In Pursuit of Satan: The Police and the Occult [Hardcover]

Robert D. Hicks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1991

Mutilated animals, defaced tombstones, sexual abuse in day-care centres: Is America threatened by a satanic conspiracy? In this book, Robert D Hicks exposes law enforcement's obsessive preoccupation with satanism as a model for criminal behaviour. While satanic belief has played a part in crimes ranging from petty vandalism to serial murders, Hicks avows that there is no substantial evidence for the existence of a nation-wide satanic crime continuum. Hicks points out that the satanic criminal model is expedient largely due to its simplicity and economy, reducing to simple formulas such complex problems as drug abuse, teen suicide, and sexual molestation. His research utilises a unique blend of law-enforcement methodology, anthropology, folklore, history, sociology, psychology and psychiatry. He attributes the cult conspiracy theory to beliefs fuelled by Christian fundamentalist sects and to the ungovernable mechanisms of rumour-panics, subversive mythology, and urban legend. "In Pursuit of Satan" documents examples of rumour-panics in which the police have fomented fear by attributing crimes to satanists, indulging in sheer speculation and promulgating misinformation through the sensationalist news media. Hicks examines the construction of the satanic ideology among law enforcement officials, focusing on the exploitation of satanism as a new scapegoat for public fears and addressing the phenomenon of credulity among police forces and allied professionals in social work, psychiatry, and psychology.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 420 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books; 1St Edition edition (May 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879756047
• ISBN-13: 978-0879756048
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,577,891 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally a reality check, February 16, 2000

By 

Carrie Laben (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Pursuit of Satan: The Police and the Occult (Hardcover)

In the late seventies, it was a profitable new bag for shock-peddlers. All throughout the eighties, it grew, mutated, and spread like a cross between the most virulent urban legend and a cancer. Now, at the dawn of a new set of numbers on the cosmic odometer, the 'fact' that the normal behavior of Satanists is to kill, molest, mutilate, and destroy has been accepted by everyone from religious fanatics to police officers to some of the would-be Satanists themselves.

As a result, we are beginning to reap the whirlwind of self-fulfilling prophecy, while innocent day-care providers still languish in prison on false molestation charges and any kid who dares to wear black to school is set upon by legions of counselors and shrinks.

This book is the first and best rebuttal to the Satanic Network Theory that I have come across. If it were widely read it could do a lot towards helping law enforcement officials avoid making jackasses of themselves due to religious prejudice.

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for those interested in witch hunts., December 30, 1998

By 

Timothy P. Scanlon (Hyattsville, MDUSA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: In Pursuit of Satan: The Police and the Occult (Hardcover)

The Communists, the traditional demon-designees, went by the wayside. Lo and behold, an alternative was found, none other than the Prince of Darkness himself! The author does a thorough job of exposing the cult-like obsession with alleged cults, Dungeons and Dragons, and various teen rebellions, which they, the cult cops and their disciples, with a comical lack of evidence, have made into a global, multi-generational conspiracy of devil-worshipping cannibals. Indeed, it's such a thorough job that this ain't no 2 1/2 hour read, but it's scholarly and well-researched. If nothing else, it may lead one to ask: at what point does government (i.e., police) intervention become inappropriate and a manifestation of a police state? The book is from the early '90s. If you think then that it's dated, note that the with hunt trial, in which a young man in Arkansas was condemned to death--partially on the word of a cult-cup whom the book exposes--because he dresses in black and listens to Metallica took place in 1996. No, the threat is still there, and gaining steam! Finally--and the only fun I can get out of the real threat the witch hunt represents--is on the obsession with the game Dungeons and Dragons: picture a group of leftists terrified that their kids playing monopoly would convert them into conservative Republicans. As likely to happen...

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A well-written, eye-opening book., September 15, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: In Pursuit of Satan: The Police and the Occult (Hardcover)

Hicks examines the satanic scare that has swept the country over the last few decades and related phenomena. He goes into detail, showing how fallaciuos thinking and outright hysteria have convinced many people (including many of our law-enforcement officers) of a completely fictitous threat. An interesting and relevant book--one of the finest works of nonfiction I've ever read.