Satanism Today - An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore and Popular ...

Appendix II: 1992 FBI Study of Satanic Ritual Abuse 311
lem. 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.
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 :
self-proclaimed experts,
tabloid media interest,
belief the government is involved in a cover-up, and
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