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

314 Appendix II: 1992 FBI Study of Satanic Ritual Abuse
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.