The unanswered questions are:
- What is the connection between the belief system and the crimes committed?
- 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:
- Vandalism
- Desecration of churches and cemeteries
- Thefts from churches and cemeteries
- Teenage gangs
- Animal mutilations
- Teenage suicide
- Child abuse
- Kidnapping
- Murder and human sacrifice
Valid evidence shows some "connection" between satanism and the occult and the first six problems set forth above. The "connection" to the last three problems 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. Anthony Pratkanis (1991) 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?
30
