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318 Appendix II: 1992 FBI Study of Satanic Ritual Abuse
spirators, “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):
incidents of orgy, infanticide, cannibalism, and
other such conduct have occurred from the ancient
world down to the present; such incidents were isolated
and limited to local antisocial groups; during
the period of Christian dominance in European culture,
such groups were associated with the Devil in
the minds of the authorities; in some cases the sectaries
believed that they were worshipping Satan; 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; no reliable historical sources indicate
that such organizations existed; 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 spraypainted
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