Theistic Satanism - Satanism and Crime

Satanism and Crime

The Satanic ritual abuse moral panic of the 1980s and '90s was centered on fears or beliefs about traditional Satanism sacrificing children and committing crimes as part of rituals involving devil worship. Allegations included the existence of large networks of organized Satanists involved in illegal activities such as murder, child pornography and prostitution; iconic cases such as the McMartin preschool trial were launched after children were repeatedly and coercively interrogated by social workers, resulting in false allegation of child sexual abuse. No evidence was ever found to support any of the allegations of Satanism or ritual abuse, but the panic resulted in numerous wrongful prosecutions.

John Allee, founder of the First Church of Satan, equates some of the “violent fringe” of Satanism as “Devil worshipers” and “reverse Christians”. He believes they possibly suffer from a form of psychosis.

Some studies of crimes have also looked at the theological perspective of those who commit religious or ritualised crime. Criminals who explain their crimes by claiming to be Satanists have been said by sociologists to be “pseudo-Satanists”, and attempts to link Satanism to crime have been seen by theistic Satanists as scaremongering. In the 1980s and the 1990s there were multiple allegations of sexual abuse of children or non-consenting adults in the context of Satanic rituals in what has come to be known as The Satanic Panic. In the United States, the Kern County child abuse cases, McMartin preschool trial and the West Memphis 3 cases were widely reported. One case took place in Jordan, Minnesota, in which children made allegations of manufacturing child pornography, ritualistic animal sacrifice, coprophagia, urophagia and infanticide, at which point the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was alerted. Twenty-four adults were arrested and charged with acts of sexual abuse, child pornography and other crimes claimed to be related to Satanic ritual abuse; three went to trial, two were acquitted and one convicted. Supreme Court Justice Scalia noted in a discussion of the case, “here is no doubt that some sexual abuse took place in Jordan; but there is no reason to believe it was as widespread as charged”, and cited the repeated, coercive techniques used by the investigators as damaging to the investigation.