Proctor and Gamble and
Liz Claiborne being satanic symbols persist in spite of all efforts to
refute them with reality. Some urban legends about child kidnappings and
other threats to citizens have even been disseminated unknowingly by law
enforcement agencies. Such legends have always existed, but today the
mass media aggressively participate in their rapid and more efficient
dissemination.

Many Americans mistakenly believe that tabloid television shows check
out and verify the details of their stories before pulling them on the
air. Mass hysteria may partially account for large numbers of victims
describing the same symptoms or experiences.

Training conferences for all the disciplines involved in child sexual
abuse may also play a role in the spread of this contagion. At one child
abuse conference I attended, an exhibitor was selling more than 50
different books dealing with satanism and the occult. By the end of the
conference, he had sold nearly all of them. At another national child
sexual abuse conference, I witnessed more than 100 attendees copying
down the widely disseminated 29 "Symptoms Characterizing Satanic Ritual
Abuse" in preschool-aged children. Is a four-year-old child's
"preoccupation with urine and feces" an indication of satanic ritual
abuse or part of normal development?

Combination

Most multidimensional child sex ring cases probably involve a
combination of the answers previously set forth, as well as other
possible explanations unknown to me at this time. Obviously, cases with
adult survivors are more likely to involve some of these answers than
those with young children. Each case of sexual victimization must be
individually evaluated on its own merits without any preconceived
explanations. All the possibilities must be explored if for no other
reason than the fact that the defense attorneys for any accused subjects
will almost certainly do so.

Most people would agree that just because a victim tells you one detail
that turns out to be true, this does not mean that every detail is true.
But many people seem to believe that if you can disprove one part of a
victim's story, then the entire story is false. As previously stated,
one of my main concerns in these cases is that people are getting away
with sexually abusing children or committing other crimes because we
cannot prove that they are members of organized cults that murder and
eat people.

I have discovered that the subject of multidimensional child sex rings
is a very emotional and polarizing issue. Everyone seems to demand that
one choose a side. On one side of the issue are those who say that
nothing really happened and it is all a big witch hunt led by
overzealous fanatics and incompetent "experts." The other side says, in
essence, that everything happened; victims never lie about child sexual
abuse, and so it must be true.

There is a middle ground. It is the job of the professional investigator
to listen to all the victims and conduct an appropriate investigation in
an effort to find out what happened, considering all possibilities. Not
all childhood trauma is abuse. Not all child abuse is a crime. The great
frustration of these cases is the fact that you are often convinced that
something traumatic happened to the victim, but do not know with any
degree of certainty exactly what happened, when it happened, or who did
it.

Do Victims Lie About Sexual Abuse and Exploitation?

The crucial central issue in the evaluation of a response to cases of
multidimensional child sex rings is the statement "Children never lie
about sexual abuse or exploitation. If they have details, it must have
happened." This statement, oversimplified by many, is the basic premise
upon which some believe the child sexual abuse and exploitation movement
is based. It is almost never questioned or debated at training
conferences. In fact, during the 1970s, there was a successful crusade
to eliminate laws requiring corroboration of child victim statements in
child sexual abuse cases. The best way to convict child molesters is to
have the child victims testify in court. If we believe them, the jury
will believe them. Any challenge to this basic premise was viewed as a
threat to the movement and a denial that the problem existed.

I believe that children rarely lie about sexual abuse or exploitation,
if a lie is defined as a statement deliberately and maliciously intended
to deceive. The problem is the oversimplification of the statement. Just
because a child is not lying does not necessarily mean the child is
telling the truth. I believe that in the majority of these cases, the
victims are not lying. They are telling you what they have come to
believe has happened to them. Furthermore the assumption that children
rarely lie about sexual abuse does not necessarily apply to everything a
child says during a sexual abuse investigation. Stories of mutilation,
murder, and cannibalism are not really about sexual abuse.

Children rarely lie about sexual abuse or exploitation, but they do
fantasize, furnish false information, furnish misleading information,
misperceive events, try to please adults, respond to leading questions,
and respond to rewards. Children are not adults in little bodies and do
go through developmental stages that must be evaluated and understood.
In many ways, however, children are no better and no worse than other
victims or witnesses of a crime. They should not be automatically
believed, nor should they be automatically disbelieved.

The second part of the statement - if children can supply details, the
crime must have happened - must also be carefully evaluated. The details
in question in most of the cases of multidimensional child sex rings
have little to do with sexual activity. Law enforcement and social
workers must do more than attempt to determine how a child could have
known about the sex acts. These cases involve determining how a victim
could have known about a wide variety of bizarre and ritualistic
activity. Young children may know little about specific sex acts, but
they may know a lot about monsters, torture, kidnapping, and murder.

Victims may supply details of sexual and other acts using information
from sources other than their own direct victimization. Such sources
must be evaluated carefully by the investigator of multidimensional
child sex rings.

Personal Knowledge

The victim may have personal knowledge of the sexual or ritual acts, but
not as a result of the alleged victimization. The knowledge could have
come from viewing pornography, sex education, or occult material;
witnessing sexual or ritual activity in the home; or witnessing the
sexual abuse of others. It could also have come from having been
sexually or physically abused, but by other than the alleged offenders
and in ways other than the alleged offense.

Other Children or Victims

Young children today are socially interacting more often and at a
younger age than ever before. Many parents are unable to provide
possibly simple explanations for their children's stories because they
were not with the children when the events occurred. They do not even
know what videotapes their children may have seen, what games they may
have played, or what stories they may have been told or overheard.
Children are being placed in day care centers for eight, ten, or twelve
hours a day starting as young as six weeks of age. The children share
experiences by playing house, school, or doctor. Bodily functions such
as urination and defecation are a focus of attention for these young
children. To a certain extent, each child shares the experiences of all
the other children.

The odds are fairly high that in any typical day care center there might
be some children who are victims of incest; victims of physical abuse;
victims of psychological abuse; children of cult members (even
satanists); children of sexually open parents; children of sexually
indiscriminate parents; children of parents obsessed with victimization;
children of parents obsessed with the evils of satanism; children
without conscience; children with a teenage brother or pregnant mother;
children with heavy metal music and literature in the home; children
with bizarre toys, games, comics, and magazines; children with a VCR and
slasher films in their home; children with access to dial-a-porn, party
lines, or pornography; or children victimized by a day care center staff
member.

The possible effects of the interaction of such children prior to the
disclosure of the alleged abuse must be evaluated, Adult survivors may
obtain details from group therapy sessions, support networks, church
groups, or self-help groups. The willingness and ability of siblings to
corroborate adult survivor accounts of ritual abuse varies. Some will
support and partially corroborate the victim's allegations. Others will
vehemently deny them and support their accused parents or relatives.

Media

The amount of sexually explicit, occult, anti-occult, or violence-
oriented material available to adults and even children in the modern
world is overwhelming. This includes movies, videotapes, television,
music, toys, and books. There are also documentaries on satanism,
witchcraft, and the occult that are available on videotape. Most of the
televangelists have videotapes on the topics that they are selling on
their programs.

The National Coalition on Television Violence News (1988) estimates that
12% of the movies produced in the United States can be classified as
satanic horror films. Cable television and the home VCR make all this
material readily available even to young children. Religious
broadcasters and almost all the television tabloid and magazine programs
have done shows on satanism and the occult. Heavy metal and black metal
music, which often has a satanic theme, is readily available and
popular. In addition to the much-debated fantasy role-playing games,
there are numerous popular toys on the market with an occult-oriented,
bizarre, or violent theme.

Books on satanism and the occult, both fiction and nonfiction, are
readily available in most bookstores, especially Christian bookstores.
Several recent books specifically discuss the issue of ritual abuse of
children. Obviously, very young children do not read this material, but
their parents, relatives, and therapists might and then discuss it in
front of or with them. Much of the material intended to fight the
problem actually fuels the problem and damages effective prosecution.

Suggestions and Leading Questions

This problem is particularly important in cases stemming from
custody/visitation disputes involving at least one child under the age
of seven. It is my opinion that most suggestive, leading questioning of
children by intervenors is inadvertently done as part of a good-faith
effort to learn the truth. Not all intervenors are in equal positions to
potentially influence victim allegations. Parents and relatives
especially are in a position to subtly influence their young children to
describe their victimization in a certain way. Children may also
overhear their parents discussing the details of the case. Children
often tell their parents what they believe their parents want or need to
hear.

Some children may be instinctively attempting to provide "therapy" for
their parents by telling them what seems to satisfy them and somehow
makes them feel better. In one case a father gave the police a tape
recording to "prove" that his child's statements were spontaneous
disclosures and not the result of leading, suggestive questions. The
tape recording indicated just the opposite. Why then did the father
voluntarily give it to the police? Probably because he truly believed
that he was not influencing his child's statements - but he was.

Therapists are probably in the best position to influence the
allegations of adult survivors. The accuracy and reliability of the
accounts of adult survivors who have been hypnotized during therapy is
certainly open to question. One nationally-known therapist personally
told me that the reason police cannot find out about satanic or
ritualistic activity from child victims is that they do not know how to
ask leading questions.

Highly suggestive books and pictures portraying "satanic" activity have
been developed and marketed to therapists for use during evaluation and
treatment. Types and styles of verbal interaction useful in therapy may
create significant problems in a criminal investigation. It should be
noted, however, that when a therapist does a poor investigative
interview as part of a criminal investigation, that is the fault of the
criminal justice system that allowed it and not the therapist who did
it.

The extremely sensitive, emotional, and religious nature of these cases
makes problems with leading questions more likely than in other kinds of
cases. Intervenors motivated by religious fervor and/or exaggerated
concerns about sexual abuse of children are more likely to lose their
objectivity.

Misperception and Confusion

In one case, a child's description of the apparently impossible act of
walking through a wall turned out to be the very possible act of walking
between the studs of an unfinished wall in a room under construction. In
another case, pennies in the anus turned out to be copper-foil-covered
suppositories. The children may describe what they believe happened. It
is not a lie, but neither is it an accurate account of what happened.

Education and Awareness Programs

Some well-intentioned awareness programs designed to prevent child sex
abuse, alert professionals, or fight satanism may in fact be
unrealistically increasing the fears of professionals, children, and
parents and creating self-fulfilling prophesies. Some of what children
and their parents are telling intervenors may have been learned in or
fueled by such programs. Religious programs, books, and pamphlets that
emphasize the power and evil force of Satan may be adding to the
problem. In fact most of the day care centers in which ritualistic abuse
is alleged to have taken place are church- affiliated centers, and many
of the adult survivors alleging it come from apparently religious
families.

Law Enforcement Perspective

The perspective with which one looks at satanic, occult, or ritualistic
crime is extremely important. As stated, sociologists, therapists,
religious leaders, parents, and just plain citizens each have their own
valid concerns and views about this issue. This discussion, however,
deals primarily with the law enforcement or criminal justice
perspective. When you combine an emotional issue such as the sexual
abuse of children with an even more emotional issue such as people's
religious beliefs, it is difficult to maintain objectivity and remember
the law enforcement perspective. Some police officers may even feel that
all crime is caused by evil, all evil is caused by Satan, and therefore,
all crime is satanic crime. This may be a valid religious perspective,
but it is of no relevance to the investigation of crime for purposes of
prosecution.

Many of the police officers who lecture on satanic or occult crime do
not even investigate such cases. Their presentations are more a
reflection of their personal religious beliefs than documented
investigative information. They are absolutely entitled to their
beliefs, but introducing themselves as current or former police officers
and then speaking as religious advocates causes confusion. As difficult
as it might be, police officers must separate the religious and law
enforcement perspectives when they are lecturing or investigating in
their official capacities as law enforcement officers. Many law
enforcement officers begin their presentations by stating that they are
not addressing or judging anyone's religious beliefs, and then proceed
to do exactly that.

Some police officers have resigned rather than curtail or limit their
involvement in this issue as ordered by their departments. Perhaps such
officers deserve credit for recognizing that they could no longer keep
the perspectives separate.

Law enforcement officers and all professionals in this field should
avoid the "paranoia" that has crept into this issue and into some of the
training conferences. Paranoid type belief systems are characterized by
the gradual development of intricate, complex, and elaborate systems of
thinking based on and often proceeding logically from misinterpretation
of actual events. Paranoia typically involves hypervigilance over the
perceived threat, the belief that danger is around every corner, and the
willingness to take up the challenge and do something about it. Another
very important aspect of this paranoia is the belief that those who do
not recognize the threat are evil and corrupt. In this extreme view, you
are either with them or against them. You are either part of the
solution or part of the problem.

Overzealousness and exaggeration motivated by the true religious fervor
of those involved is more acceptable than that motivated by ego or
profit.

There are those who are deliberately distorting and hyping this issue
for personal notoriety and profit. Satanic and occult crime and ritual
abuse of children has become a growth industry. Speaking fees, books,
video and audio tapes, prevention material, television and radio
appearances all bring egoistic and financial rewards.

Bizarre crime and evil can occur without organized satanic activity. The
professional perspective requires that we distinguish between what we
know and what we're not sure of.

The facts are:

    * Some individuals believe in and are involved in something commonly
    called satanism and the occult.

    * Some of these individuals commit crime. 

    * Some groups of individuals share these beliefs and involvement in
    this satanism and the occult.

    * Some members of these groups commit crime together. 

The unanswered questions are:

    * What is the connection between the belief system and the crimes
    committed?

    * Is there an organized conspiracy of satanic and occult believers
    responsible for interrelated serious crime (e.g., molestation,
    murder)?

After all the hype and hysteria are put aside, the realization sets in
that most satanic/occult activity involves the commission of no crimes,
and that which does usually involves the commission of relatively minor
crimes such as trespassing, vandalism, cruelty to animals, or petty
thievery.

The law enforcement problems most often linked to satanic or occult
activity are:

    * Vandalism.
    * Desecration of churches and cemeteries.
    * Thefts from churches and cemeteries.
    * Teenage gangs.
    * Animal mutilations.
    * Teenage suicide.
    * Child abuse.
    * Kidnapping.
    * Murder and human sacrifice

Valid evidence shows some "connection" between satanism and the occult
and the first six problems set forth above. The "connection" to the last
three problems is far more uncertain.

Even where there seems to be a "connection," the nature of the
connection needs to be explored. It is easy to blame involvement in
satanism and the occult for behaviors that have complex motivations. A
teenager's excessive involvement in satanism and the occult is usually a
symptom of a problem and not the cause of a problem. Blaming satanism
for a teenager's vandalism, theft, suicide, or even act of murder is
like blaming a criminal's offenses on his tattoos: Both are often signs
of the same rebelliousness and lack of self- esteem that contribute to
the commission of crimes.

The rock band Judas Priest was recently sued for allegedly inciting two
teenagers to suicide through subliminal messages in their recordings. In
1991 Anthony Pratkanis of the University of California at Santa Cruz,
who served as an expert witness for the defense, stated the boys in
question "lived troubled lives, lives of drug and alcohol abuse, run-ins
with the law... family violence, and chronic unemployment. What issues
did the trial and the subsequent mass media coverage emphasize?
Certainly not the need for drug treatment centers; there was no
evaluation of the pros and cons of America's juvenile justice system, no
investigation of the schools, no inquiry into how to prevent family
violence, no discussion of the effects of unemployment on a family.
Instead our attention was mesmerized by an attempt to count the number
of subliminal demons that can dance on the end of a record needle."
(p.1.)

The law enforcement investigator must objectively evaluate the legal
significance of any criminal's spiritual beliefs. In most cases,
including those involving satanists, it will have little or no legal
significance. If a crime is committed as part of a spiritual belief
system, it should make no difference which belief system it is. The
crime is the same whether a child is abused or murdered as part of a
Christian, Hare Krishna, Moslem, or any other belief system. We
generally don't label crimes with the name of the perpetrator's
religion. Why then are the crimes of child molesters, rapists, sadists,
and murderers who happen to be involved in satanism and the occult
labeled as satanic or occult crimes? If criminals use a spiritual belief
system to rationalize and justify or to facilitate and enhance their
criminal activity, should the focus of law enforcement be on the belief
system or on the criminal activity?

Several documented murders have been committed by individuals involved
in one way or another in satanism or the occult. In some of these
murders the perpetrator has even introduced elements of the occult (e.g.
satanic symbols at the crime scene.) Does that automatically make these
satanic murders? It is my opinion that the answer is no. Ritualistic
murders committed by serial killers or sexual sadists are not
necessarily satanic or occult murders. Ritualistic murders committed by
psychotic killers who hear the voice of Satan are no more satanic
murders than murders committed by psychotic killers who hear the voice
of Jesus are Christian murders.

Rather a satanic murder should be defined as one committed by two or
more individuals who rationally plan the crime and whose primary
motivation is to fulfill a prescribed satanic ritual calling for the
murder. By this definition I have been unable to identify even one
documented satanic murder in the United States. Although such murders
may have and can occur, they appear to be few in number. In addition the
commission of such killings would probably be the beginning of the end
for such a group. It is highly unlikely that they could continue to kill
several people, every year, year after year, and not be discovered.

A brief typology of satanic and occult practitioners is helpful in
evaluating what relationship, if any, such practices have to crimes
under investigation. The following typology is adapted from the
investigative experience of Officer Sandi Gallant of the San Francisco
Police Department, who began to study the criminal aspects of occult
activity long before it became popular. No typology is perfect, but I
use this typology because it is simple and offers investigative
insights. Most practitioners fall into one of three categories, any of
which can be practiced alone or in groups:

"Youth Subculture"

"Most teenagers involved in fantasy role-playing games, heavy metal
music, or satanism and the occult are going through a stage of
adolescent development and commit no significant crimes. The teenagers
who have more serious problems are usually those from dysfunctional
families or those who have poor communication within their families.
These troubled teenagers turn to satanism and the occult to overcome a
sense of alienation, to rebel, to obtain power, or to justify their
antisocial behavior.

For these teenagers it is the symbolism, not the spirituality, that is
more important. It is either the psychopathic or the oddball, loner
teenager who is most likely to get into serious trouble. Extreme
involvement in the occult is a symptom of a problem, not the cause. This
is not to deny, however, that satanism and the occult can be negative
influences for a troubled teenager. But to hysterically warn teenagers
to avoid this "mysterious, powerful and dangerous" thing called satanism
will drive more teenagers right to it. Some rebellious teenagers will do
whatever will most shock and outrage society in order to flaunt their
rejection of adult norms."

Dabblers (Self-Styled)

"For these practitioners there is little or no spiritual motivation.
They may mix satanism, witchcraft, paganism, and any aspects of the
occult to suit their purposes. Symbols mean whatever they want them or
believe them to mean. Molesters, rapists, drug dealers, and murderers
may dabble in the occult and may even commit their crimes in a
ceremonial or ritualistic way. This category has the potential to be the
most dangerous, and most of the "satanic" killers fall into this
category. Their involvement in satanism and the occult is a symptom of a
problem, and a rationalization and justification of antisocial behavior.
Satanic/occult practices (as well as those of other spiritual belief
systems) can also be used as a mechanism to facilitate criminal
objectives.

Traditional (Orthodox)

"These are the so-called true believers. They are often wary of
outsiders. Because of this and constitutional issues, such groups are
difficult for law enforcement to penetrate. Although there may be much
we don't know about these groups, as of now there is little or no hard
evidence that as a group they are involved in serious, organized
criminal activity. In addition, instead of being self- perpetuating
master crime conspirators, "true believers" probably have a similar
problem with their teenagers rebelling against their belief system. To
some extent even these Traditional satanists are self-stylized. They
practice what they have come to believe is "satanism." There is little
or no evidence of the much-discussed multigenerational satanists whose
beliefs and practices have supposedly been passed down through the
centuries. Many admitted adult satanists were in fact raised in
conservative Christian homes."

Washington Post editor Walt Harrington reported in a 1986 story on Anton
LaVey and his Church of Satan that "sociologists who have studied
LaVey's church say that its members often had serious childhood problems
like alcoholic parents or broken homes, or that they were traumatized by
guilt-ridden fundamentalist upbringings, turning to Satanism as a
dramatic way to purge their debilitating guilt." (p. 14.)

Some have claimed that the accounts of ritual abuse victims coincide
with historical records of what traditional or multigenerational
satanists are known to have practiced down through the ages. Jeffrey
Burton Russell, Professor of History at the University of California at
Santa Barbara and the author of numerous scholarly books on the devil
and satanism, believes that the universal consensus of modern historians
on satanism is (personal communication, Nov. 1991):

"(1) incidents of orgy, infanticide, cannibalism, and other such conduct
have occurred from the ancient world down to the present; (2) such
incidents were isolated and limited to local antisocial groups; (3)
during the period of Christian dominance in European culture, such
groups were associated with the Devil in the minds of the authorities;
(4) in some cases the sectaries believed that they were worshiping
Satan; (5) no organized cult of Satanists existed in the Christian
period beyond localities, and on no account was there ever any
widespread Satanist organization or conspiracy; (6) no reliable
historical sources indicate that such organizations existed; (7) the
black mass appears only once in the sources before the late nineteenth
century."

Many police officers ask what to look for during the search of the scene
of suspected satanic activity. The answer is simple: Look for evidence
of a crime. A pentagram is no more criminally significant than a
crucifix unless it corroborates a crime or a criminal conspiracy. If a
victim's description of the location or the instruments of the crime
includes a pentagram, then the pentagram would be evidence. But the same
would be true if the description included a crucifix. In many cases of
alleged satanic ritual abuse, investigation can find evidence that the
claimed offenders are members only of mainstream churches and are often
described as very religious.

There is no way any one law enforcement officer can become knowledgeable
about all the symbols and rituals of every spiritual belief system that
might become part of a criminal investigation. The officer needs only to
be trained to recognize the possible investigative significance of such
signs, symbols, and rituals. Knowledgeable religious scholars,
academics, and other true experts in the community can be consulted if a
more detailed analysis is necessary.

Any analysis, however, may have only limited application, especially to
cases involving teenagers, dabblers, and other self-styled
practitioners. The fact is signs, symbols, and rituals can mean anything
that practitioners want them to mean and/or anything that observers
interpret them to mean.

The meaning of symbols can also change over time, place, and
circumstance. Is a swastika spray-painted on a wall an ancient symbol of
prosperity and good fortune, a recent symbol of Nazism and
anti-Semitism, or a current symbol of hate, paranoia, and adolescent
defiance? The peace sign which in the 1960s was a familiar antiwar
symbol is now supposed to be a satanic symbol. Some symbols and holidays
become "satanic" only because the antisatanists say they are. Then those
who want to be "satanists" adopt them, and now you have "proof" they are
satanic.

In spite of what is sometimes said or suggested at law enforcement
training conferences, police have no authority to seize any satanic or
occult paraphernalia they might see during a search. A legally- valid
reason must exist for doing so. It is not the job of law enforcement to
prevent satanists from engaging in noncriminal teaching, rituals, or
other activities.

Investigating Multidimensional Child Sex Rings

Multidimensional child sex rings can be among the most difficult,
frustrating, and complex cases that any law enforcement officer will
ever investigate. The investigation of allegations of recent activity
from multiple young children under the age of seven presents one set of
problems and must begin quickly, with interviews of all potential
victims being completed as soon as possible. The investigation of
allegations of activity ten or more years earlier from adult survivors
presents other problems and should proceed, unless victims are at
immediate risk, more deliberately, with gradually-increasing resources
as corroborated facts warrant.

In spite of any skepticism, allegations of ritual abuse should be
aggressively and thoroughly investigated. This investigation should
attempt to corroborate the allegations of ritual abuse. but should
simultaneously also attempt to identify alternative explanations. The
only debate is over how much investigation is enough. Any law
enforcement agency must be prepared to defend and justify its actions
when scrutinized by the public, the media, elected officials, or the
courts. This does not mean, however, that a law enforcement agency has
an obligation to prove that the alleged crimes did not occur. This is
almost always impossible to do and investigators should be alert for and
avoid this trap.

One major problem in the investigation of multidimensional child sex
rings is the dilemma of recognizing soon enough that you have one.
Investigators must be alert for cases with the potential for the four
basic dynamics: (a) multiple young victims, (b) multiple offenders, (c)
fear as the controlling tactic, and (d) bizarre or ritualistic activity.
The following techniques apply primarily to the investigation of such
multidimensional child sex rings:

Minimize Satanic/Occult Aspect

There are those who claim that one of the major reasons more of these
cases have not been successfully prosecuted is that the satanic/occult
aspect has not been aggressively pursued. One state has even introduced
legislation creating added penalties when certain crimes are committed
as part of a ritual or ceremony. A few states have passed special ritual
crime laws. I strongly disagree with such an approach. It makes no
difference what spiritual belief system was used to enhance and
facilitate or rationalize and justify criminal behavior. It serves no
purpose to "prove" someone is a satanist. As a matter of fact, if it is
alleged that the subject committed certain criminal acts under the
influence of or in order to conjure up supernatural spirits or forces,
this may very well be the basis for an insanity or diminished capacity
defense, or may damage the intent aspect of a sexually motivated crime.
The defense may very well be more interested in all the "evidence of
satanic activity." S ome of the satanic crime "experts" who train law
enforcement wind up working or testifying for the defense in these
cases.

It is best to focus on the crime and all the evidence to corroborate its
commission. Information about local satanic or occult activity is only
of value if it is based on specific law enforcement intelligence and not
on some vague, unsubstantiated generalities from religious groups. Cases
are not solved by decoding signs, symbols, and dates using undocumented
satanic crime "manuals." In one case a law enforcement agency executing
a search warrant seized only the satanic paraphernalia and left behind
the other evidence that would have corroborated victim statements. Cases
are solved by people- and behavior-oriented investigation. Evidence of
satanic or occult activity may help explain certain aspects of the case,
but even offenders who commit crimes in a spiritual context are usually
motivated by power, sex, and money.

Keep Investigation and Religious Beliefs Separate

I believe that one of the biggest mistakes any investigator of these
cases can make is to attribute supernatural powers to the offenders.
During an investigation a good investigator may sometimes be able to use
the beliefs and superstitions of the offenders to his or her advantage.
The reverse happens if the investigator believes that the offenders
possess supernatural powers. Satanic/occult practitioners have no more
power than any other human beings. Law enforcement officers who believe
that the investigation of these cases puts them in conflict with the
supernatural forces of evil should probably not be assigned to them. The
religious beliefs of officers should provide spiritual strength and
support for them but should not affect the objectivity and
professionalism of the investigation.

It is easy to get caught up in these cases and begin to see "satanism"
everywhere. Oversensitization to this perceived threat may cause an
investigator to "see" satanism in a crime when it really is not there
(quasi-satanism.) Often the eye sees what the mind perceives. It may
also cause an investigator not to recognize a staged crime scene
deliberately seeded with "satanic clues" in order to mislead the police
(pseudo-satanism.) On rare occasions an overzealous investigator or
intervenor may even be tempted to plant "evidence of satanism" in order
to corroborate such allegations and beliefs. Supervisors need to be
alert for and monitor these reactions in their investigators.

Listen to the Victims

It is not the investigator's duty to believe the victims; it is his or
her job to listen and be an objective fact finder. Interviews of young
children should be done by investigators trained and experienced in such
interviews. Investigators must have direct access to the alleged victims
for interview purposes. Therapists for an adult survivor sometimes want
to act as intermediaries in their patient's interview. This should be
avoided if at all possible. Adult survivor interviews are often
confusing difficult and extremely time-consuming. The investigator must
remember however that almost anything is possible. Most important the
investigator must remember that there is much middle ground. Just
because one event did happen does not mean that all reported events
happened, and just because one event did not happen does not mean that
all other events did not happen. Do not become such a zealot that you
believe it all nor such a cynic that you believe nothing. Varying
amounts and parts of th e allegation may be factual. Attempting to find
evidence of what did happen is the great challenge of these cases. All
investigative interaction with victims must be carefully and thoroughly
documented.

Assess and Evaluate Victim Statements

This is the part of the investigative process in child sexual
victimization cases that seems to have been lost. Is the victim
describing events and activities that are consistent with law
enforcement documented criminal behavior, or that are consistent with
distorted media accounts and erroneous public perceptions of criminal
behavior? Investigators should apply the "template of probability."
Accounts of child sexual victimization that are more like books,
television, and movies (e.g. big conspiracies, child sex slaves,
organized pornography rings) and less like documented cases should be
viewed with skepticism but thoroughly investigated. Consider and
investigate all possible explanations of events. It is the
investigator's job, and the information learned will be invaluable in
counteracting the defense attorneys when they raise the alternative
explanations.

For example, an adult survivor's account of ritual victimization might
 be explained by any one of at least four possibilities: First, the
 allegations may be a fairly accurate account what actually happened.
 Second, they may be deliberate lies (malingering,) told for the usual
 reasons people lie (e.g. money, revenge, jealousy.) Third, they may be
 deliberate lies (factitious disorder) told for atypical reasons (e.g.
 attention, forgiveness.) Lies so motivated are less likely to be
 recognized by the investigator and more likely to be rigidly maintained
 by the liar unless and until confronted with irrefutable evidence to
 the contrary. Fourth, the allegations may be a highly inaccurate
 account of what actually happened, but the victim truly believes it
 (pseudomemory) and therefore is not lying. A polygraph examination of
 such a victim would be of limited value. Other explanations or
 combinations of these explanations are also possible. Only thorough
 investigation will point to the correct or most likely explanation.

Investigators cannot rely on therapists or satanic crime experts as a
shortcut to the explanation. In one case, the "experts" confirmed and
validated the account of a female who claimed to be a 15-year- old
deaf-mute kidnapped and held for three years by a satanic cult and
forced to participate in bizarre rituals before recently escaping.
Active investigation, however, determined she was a 27- year-old woman
who could hear and speak, who had not been kidnapped by anyone, and who
had a lengthy history of mental problems and at least three other
similar reports of false victimization. Her "accurate" accounts of what
the "real satanists" do were simply the result of having read, while in
mental hospitals, the same books that the "experts" had. A therapist may
have important insights about whether an individual was traumatized, but
knowing the exact cause of that trauma is another matter. There have
been cases where investigation has discovered that individuals diagnosed
by therapists as s uffering from Post-Vietnam Syndrome were never in
Vietnam or saw no combat.

Conversely, in another case, a law enforcement "expert" on satanic crime
told a therapist that a patient's accounts of satanic murders in a rural
Pacific Northwest town were probably true because the community was a
hotbed of such satanic activity. When the therapist explained that there
was almost no violent crime reported in the community, the officer
explained that that is how you know it is the satanists. If you knew
about the murders or found the bodies, it would not be satanists. How do
you argue with that kind of logic?

The first step in the assessment and evaluation of victim statements is
to determine the disclosure sequence, including how much time has
elapsed since disclosure was first made and the incident was reported to
the police or social services. The longer the delay, the bigger the
potential for problems. The next step is to determine the number and
purpose of all prior interviews of the victim concerning the
allegations. The more interviews conducted before the investigative
interview, the larger the potential for problems. Although there is
nothing wrong with admitting shortcomings and seeking help, law
enforcement should never abdicate its control over the investigative
interview. When an investigative interview is conducted by or with a
social worker or therapist using a team approach, law enforcement must
direct the process. Problems can also be created by interviews conducted
by various intervenors after the investigative interview(s.)

The investigator must closely and carefully evaluate events in the
victim's life before, during, and after the alleged abuse.

Events to be evaluated before the alleged abuse include:

    * Background of victim.
    * Abuse of drugs in home.
    * Pornography in home.
    * Play, television, and VCR habits.
    * Attitudes about sexuality in home.
    * Extent of sex education in home.
    * Activities of siblings.
    * Need or craving for attention.
    * Religious beliefs and training.
    * Childhood fears.
    * Custody/visitation disputes.
    * Victimization of or by family members.
    * Interaction between victims.

Events to be evaluated during the alleged abuse include:

    * Use of fear or scare tactics.
    * Degree of trauma.
    * Use of magic deception or trickery.
    * Use of rituals.
    * Use of drugs.
    * Use of pornography. 

Events to be evaluated after the alleged abuse include:

    * Disclosure sequence.
    * Background of prior interviewers.
    * Background of parents.
    * Co-mingling of victims.
    * Type of therapy received. 

Evaluate Contagion

Consistent statements obtained from different multiple victims are
powerful pieces of corroborative evidence - that is as long as those
statements were not "contaminated." Investigation must carefully
evaluate both pre- and post-disclosure contagion, and both victim and
intervenor contagion. Are the different victim statements consistent
because they describe common experiences or events, or because they
reflect contamination or urban legends?

The sources of potential contagion are widespread. Victims can
communicate with each other both prior to and after their disclosures.
Intervenors can communicate with each other and with victims. The team
or cell concepts of investigation are attempts to deal with potential
investigator contagion. All the victims are not interviewed by the same
individuals, and interviewers do not necessarily share information
directly with each other. Teams report to a leader or supervisor who
evaluates the information and decides what other investigators need to
know.

Documenting existing contagion and eliminating additional contagion are
crucial to the successful investigation and prosecution of these cases.
There is no way, however, to erase or undo contagion. The best you can
hope for is to identify and evaluate it and attempt to explain it.
Mental health professionals requested to evaluate suspected victims must
be carefully selected. Having a victim evaluated by one of the
self-proclaimed experts on satanic ritual abuse or by some other
overzealous intervenor may result in the credibility of that victim's
testimony being severely damaged.

In order to evaluate the contagion element, investigators must
meticulously and aggressively investigate these cases. The precise
disclosure sequence of the victim must be carefully identified and
documented. Investigators must verify through active investigation the
exact nature and content of each disclosure outcry or statement made by
the victim. Second-hand information about disclosure is not good enough.

Whenever possible, personal visits should be made to all locations of
alleged abuse and the victim's homes. Events prior to the alleged abuse
must be carefully evaluated. Investigators may have to view television
programs, films, and videotapes seen by the victims. It may be necessary
to conduct a background investigation and evaluation of everyone, both
professional and nonprofessional, who interviewed the victims about the
allegations prior to and after the investigative interview(s.)

Investigators must be familiar with the information about ritual abuse
of children being disseminated in magazines, books, television programs,
videotapes, and conferences. Every possible way that a victim could have
learned about the details of the abuse must be explored if for no other
reason than to eliminate them and counter the defense's arguments.

There may, however, be validity to these contagion factors. They may
explain some of the "unbelievable" aspects of the case and result in the
successful prosecution of the substance of the case. Consistency of
statements becomes more significant if contagion is identified or
disproved by independent investigation. The easier cases are the ones
where there is a single, identifiable source of contagion. Most cases,
however, seem to involve multiple contagion factors.

Munchausen Syndrome and Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy are complex and
controversial issues in these cases. No attempt will be made to discuss
them in detail, but they are documented facts (Rosenberg, 1987.) Most of
the literature about them focuses on their manifestation in the medical
setting as false or self-inflicted illness or injury. They are also
manifested in the criminal justice setting as false or self-inflicted
crime victimization. If parents would poison their children to prove an
illness, they might sexually abuse their children to prove a crime.
"Victims" have been known to destroy property, manufacture evidence, and
mutilate themselves in order to convince others of their victimization.

The motivation is psychological gain (i.e. attention, forgiveness, etc.)
and not necessarily money, jealousy, or revenge. These are the
unpopular, but documented, realities of the world. Recognizing their
existence does not mean that child sexual abuse and sexual assault are
not real and serious problems.

Establish Communication with Parents

The importance and difficulty of this technique in extrafamilial cases
involving young children cannot be overemphasized. An investigator must
maintain ongoing communication with the parents of victims in these
abuse cases. Not all parents react the same way to the alleged abuse of
their children. Some are very supportive and cooperative. Others
overreact and some even deny the victimization. Sometimes there is
animosity and mistrust among parents with different reactions. Once the
parents lose faith in the police or prosecutor and begin to interrogate
their own children and conduct their own investigation, the case may be
lost forever. Parents from one case communicate the results of their
"investigation" with each other, and some have even contacted the
parents in other cases. Such parental activity is an obvious source of
potential contamination.

Parents must be made to understand that their children's credibility
will be jeopardized when and if the information obtained turns out to be
unsubstantiated or false. To minimize this problem, within the limits of
the law and without jeopardizing investigative techniques, parents must
be told on a regular basis how the case is progressing. Parents can also
be assigned constructive things to do (e.g. lobbying for new
legislation, working on awareness and prevention programs) in order to
channel their energy, concern, and "guilt."

Develop a Contingency Plan

If a department waits until actually confronted with a case before a
response is developed, it may be too late. In cases involving ongoing
abuse of children, departments must respond quickly, and this requires
advanced planning. There are added problems for small- to medium-sized
departments with limited personnel and resources. Effective
investigation of these cases requires planning, identification of
resources, and, in many cases, mutual aid agreements between agencies.
The U.S. Department of Defense has conducted specialized training and
has developed such a plan for child sex ring cases involving military
facilities and personnel. Once a case is contaminated and out of
control, I have little advice on how to salvage what may once have been
a prosecutable criminal violation. A few of these cases have even been
lost on appeal after a conviction because of contamination problems.

Multidisciplinary Task Forces

Sergeant Beth Dickinson, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, was
the chairperson of the Multi-Victim, Multi-Suspect Child Sexual Abuse
Subcommittee. Sergeant Dickinson states (personal communication, Nov.
1989):

"One of the biggest obstacles for investigators to overcome is the
reluctance of law enforcement administrators to commit sufficient
resources early on to an investigation that has the potential to be a
multidimensional child sex ring. It is important to get in and get on
top of the investigation in a timely manner - to get it investigated in
a timely manner in order to assess the risk to children and to avoid
hysteria, media sensationalism, and cross- contamination of information.
The team approach reduces stress on individual investigators, allowing
for peer support and minimizing feelings of being overwhelmed."

The team approach and working together does not mean, however, that each
discipline forgets its role and starts doing the other's job.

Summary

The investigation of child sex rings can be difficult and time
consuming. The likelihood, however, of a great deal of corroborative
evidence in a multivictim/multioffender case increases the chances of a
successful prosecution if the crime occurred. Because there is still so
much we do not know or understand about the dynamics of multidimensional
child sex rings, investigative techniques are less certain. Each new
case must be carefully evaluated in order to improve investigative
procedures.

Because mental health professionals seem to be unable to determine, with
any degree of certainty, the accuracy of victim statements in these
cases, law enforcement must proceed using the corroboration process. If
some of what the victim describes is accurate, some misperceived, some
distorted, and some contaminated, what is the jury supposed to believe?
Until mental health professionals can come up with better answers, the
jury should be asked to believe what the investigation can corroborate.
Even if only a portion of what these victims allege is factual, that may
still constitute significant criminal activity.

Conclusion

There are many possible alternative answers to the question of why
victims are alleging things that don't seem to be true. The first step
in finding those answers is to admit the possibility that some of what
the victims describe may not have happened. Some experts seem unwilling
to even consider this. Most of these victims are also probably not lying
and have come to believe that which they are alleging actually happened.
There are alternative explanations for why people who never met each
other can tell the same story.

I believe that there is a middle ground - a continuum of possible
activity. Some of what the victims allege may be true and accurate, some
may be misperceived or distorted, some may be screened or symbolic, and
some may be "contaminated" or false. The problem and challenge,
especially for law enforcement, is to determine which is which. This can
only be done through active investigation. I believe that the majority
of victims alleging "ritual" abuse are in fact victims of some form of
abuse or trauma. That abuse or trauma may or may not be criminal in
nature. After a lengthy discussion about various alternative
explanations and the continuum of possible activity, one mother told me
that for the first time since the victimization of her young son she
felt a little better. She had thought her only choices were that either
her son was a pathological liar or, on the other hand, she lived in a
community controlled by satanists.

Law enforcement has the obvious problem of attempting to determine what
actually happened for criminal justice purposes. Therapists, however,
might also be interested in what really happened in order to properly
evaluate and treat their patients. How and when to confront patients
with skepticism is a difficult and sensitive problem for therapists.

Any professional evaluating victims' allegations of "ritual" abuse
cannot ignore or routinely dismiss the lack of physical evidence (no
bodies or physical evidence left by violent murders); the difficulty in
successfully committing a large-scale conspiracy crime (the more people
involved in any crime conspiracy, the harder it is to get away with it);
and human nature (intragroup conflicts resulting in individual
self-serving disclosures are likely to occur in any group involved in
organized kidnapping, baby breeding, and human sacrifice.) If and when
members of a destructive cult commit murders, they are bound to make
mistakes, leave evidence, and eventually make admissions in order to
brag about their crimes or to reduce their legal liability. The
discovery of the murders in Matamoros, Mexico in 1989 and the results of
the subsequent investigation are good examples of these dynamics.

Overzealous intervenors must accept the fact that some of their
well-intentioned activity is contaminating and damaging the prosecutive
potential of the cases where criminal acts did occur. We must all (i.e.,
the media, churches, therapists, victim advocates, law enforcement, and
the general public) ask ourselves if we have created an environment
where victims are rewarded, listened to, comforted, and forgiven in
direct proportion to the severity of their abuse. Are we encouraging
needy or traumatized individuals to tell more and more outrageous tales
of their victimization? Are we making up for centuries of denial by now
blindly accepting any allegation of child abuse no matter how absurd or
unlikely?

Are we increasing the likelihood that rebellious, antisocial, or
attention-seeking individuals will gravitate toward "satanism" by
publicizing it and overreacting to it? The overreaction to the problem
can be worse than the problem.

The amount of "ritual" child abuse going on in this country depends on
how you define the term. One documented example of what I might call
"ritual" child abuse was the horror chronicled in the book A Death in
White Bear Lake (Siegal, 1990.) The abuse in this case, however, had
little to do with anyone's spiritual belief system. There are many
children in the United States who, starting early in their lives, are
severely psychologically, physically, and sexually traumatized by angry,
sadistic parents or other adults. Such abuse, however, is not
perpetrated only or primarily by satanists. The statistical odds are
that such abusers are members of mainstream religions. If 99.9% of
satanists and 0.1% of Christians abuse children as part of their
spiritual belief system, that still means that the vast majority of
children so abused were abused by Christians.

Until hard evidence is obtained and corroborated, the public should not
be frightened into believing that babies are being bred and eaten, that
50,000 missing children are being murdered in human sacrifices, or that
satanists are taking over America's day care centers or institutions. No
one can prove with absolute certainty that such activity has
notoccurred. The burden of proof, however, as it would be in a criminal
prosecution, is on those who claim that it has occurred.

The explanation that the satanists are too organized and law enforcement
is too incompetent only goes so far in explaining the lack of evidence.
For at least eight years American law enforcement has been aggressively
investigating the allegations of victims of ritual abuse. There is
little or no evidence for the portion of their allegations that deals
with large-scale baby breeding, human sacrifice, and organized satanic
conspiracies. Now it is up to mental health professionals, not law
enforcement, to explain why victims are alleging things that don't seem
to have happened. Professionals in this field must accept the fact that
there is still much we do not know about the sexual victimization of
children, and that this area desperately needs study and research by
rational, objective social scientists.

If the guilty are to be successfully prosecuted, if the innocent are to
be exonerated, and if the victims are to be protected and treated,
better methods to evaluate and explain allegations of "ritual" child
abuse must be developed or identified. Until this is done, the
controversy will continue to cast a shadow over and fuel the backlash
against the validity and reality of child sexual abuse.

References

American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders (3rd Ed., Rev.) Washington, DC: 1987.

Breiner, S.J., Slaughter of the Innocents: Child Abuse Through the Ages
and Today. New York: Plenum Press, 1990.

Brown, R., Prepare for War.

Chino, CA: Chick Publications, 1987.

Brunvand, J.H., The Vanishing Hitchhiker. New York: Norton, 1981.

Harrington, Walt, "The Devil in Anton LaVey." Washington, D.C.: The
Washington Post Magazine, February 23, 1986, pages #6-17.

Lanning, K.V., Child Molesters: A Behavioral Analysis (2nd Ed.)
Washington, D.C.: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children,
1987.

Lanning, K.V. (1989.) Child sex rings: A behavioral analysis.
Washington, DC: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

LaVey, Anton, The Satanic Bible. New York: Avon Books, 1969.

Mayer, R.S., Satan's Children. New York: Putnam, 1991.

Michigan Department of State Police, Occult Survey. East Lansing,
Michigan, 1990.

National Coalition on Television Violence (NCTV) News, June- October
1988, page #3.

National Incidence Studies on Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway
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Prattanis, A., "Hidden messages," Wellness Letter. Berkeley, California:
University of California, January 1991, pages #1-2.

Rosenberg, D.A., "Web of Deceit: A Literature Review of Munchausen
Syndrome by Proxy, " Child Abuse and Neglect #2, 1987, pages #547- 563.

Rush, E., The Best Kept Secret: Sexual Abuse of Children. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1980.

Smith, M., & Pazder, L., Michelle Remembers. New York: Congdon and
Lattis, 1980.

Siegal, B., A Death in White Bear Lake. New York: Bantam, 1990.

"Stranger-Abduction Homicides of Children," Juvenile Justice Bulletin.
Washington, D.C.: U. S. Department of Justice, 1989.

Stratford. L., Satan's Underground. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House, 1988.

Terr, L., Too Scared to Cry. New York: Harper & Row, 1990.

Timnik, L., "The Times Poll," Los Angeles Times, August 25-26, 1985.

Virginia Crime Commission Task Force, Final Report of the Task Force
Studying Ritual Crime. Richmond, Virginia.


Suggested Reading

-- a. Cooper, John Charles, The Black Mask: Satanism in America Today.
Old Tappen, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1990.

Probably the best of the large number of books available primarily in
Christian bookstores and written from the Christian perspective. This
one, however, is written without the hysteria and sensationalism of
most. Recommended for investigators who want information from this
perspective.

-- b. Hicks, Robert D., In Pursuit of Satan: The Police and the Occult.
Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1991.

Undoubtedly the best book written to date on the topic of satanism and
the occult from the law enforcement perspective. Robert D. Hicks is a
former police officer who is currently employed as a criminal justice
analyst for the state of Virginia. Must reading for any criminal justice
professional involved in this issue. Unfortunately, in the chapter on
"Satanic Abuse of Children," the author appears to have been overly
influenced by extreme skeptics with minimal or questionable credentials
in this area. The book is easy to read, logical, and highly recommended.

-- c. Richardson, James T.; Best, Joel; & Bromley, David G.; Eds, The
Satanism Scare. NY: Aldine de Gruyter, 1991.

The best book now available on the current controversy over satanism
written from the academic perspective, The editors and many of the
chapter authors are college professors and have written an objective,
well-researched book. One of the great strengths of this book is the
fact that the editors address a variety of the controversial issues from
a variety of disciplines (i.e., sociology, history, folklore,
anthropology, criminal justice.) Because of its academic perspective it
is sometimes harder to read but is well worth the effort. The chapter on
"Law Enforcement and the Satanic Crime Connection" contains the results
of a survey of "Cult Cops" and is must reading for law enforcement
officers. The chapter on "Satanism and Child Molestation: Constructing
the Ritual Abuse Scare" was written, however, by a free-lance journalist
who seems to take the position that these cases involve little or no
real child abuse.

-- d. Terr, Lenore, Too Scared to Cry: Psychic Trauma in Childhood. New
York: Harper and Row, 1990.

An excellent book written by a psychiatrist that provides important
insights into the nature and recallability of early psychic trauma. For
me, Dr. Terr's research and findings in the infamous Chowchilla
kidnapping case shed considerable light on the "ritual" abuse
controversy.