What is Ritualistic Crime?
The biggest confusion, however, is over the word ritualistic. During law enforcement training conferences on this topic, ritualistic almost always comes to mean satanic or at least spiritual. Ritual can refer to a prescribed religious ceremony, but in its broader meaning refers to any customarily repeated act or series of acts. The need to repeat these acts can be cultural, sexual, or psychological as well as spiritual. Cultural rituals could include such things as what a family eats on Thanksgiving Day or when and how presents are opened at Christmas. The initiation ceremonies of fraternities, sororities, gangs, and other social clubs are other examples of cultural rituals. Since 1972, the author has lectured about sexual ritualism, which is nothing more than repeatedly engaging in an act or series of acts in a certain manner because of *sexual* need. In order to become aroused and/or gratified, a person must engage in the act in a certain way. This sexual ritualism can include such t
