Message #11 board "P_Metaphysical (Mag Articles)"
Date : 22-Jan-93 15:58
From : Simon Novali
To   : All
Subj : Lanning (8 of 11)

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.

-- d. 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.

-- e. 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.

-- f. EDUCATION AND AWARENESS PROGRAMS.

Some well-intentioned awareness programs designed to prevent child 
set 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 hate taken place are church-
affiliated centers, and many of the adult survivors alleging it come 
from apparently religious families. 

8. 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:

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

-- b. Some of these individuals commit crime.

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

-- d. Some members of these groups commit crime together.

The unanswered questions are:

-- a. What is the connection between the belief system and the 
crimes committed?

-- b. 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:

-- a. Vandalism.

-- b. Desecration of churches and cemeteries.

-- c. Thefts from churches and cemeteries.

-- d. Teenage gangs

-- e. Animal mutilations.

-- f. Teenage suicide.

-- g. Child abuse.

-- h. Kidnapping.

-- i. Murder and human sacrifice

Valid evidence shows some "connection" between satanism and the 
occult and the first six problems (#a-f) set forth above. The 
"connection" to the last three problems (#g-i) 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 



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 * Origin: The Northern Lights 916-729-0304 (1:203/444)
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