I have taken it upon myself to research some information on what has been spread around the Internet through hate sites and lies by Fundalmental groups in regards to so-called ‘Occult’ or Satanic Ritual Abuse.

I am from the California area, so logically this is where I started. I contacted a major metropolitan city police crime department to gain statistical information on the number of crimes committed by occult activity. Here is what I discovered.

Considerably less than 1% of crimes investigated, and this includes murders, rapes, child molestation and vandalism was attributed to occultists. And even in those instances, the perpetrators practiced forms of what is known as ‘dark’, black arts, or Satanic traditions. In all these cases, the culprit practiced their own type of Satanic or ‘black arts’, rather than any known traditions - they make it up as they go along. None of these so-called Satanists are of the Anton LeVayan Church of Satan, but rather wannabe Satanists who’s idea of the evil entity came straight out of the Christian interpretation of Satan. In most cases, the 1% of crimes that are reported showing any relation to Satanic overtones were crimes of vandalism, i.e. graffiti, or desecration of cemeteries. This is also over a ten year period.

Indeed, many ritualistic criminal abuse more often than not came from strict Christian homes. Some cases include:

Beating the devil out of the child during exorcisms
Excessive child discipline (”sparing the rod spoils the child”)
Depriving children of medical help in favor of prayer

A funded study report was generated by the government in 1994, on ritual childhood abuse. This information is compiled from the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance.

Makeup of the Study

A massive study of ritualistic child abuse was completed in the fall of 1994. (1) It was funded by the US Federal Government’s National Centre on Child Abuse and Neglect.They obtained responses from over 6900 clinicians (psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, and social workers); and from over 4600 agencies (county District Attorneys, Departments of Social Services and municipal Law Enforcement agencies). They uncovered over 12,000 cases of suspected ritual abuse. But when they looked for cases that they could say with some confidence actually exhibited evidence of abuse, they found only one.

Dr. Gail Goodman, a psychologist at the University of California at Davis led the study. She said “After scouring the country, we found no evidence for large-scale cults that sexually abuse children”. She continued: “While you would not expect to find corroborating evidence in many sexual abuse cases, you would expect it when people claim the rituals involved murders, and the reported cases come from district attorneys or police…If there is anyone out there with solid evidence of satanic cult abuse of children, we would like to know about it.”

David Lloyd, the director of the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect (the funding agency) said “Since the McMartin preschool case there have been claims of ritualistic and sadistic child abuse in cases all over the country, and we’ve been concerned. The survey was to see just how well-founded these concerns are - if these are just based on mistaken perceptions or there is some firm evidence.”

Results of the Study

Some of their findings include:
12,264 cases of suspected SRA were found.
69% of clinicians reported no cases; most of the rest reported 1 or 2; 1.4% of the clinicians reported over 100 cases each.
the vast majority of clinicians believe their clients to be telling the truth about real events. 77% of the agencies reported no cases; most of the rest reported 1 or 2; 2.2% of the agencies reported over 100 cases each The vast majority of agencies believe their clients to be telling the truth about real events Only 1 of the 12,264 suspected cases could confidently be accepted as real abuse This involved a 16 year old male whose parents were Satanists. He took part in rituals which sometimes involved sexual activity. He was an observer, victim and perpetrator. None of the usual factors associated with the public’s perception of Satanic Ritual Abuse was present in this case; no infant killing, animal torturing, blood drinking, flesh eating, etc. child victims’ stories do not agree with adult survivor memories: child victims report scary activities (e.g. being put in a coffin and lowered into a grave); adult survivors talk of child memories of horrendous activities (e.g. including the killing of infants, cannibalism, drinking blood, the most extreme torture and mutilation, etc).
Little or no physical evidence found; usually scars that could have been self inflicted. No child pornography involving Satanic themes has ever been discovered in US. No evidence of Generational Satanists exists.
No evidence exists of bizarre and horrible Satanic ritual abuse scenarios which regularly occurred in many repressed memory cases among adults.
No unequivocal evidence of large scale, well organized Satanic cults exists. A major problem was uncovered of Christian based child abuse:


Beating the devil out of the child during exorcisms,
Excessive child discipline (”sparing the rod spoils the child”)
Depriving children of medical help in favour of prayer.


This Problem appears to be concentrated among a very few members of conservative Christian churches.
Young children were found to have little precise knowledge of Satanic symbols and rituals.
A very small percentage of the therapists and a very small percentage of the agencies reported essentially all of the cases of non-Christian ritual abuse. The study organizers speculate that these therapists and agencies may be creating memories of childhood abuse due to their therapy and interview techniques.Reference

Clearing House on Child Abuse & Neglect Information, Characteristics & Sources of Allegations of Ritual Child Abuse, Suite 350, 3998 Fair Ridge Dr., Fairfax VA, 22033, $20 US. Issued 1994-Fall. Free summary available by calling (703) 385-7565.

Rather lengthy, but nonetheless it shows proof positive that there is no real evidence or information showing any crimes involving occult or Satanic crimes.

I think it is only fair to point out, that in the McMartin case, on 1990-JAN-18, after almost three years of trial testimony and 9 weeks of deliberation, the jury cleared Peggy Buckey of all
13 remaining counts. Ray was acquitted on 39 of 52 counts; the jury’s vote was split on the remaining counts, with large majorities in favor of acquittal. Ray was retried on some of the 13 counts; the second jury delivered its verdict in 1990-AUG.
There was a hung jury - the prosecution gave up at this point.Peggy McMartin immediately filed a civil suit against the city, county, the CII and an ABC TV station for a shopping list of improper behaviors. A few months later, Virginia McMartin and two of the defendants who were charged but never tried also filed suits. These actions failed because state law and previous court decisions have granted absolute immunity from prosecution to child protective services workers, persons involved in the prosecution. This protection was extended to the CII in this case because they were working for the prosecution. Many lives were disrupted by the events at McMartin. Hundreds of children, now teenagers, believe that they were abused during bizarre rituals. 7 adults have been financially impoverished. The center was closed, and leveled to the ground. The community and surrounding area was panicked by an irresponsible media. And many copy-cat prosecutions occurred across North America. The mysterious “tunnels” reappeared in various other MVMO cases around the world but were never found in any investigations under the McMartin facility.

In an additional note, I contacted the Department of Justice (DOJ) to obtain further statistics on ritual abuse or other crimes involving occult activity. The DOJ obtains statistics of criminal activity from all police facilities in the United States and compiles them over a twenty year period. The gentleman I spoke with not only failed to find any specialized categories on such crimes, but could only refer me to a few pieces of documentation on Satanic Ritual Abuse. Most of these were merely studies and not actually statistics.

In all cases, both with local police facilities and the DOJ, neither one of the crimes reported involved any involvement from Wiccan, Witchcraft or other Pagan groups. If anything, my contact through the city stated he himself has been to many Wiccan rituals and knows first hand how they perform their rituals and practices. It should be noted, however, that he does not follow a Pagan religion. He and others in a very large, state-wide organization keep tabs on occult crimes, but they spend very little time comparing notes and incidents on the matter as it is a very low concern - not anywhere near an epidemic, as he stated.

For those who wish to continue to spread the lies and false claims of crimes committed by religions of the Pagan community, I can say only this: You cannot back up your claims, nor can you prove any of the horrible atrocities that you maintain is perpetrated by those of alternative religions. Continuing this form of antipathy is an abomination to what Jesus himself taught, and is in itself an act of abhorrence that shows a lack of a loving, giving religion.

Further Resources and Studies

Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance

Department of Justice (DOJ)

Religious Freedom

Prof. J.S. Lafontaine, [Great Britain] Department of Health, “Extent & Nature of Organized Ritual Abuse” ISBN 011 11 321797 8; 1994-May. Available from Unipub, 4611-F Assembly Drive, Lanham MD 20706, for USF$ 11.49

Kenneth V. Lanning, “Investigator’s Guide to Allegations of ‘Ritual’ Child Abuse”, Behavioral Science Unit, National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI Academy, Quantico, Virginia 22135 (1992)