Message #10 board "P_Metaphysical (Mag Articles)"
Date : 22-Jan-93 15:57
From : Simon Novali
To : All
Subj : Lanning (7 of 11)
victimization is not only not a counterindication of abuse, but is
in fact a corroborative indicator of extreme physical,
psychological, and/or sexual abuse. I do not believe it is a
coincidence nor the result of deliberate planning by satanists that
in almost all the cases of ritual abuse that have come to my
attention, the abuse is alleged to have begun prior to the age of
seven and perpetrated by multiple offenders. It may well be that
such abuse, at young age by multiple offenders, is the most
difficult to accurately recall with the specific and precise detail
needed by the criminal justice system, and the most likely to be
distorted and exaggerated when it is recalled. In her book _Too
Scared to Cry_ (1990), child psychiatrist Lenore Terr, a leading
expert on psychic trauma in childhood, states "that a series of
early childhood shocks might not be fully and accurately
'reconstructed' from the dreams and behaviors of the adult" (p. 5).
-- c. NORMAL CHILDHOOD FEARS AND FANTASY.
The third possible answer may be *normal childhood fears and
fantasy*. Most young children are afraid of ghosts and monsters.
Even as adults, many people feel uncomfortable, for example, about
dangling their arms over the side of their bed. They still remember
the "monster" under the bed from childhood. While young children may
rarely invent stories about sexual activity, they might describe
their victimization in terms of evil as they understand it. In
church or at home, children may be told of satanic activity as the
source of evil. The children may be "dumping" all their fears and
worries unto an attentive and encouraging listener.
Children do fantasize. Perhaps whatever causes a child to allege
something impossible (such as being cut up and put back together) is
similar to what causes a child to allege something possible but
improbable (such as witnessing another child being chopped up and
eaten).
-- d. MISPERCEPTION, CONFUSION, AND TRICKERY.
Misperception, confusion, and trickery may be a fourth answer.
Expecting young children to give accurate accounts of sexual
activity for which they have little frame of reference is
unreasonable. The Broadway play _Madame Butterfly_ is the true story
of a man who had a 15-year affair, including the "birth" of a baby,
with a "woman" who turns out to have been a man all along. If a
grown man does not know when he has had vaginal intercourse with a
woman, how can we expect young children not to be confused?
Furthermore some clever offenders may deliberately introduce
elements of satanism and the occult into the sexual exploitation
simply to confuse or intimidate the victims. Simple magic and other
techniques may be used to trick the children. Drugs may also be
deliberately used to confuse the victims and distort their
perceptions. Such acts would then be M.O., not ritual.
As previously stated, the perceptions of young victims may also be
influenced by any trauma being experienced. This is the most popular
alternative explanation, and even the more zealous believers of
ritual abuse allegations use it, but only to explain obviously
impossible events.
-- e. OVERZEALOUS INTERVENORS.
*Overzealous intervenors*, causing intervenor contagion, may be a
fifth answer. These intervenors can include parents, family members,
foster parents, doctors, therapists, social workers, law enforcement
officers, prosecutors, and any combination thereof. Victims have
been subtly as well as overtly rewarded and bribed by usually well-
meaning intervenors for furnishing further details. In addition,
some of what appears not to have happened may have originated as a
result of intervenors making assumptions about or misinterpreting
what the victims are saying. The intervenors then repeat, and
possibly embellish, these assumptions and misinterpretations, and
eventually the victims are "forced" to agree with or come to accept
this "official" version of what happened.
The judgment of intervenors may be affected by their zeal to uncover
child sexual abuse, satanic activity, or conspiracies. However
"well-intentioned", these overzealous intervenors must accept
varying degrees of responsibility for the unsuccessful prosecution
of those cases where criminal abuse did occur. This is the most
controversial and least popular of the alternative explanations.
-- f. URBAN LEGENDS.
Allegations of and knowledge about ritualistic or satanic abuse may
also be spread through *urban legends*. In _The Vanishing
Hitchhiker_ (1981), the first of his four books on the topic, Dr.
Jan Harold Brunvand defines urban legends as "realistic stories
concerning recent events (or alleged events) with an ironic or
supernatural twist" (p. xi). Dr. Brunvand's books convincingly
explain that just because individuals throughout the country who
never met each other tell the same story does not mean that it is
true. Absurd urban legends about the corporate logos of Proctor and
Gamble and Liz Claiborne being satanic symbols persist in spite of
all efforts to refute them with reality. Some urban legends about
child kidnappings and other threats to citizens have even been
disseminated unknowingly by law enforcement agencies. Such legends
have always existed, but today the mass media aggressively
participate in their rapid and more efficient dissemination. Many
Americans mistakenly believe that tabloid television shows check out
and verify the details of their stories before pulling them on the
air. Mass hysteria may partially account for large numbers of
victims describing the same symptoms or experiences.
Training conferences for all the disciplines involved in child
sexual abuse may also play a role in the spread of this contagion.
At one child abuse conference I attended, an exhibitor was selling
more than 50 different books dealing with satanism and the occult.
By the end of the conference, he had sold nearly all of them. At
another national child sexual abuse conference, I witnessed more
than 100 attendees copying down the widely disseminated 29 "Symptoms
Characterizing Satanic Ritual Abuse" in preschool-aged children. Is
a four-year-old child's "preoccupation with urine and feces" an
indication of satanic ritual abuse or part of normal development?
-- g. COMBINATION.
Most multidimensional child sex ring cases probably involve a
*combination* of the answers previously set forth, as well as other
possible explanations unknown to me at this time. Obviously, cases
with adult survivors are more likely to involve some of these
answers than those with young children. Each case of sexual
victimization must be individually evaluated on its own merits
without any preconceived explanations. All the possibilities must be
explored if for no other reason than the fact that the defense
attorneys for any accused subjects will almost certainly do so.
Most people would agree that just because a victim tells you one
detail that turns out to be true, this does not mean that every
detail is true. But many people seem to believe that if you can
disprove one part of a victim's story, then the entire story is
false. As previously stated, one of my main concerns in these cases
is that people are getting away with sexually abusing children or
committing other crimes because we cannot prove that they are
members of organized cults that murder and eat people.
I have discovered that the subject of multidimensional child sex
rings is a very emotional and polarizing issue. Everyone seems to
demand that one choose a side. On one side of the issue are those
who say that nothing really happened and it is all a big witch hunt
led by overzealous fanatics and incompetent "experts". The other
side says, in essence, that everything happened; victims never lie
about child sexual abuse, and so it must be true.
There is a middle ground. It is the job of the professional
investigator to listen to all the victims and conduct appropriate
investigation in an effort to find out what happened, considering
all possibilities. Not all childhood trauma is abuse. Not all child
abuse is a crime. The great frustration of these cases is the fact
that you are often convinced that something traumatic happened to
the victim, but do not know with any degree of certainty exactly
what happened, when it happened, or who did it.
7. DO VICTIMS LIE ABOUT SEXUAL ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION?
The crucial central issue in the evaluation of a response to cases
of multidimensional child sex rings is the statement "Children never
lie about sexual abuse or exploitation. If they have details, it
must have happened." This statement, oversimplified by many, is the
basic premise upon which some believe the child sexual abuse and
exploitation movement is based. It is almost never questioned or
debated at training conferences. In fact, during the 1970s, there
was a successful crusade to eliminate laws requiring corroboration
of child victim statements in child sexual abuse cases. The best way
to convict child molesters is to have the child victims testify in
court. If we believe them, the jury will believe them. Any challenge
to this basic premise was viewed as a threat to the movement and a
denial that the problem existed.
I believe that children *rarely* lie about sexual abuse or
exploitation, if a lie is defined as a statement deliberately and
maliciously intended to deceive. The problem is the
oversimplification of the statement. Just because a child is not
lying does not necessarily mean the child is telling the truth. I
believe that in the majority of these cases, the victims are not
lying. They are telling you what they have come to believe has
happened to them. Furthermore the assumption that children rarely
lie about sexual abuse does not necessarily apply to everything a
child says during a sexual abuse investigation. Stories of
mutilation, murder, and cannibalism are not really about sexual
abuse.
Children rarely lie about sexual abuse or exploitation. but they do
fantasize, furnish false information, furnish misleading
information, misperceive events, try to please adults, respond to
leading questions, and respond to rewards. Children are not adults
in little bodies and do go through developmental stages that must be
evaluated and understood. In many ways, however, children are no
better and no worse than other victims or witnesses of a crime. They
should not be automatically believed, nor should they be
automatically disbelieved.
The second part of the statement - if children can supply details,
the crime must have happened - must also be carefully evaluated. The
details in question in most of the cases of multidimensional child
sex rings have little to do with sexual activity. Law enforcement
and social workers must do more than attempt to determine how a
child could have known about the sex acts. These cases involve
determining how a victim could have known about a wide variety of
bizarre and ritualistic activity. Young children may know little
about specific sex acts, but they may know a lot about monsters,
torture, kidnapping, and murder.
Victims may supply details of sexual and other acts using
information from sources other than their own direct victimization.
Such sources must be evaluated carefully by the investigator of
multidimensional child sex rings.
-- a. PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE.
The victim may have personal knowledge of the sexual or ritual acts,
but not as a result of the alleged victimization. The knowledge
could have come from viewing pornography, sex education, or occult
material; witnessing sexual or ritual activity in the home; or
witnessing the sexual abuse of others. It could also have come from
having been sexually or physically abused, but by other than the
alleged offenders and in ways other than the alleged offense.
-- b. OTHER CHILDREN OR VICTIMS.
Young children today are socially interacting more often and at a
younger age than ever before. Many parents are unable to provide
possibly simple explanations for their children's stories because
they were not with the children when the events occurred. They do
not even know what videotapes their children may have seen, what
games they may have played, or what stories they may have been told
or overheard. Children are being placed in day care centers for
eight, ten, or twelve hours a day starting as young as six weeks of
age. The children share experiences by playing house, school, or
doctor. Bodily functions such as urination and defecation are a
focus of attention for these young children. To a certain extent,
each child shares the experiences of all the other children.
The odds are fairly high that in any typical day care center there
might be some children who are victims of incest; victims of
physical abuse; victims of psychological abuse; children of cult
members (even satanists); children of sexually open parents;
children of sexually indiscriminate parents; children of parents
obsessed with victimization; children of parents obsessed with the
evils of satanism; children without conscience; children with a
teenage brother or pregnant mother; children with heavy metal music
and literature in the home; children with bizarre toys, games,
comics, and magazines; children with a VCR and slasher films in
their home; children with access to dial-a-porn, party lines, or
pornography; or children victimized by a day care center staff
member. The possible effects of the interaction of such children
prior to the disclosure of the alleged abuse must be evaluated,
Adult survivors may obtain details from group therapy sessions,
support networks, church groups, or self-help groups. The
willingness and ability of siblings to corroborate adult survivor
accounts of ritual abuse varies. Some will support and partially
corroborate the victim's allegations. Others will vehemently deny
them and support their accused parents or relatives.
-- c. MEDIA.
The amount of sexually explicit, occult, anti-occult, or violence-
oriented material available to adults and even children in the
