Satanism: Crime, Deviance and Disorders

• Authors: Roelofse, Cornelis , Bezuidenhout, Christiaan

Abstracts

EN

This article deals with a phenomenon that is often spoken about, reported in the media, but about which very little empirical evidence has emerged over the years. Only a handful of criminologists have addressed this phenomenon. This stems from the belief that supernatural phenomena cannot be researched using scientific methods. However, within the phenomenological paradigm, there is room for engaging informants who report their lived experiences. Scientific opinion, as far as social sciences are concerned, confines spirituality to Theology and Anthropology. The notion of the supernatural should otherwise be confined to private life. Against this background, the authors claim that it is rather a general tendency within the scientific community to either consider the spiritual world as a superstition and a phenomenon not to be engaged in. Spirituality should thus be relegated to private discourse. Therefore, the authors endeavour to shed the light on the topic by defining concepts, presenting typologies from the literature, as well as concerning crime and Satanism. The recruitment strategies, as well as the means of control over the followers, are presented, and then specific crimes, abuse, psychological disorders and spiritual possession are discussed. The goal of this paper is to stimulate researchers to tackle this secretive phenomenon and its criminological connections as the perpetration of crime have often been reported where there was the evidence of rituals. Spirituality is the part of life for billions of people in the world and is it worth to be investigated Perhaps it is rather a lack of interest or even fear that leads to the dearth of research in this area.

Keywords

EN

Satanism; occult; religion; crime; rituals; blood

• Publisher: Wyższa Szkoła Policji w Szczytnie
• Journal: Internal Security
• Year: 2018
• Volume: 10(2)
• Pages: 79-96

Dates

published

2019-09-05

Contributors

author

Roelofse, Cornelis

author

Bezuidenhout, Christiaan

Identifiers

DOI

10.5604/01.3001.0013.4217