The phrase "demonic perspective" conjures up images of Wes Craven-type movies. Teens possessed by Satan run amuck in your hometown! If I had a chose a title, I’d chose a more neutral one such as religious explanations of deviant behavior.

I. Theodicy

It is not surprising that any discussion of the existence of evil behavior in the world would begin with religious explanations. One of the major functions of religion has been to explain the existence of evil, suffering, and death. This particular aspect of religion is known as theodicy. The sociologist Max Weber identified three major forms of theodicy within the major world religions: (1) karma (2) divine providence and (3) dualism. Taken together these explanations appear better suited to explain victimization than criminal motivation, but both are encapsulated within each model.

1. Karma: This idea comes from Eastern religions, particularly Hinduism and Bhuddism. Karma is closely tied to belief in reincarnation. One’s present condition and behavior is explained by the stored up negative or positive karma accumulated from past incarnations of the soul in previous bodies. If you are victimized or suffering in this life, bad karma is to blame. Similarly, evil persons may have inherited the negative traits of past carriers of the soul. ( In the movie Fallen police officer Denzell Washington tries to track down an evil presence that jumps from one individual to another at the moment of death. )

However, it would be misleading to state that the doctrine of karma is deterministic, invalidates free will, or removes responsibility for actions from individuals. It is possible, for a person with bad karma to struggle against their inherited essence and live a righteous life. Similarly, a person with good karma might squander their noble inheritance by living a life of sin and debauchery. Inevitably, one will have to pay for their misdeeds or be rewarded for their good ones, but not in this lifetime. The next time the soul is reborn the fate of the new inhabited one will be determined by the new karma, now altered by the past incarnation.

This process goes on repeatedly, with all rights and wrongs being worked out by the universe. The ultimate escape comes as over time the soul recognizes its higher goal of looking beyond temporal existence and toward oneness with the giant one world soul.

2. Divine providence (predestination): We are born good or evil (bad seed). Criminals are part of all communities, as saints and sinners are forced to live together. Ultimately it is all part of God’s plan, established before the first human ever appeared on earth. If this sounds like Calvinism, as we discussed the first night of class, you’re right. A Calvinistic God is all powerful, all knowing, and ultimately inscrutable.

The idea of divine providence leads to many questions. Is God the author of evil as well as good? Why would God choose certain persons for divine bliss while others are destined for eternal damnation? Is there nothing human beings can do about their fate? However, Calvin forbade even asking these questions. Questioning God is the ultimate blasphemy.

What would the followers of Calvin do? Would they follow Calvin’s admonition not to question providence? Of course not! Max Weber has described the results of the quest to know one’s fate in one of the most famous history texts ever written The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Calvin’s followers quickly realized that to live in a world in which one’s life decisions had no impact on one’s ultimate outcome was to live in an absurd world. One could lie, cheat, and steal and still end up in heaven. On the other hand, God might reject even a virtuous person because they were not "chosen." Calvinists believed that God was not a trickster (unlike Woody Allen’s view of God in Love and Death), and would not fool believers into thinking they were saved. The sign of God’s election chosen by Calvinists was success in a worldly occupation. The idea of "work as a calling" was borrowed from Martin Luther, who exhorted believers not to leave their current jobs for religious occupations (becoming a priest or nun). The inadvertent result of the Calvinist creation of the Protestant work ethic was the establishment of capitalism. With renewed devotion to work, the self-fulfilling prophecy was success in business.

One unfortunate consequence of the Protestant ethic was a flip-flop in Western attitudes toward the poor. Some would argue that our criminal justice system is still trying to overcome the built-in bias against behavior among the poor now dominant in our culture. Prior to Calvinism, the predominant perspective toward poverty was that it had special spiritual significance. Jesus was poor, priests often took vows of poverty, and the poor were to be helped by the church community through the giving of alms. After the emergence of capitalism, the poor were considered disreputable. Images of the poor as lazy, drug and alcohol abusers, petty criminals, are commonplace. Attempts to control the behavior of the poor have abounded, while business-related crimes seemed to be ignored. It has not been difficult for critical theorists to make this point.

3. Dualism: The final major religious explanation for evil is the existence of a malevolent power wrestling for control of the universe with the forces of good. In most versions of dualism the evil force is destined to lose the struggle with God.

Within the larger frame of dualism a number of possible explanations for evil behavior by human beings existed. Could human beings resist the devil? Do human beings have free will? Can saints be possessed by the devil?

II. Temptation or Possession?

Both free will and deterministic views of human nature appear in the Bible. As all are descendants of Adam and Eve, the legacy of original sin taints all human souls. However, the idea that people freely chose to do evil is repeatedly made within Judaism and Christianity.

Judeo-Christian theories of criminal behavior can be categorized as either (1) "temptation" or (2) "possession" models. The first is a "free will" model while the latter is not.

(1) Temptation Model: No matter how tempting the devil's offers might be, the individual always retains the ability to refuse to sin. Of course, the "good force" offers rewards as well for obedience to compete with the devil's, and frequently promises spiritual aid to help the beleaguered individual resist the devil's temptations. Therefore, those who give in to the temptations are by nature "weak-willed."

This commonsense idea that those who turn to crime (or overeat, over drink, etc.) are constitutionally inferior remains quite popular. If only the individual had enough willpower or truly wanted to stop they certainly could. Of course, this model frequently has a deterrent component as well; e.g., the threat of hellfire or other eternal punishment for those who chose to do evil. Classical criminology’s emphasis on the threat of punishment is very much part of the legacy of this religious model.

(2) Possession: The second major demonological model--possession--is much more deterministic, and as such may be viewed as the progenitor of later positivistic theories. Once possessed by an evil spirit the person is no longer responsible for their actions. The devil now has taken control of the individual's mind and body resulting in evil behavior. One way of "curing" the individual is through exorcism; a religious ritual aimed at jettisoning the unclean spirit from the body. Usually the more a group believes in the existence of a literal devil, the greater they find a need for exorcisms.

One question that is frequently raised concerning the possession model is whether good or moral persons can be possessed. If not, then the possession model has a free will component built into it. Only those who are not vigilant or turn to the dark side risk possession. Individuals would be held accountable for "allowing" themselves to become contaminated. However, all behavior enacted while possessed would be forgivable. But, not all possession models exempt the righteous from possible takeover by dark forces. The possession of innocents, such as children, is believed possible within some traditions.

What was to be done with the demonic individual? This was a very important question among peoples who believed firmly in the idea that evil, if allowed to continue "untreated," would destroy their societies. The Hebrew prophets told the people of Israel for generations that God would punish them as a people if they persisted in sin. This meant something drastic had to be done to the unrepentant sinners in their midst. One of the advantages of the use of exorcism would be that it allowed individuals to be restored as fully functional community members. Other methods would be perceived by modern observers as much less humane. Public humiliation, execution, and banishment were frequently used by religious societies as ways of controlling their deviant populations, and even more importantly, as a means of restoring the broken people's relationship to their deity. For serious deviants, capital punishment would be a final solution.

On the other hand, religious cultures frequently developed alternative methods to avoid societal breakdown from the deviant actions of one toward others. Modern practices such as restitution, community service, and victim-offender reconciliation had their origin in tribal societies and their attempts to keep minor offenses from leading to family or clan feuds.

III. Sociodicy: The Rejection of Demonic Perspectives

While religious explanations of deviant and criminal behavior have predominated in history, in the West these were gradually rejected during and following the Enlightenment. The rest of this course will focus on the alternative explanations that have emerged over the last 200 plus years. What unites all modern explanations is their rejection of theodicy (religious explanations for evil) for what Stanford Lyman first labeled sociodicy (naturalistic efforts to explain the ways of man to man). Evil and suffering now are explained as the result of worldly rather than otherworldly forces. Both free will and positivistic explanations would fall under sociodicy. For example, the movement to medicalize deviance (explain evil as the result of biological or psychological disease, addiction to substances, etc.) has been influential over the last 100 years. The extent of influence has decreased and increased during certain eras, but medical explanations have remained an important part of criminology.

Another outcome of the decline in belief in an afterlife in which this worldly injustices will be settled, is a new emphasis on ameliorating the conditions producing crime. Positivism’s emphasis on prediction and control of behavior is one example. Another is Marxism’s attempt to replace the oppressive conditions associated with capitalism with a more socialistic crime-free utopia.

IV. Is There a Place for a Demonic Perspective in Contemporary Criminology?

While scientific explanations have replaced religious ones in geology, biology, etc., when it comes to theories of human behavior religious models are adhered to by many. This allows for the periodic revival of demonic explanations for crime. This was the case in the 1980s and 1990s as a satanic panic swept the US and the world.

SATANIC CRIME TODAY

While satanic forces have been frequently blamed in Western history for the misfortunes of humankind, criminal justice officials in the U.S. have paid satanism little mind until the mid-1980s. At that point the country was swept by an epidemic of allegations that murders, sexual or ritual abuse of children, and ritual sacrifice of animals were commonplace activities among satanists. By this time, you should have finished reading Satan's Silence, an investigation co-authored by a journalist and an attorney, into the panic which swept the country regarding ritualistic abuse at daycare centers. However, as the authors suggest, fears of contemporary childhood victimization were part of a much larger satanic panic which swept the nation in the 1980s. In this section, we will look at who spread these beliefs, what was claimed, why they were believed, the problems with these accounts, and the continuing legacy of such beliefs. It is my opinion that the satanic panic represents the greatest crime hoax of this century, but one that continues to impact negatively on many people's lives.

Media Involvement

The media helped to create a climate favorable to the belief that satanism had become a real life menace. Gothic literature spawned horror comic books (banned in the 1950s), while Hollywood films featuring satanic themes have long been popular. Early on sympathetic news reports spread belief in satanic crime, but as skepticism increased the news media turned on those who claimed satanism was rampant in the country and asked for proof.

For this type of crime it was not newspapers or TV news, but TV talk shows which were the major media provider of information. TV talk shows like Geraldo and Sally featured this topic for a number of years and almost always uncritically presented the claims of widespread satanic abuse. Talk shows became the new medium for retelling "urban legends." Those like Nathan who have done a systematic investigation of the backgrounds of major writers and speakers on satanism, have found that many had questionable backgrounds or histories of mental illness. Such facts ought to have been discussed before anyone accepted at face value what these satanic story tellers were saying. However, Geraldo and other talk show hosts who had such speakers on their shows rarely if ever mentioned their backgrounds. Anti-satanists went unchallenged for the most part. This was not responsible journalism. On Geraldo, Geraldo ceased being a journalist, despite his claim that many of shows represented "special investigative reports." The opposition point of view, when presented at all, was typically given to leaders of established Satanic churches like Acquino or LeVay rather than to nay-saying journalists or scholars. The "organized satanists," who claimed they had never murdered or tortured anyone, often were dismissed by audiences and opposition guests alike as obvious liars. Of course, everyone knows "satanists are liars." Talk shows do not present facts and validated information. They represent a new breed of TV, "info-tainment," presenting information as entertainment. They never should be assumed to have the same credibility as nightly news casts or newspaper reports.

Victims and Victimizers

Those claiming to have been victimized or victimizers (and sometimes both) in satanic groups included the following:

1. Children at daycare centers. Children told hundreds of horrific tales; e.g. of being forced to commit sexual acts with robed, chanting adults; of being made to drink blood or eat feces; and to witness animal and human sacrifices. Satan's Silence does an excellent job of discussing how these accounts were produced, so I will not cover the same ground.

2. Teens who said they were satanists. There is evidence that some teens spray paint satanic graffiti on walls and even sadistically kill small animals in haphazardly concocted satanic rituals. But, even reports of these incidents far outnumber their reality. A "self-styled satanist" is typically an isolated adolescent male who turns to the black arts. Some teenagers (particularly boys) are attracted to satanism. It offers an easy way to get the things teens want (power, money, sex). For this same reason boys form rock bands. Teens who feel alienated from their classmates may dabble in Satanism, but most leave it rather quickly. However, a few do take the "theological" messages of Satanism seriously. 17-year-old Sean Sellers claimed he was a satanist when he committed two murders in Oklahoma, but had a number of personal and family problems which might better explain his actions. Sellers acted on his own and was not doing the bidding of an organized satanic group.

3. Middle aged women who in therapy (and often under hypnosis) stated they had recovered repressed memories of childhood satanic abuse. They told stories of being "breeders" of babies born without official birth certificates so they could be ritually sacrificed to Satan; of how bodies were disposed of in such a way that no trace of their existence could ever be uncovered (corpses were burned and the bones ground into powder); and gruesome tales of cannibalism and blood drinking. Even though they had allegedly witnessed crimes, victims rarely reported them to the police after having recovered their memories. There has been considerable discussion of repressed memories since these reports surfaced and psychological experts on memory have found no evidence to support the phenomenon described by therapists. Also, those who study hypnosis warn of the dangers of trying to reintegrate victims diagnosed as suffering from multiple personality disorder or disassociative disorder. The newly integrated personality may end up believing that they experienced many things which never happened in all likelihood.

4. Ex-members of satanic covens who since had been converted to evangelical Christianity. The most notable of these was Mike Warnke, who made an excellent living off telling already convinced Christian audiences that he was an ex-satanic high priest and participated in ritual victimizations. He was later exposed as a fraud. The only thing people who knew him as a teen agreed upon was that he had always had the ability to tell stories and make others believe them.

5. Members of organized satanic churches like The Church of Satan or Temple of Set. These orgainzations are small in numbers and claim never to have murdered or tortured anyone. In terms of their life philosophy they are probably most similar to EST or any other self-awareness group which advocates putting ones own needs and desires first.

Those claiming to have uncovered satanic crimes included:

1. Cult cops. Cops and ex-police officers charge fees to lecture audiences of other cops on what they "know" of satanic crime. In Pursuit of Satan by Robert Hicks debunks the cult cop phenomenon.

2. Child interviewers, social workers and psychologists. Treatment personnel lectured other child welfare workers on the dangers of Satanic involvement. In November 1992, I attended a workshop sponsored by the Pinellas County Juvenile Welfare Board on "Treatment Approaches: Adolescents and Cults." The workshop featured all the satanic hysteria one could ever want to endure.

3. Psychiatrists interviewing middle-aged women. A 1996 episode of Frontline documented how deeply psychiatry has been involved in the satanic panic. Women suffering from disassociative disorders who were referred to psychiatrists who believed in satanism were placed in very expensive treatment centers. They were informed they had been abused by satanic cults and had "secret codes" embedded in their memories which if activated would cause them to kill their husbands and children. Needless to say, husbands who believed this left their wives. Children were also alleged to be already initiated into a satanic cult and placed in therapy as well. To date none of the doctors involved has been sued or had their licenses revoked.

4. Parents of allegedly abused children. This is discussed in Satan's Silence as well.

The Claims

Claims that were made stretched from tales of the use of the mass media to convert kids to satanism, to wholesale torture and murder, a massive cover-up, and a universal conspiracy. Rock music (particularly Heavy Metal), children's cartoons, and role-playing games were identified as gateways to satanism (similar to the way marijuana is singled out as a "gateway drug"). Music such as Ozzy Ozbourne's contained lyrics that overtly paid homage to the devil. An even more serious problem was "back masking." Alleged satanic messages were recorded backwards onto a record. The album didn't even have to be played backwards for the message to have its subliminal effect. It sunk into the subconscious and later resulted in negative behavior. The band Judas Priest was unsuccessfully sued by a parent who claimed the phrase "Do it" back masked onto an album had led her son to attempt suicide. No evidence for subliminal suggestion has been uncovered by psychologists. Children's cartoon's such as "He- Man" and "Thundercats" tapped into supernatural forces that detractors of the shows label satanic. Children who watched a steady diet of these cartoons were being set up to accept occult practices later as teens. The Internet may soon be recognized as the latest "doorway to hell"

If satanism were as prevalent as anti-Satan experts claimed it was, bodies would have been unearthed everywhere. Cult experts claimed there are anywhere from 50,000 to 2 million children ritually sacrificed to the devil each year. In comparison, only around 25,000 murders are reported in the U.S. each year. Almost all the alleged "missing" children can be accounted for as "kidnap" victims of one of the parents in a custody dispute. The FBI documents only about 100 stranger kidnappings of children each year.

Anti-satanists claimed that there was a vast organized network of devil worshippers in the U.S. that has infiltrated all levels of local, state, and federal government (including the criminal justice system.) Police officers refused to arrest and hid evidence; prosecutors would not indict; while judges who were part of the conspiracy refused to convict. Conspiracy theories of this nature are rarely if ever true. Other examples include the belief that gun control was a communist plot to have the American citizenry disarmed when the Russians would invade and house to house combat ensued; air pollution laws were generated by socialists who hope to speed up America's economic collapse, or that drugs are being used systematically by white elites to destroy black communities in America.

Why do people believe conspiracy theories? Hans Toch in The Social Psychology of Social Movements analyzed the psychological gratifications that conspiracy theories offer, whether of the left-wing or right-wing variety. They allow individuals who believe in them to have one all-encompassing answer to a myriad of social problems. A conspiracy theory also allows those who believe it to "know" the future before it happens. Such knowledge allows them to feel secure while others struggle to understand what is going on around them. Critics have argued that the satanism phenomenon was largely the result of ultra-right-wing fundamentalist and evangelical Christians spreading their ideas concerning the "end times." If Satan's power is growing, the Judgement Day is near. But, as we have seen it was also supported by the welfare establishment and some branches of psychiatry.

While at first law enforcement agencies took the reports of murdered infants seriously, they gradually realized there was no evidence of these events. Kenneth Lanning of the FBI wrote a series of articles concluding that no such murders had occurred. However, true believers still exist. A TV program on Satan broadcast on a religious channel in January 1996, repeated many of the same accusations that law enforcement investigators and scholars have been unable to validate for 10 years. These claims put investigators in the unenviable position of trying to disprove a negative. How would one prove earth has never been visited by UFOs?

While satanic crime may be largely mythical, the consequences of the satanic panic have been all too real. As Nathan and Snedeker documented hundreds of adults were falsely convicted, many children suffered months of excruciating interviews in which they were "forced" to confess to things which never occurred and then put into unnecessary treatment programs, and the lives of thousands of families were needlessly disrupted.

If, however, we eliminate completely discussion of evil from criminological discourse our ability to comprehend contemporary wrongdoing may be lessened. It was in the attempt to revitalize criminological discussion of evil that Stanford Lyman wrote The Seven Deadly Sins: Society and Evil. This was the first criminology text with the word "sin" in the title since E.A. Ross’ 1907 Sin and Society. Ross referred to evils committed by "criminaloids," industrial capitalists whose actions were not yet legally considered crimes. Forty years later Edwin Sutherland would author White-Collar Crime, detailing the same evils. Lyman’s works delineates the evils of greed, lust, sloth, envy, etc., discussing both motivation and consequences. Other contemporary criminologists such as Richard Quinney have attempted to combine religious perspectives and Marxism. More traditional criminal justice theorists such as Charles Colson also rely on a religious framework.