Investigator's Guide To 
Allegations Of "Ritual" Child Abuse 

10. 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 *not* occurred. 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.

11. 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 Children in America_. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, 1990.

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.

12. 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.