1st Edition

Investigating Religious Terrorism and Ritualistic Crimes

By Dawn Perlmutter Copyright 2003
    453 Pages 194 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The legalities of particular religious practices depend on many factors, such as the type of occult or religious activity, the current laws, and the intention of the individual practitioner. Written by the director of the Institute for the Research of Organized and Ritual Violence, Investigating Religious Terrorism and Ritualistic Crimes is the first complete resource to assist in crime scene identification, criminal investigation, and prosecution of religious terrorism and occult crime. It analyzes occult and religious terrorist practices from each group’s theological perspective to help you understand traditional and contemporary occult groups and domestic and international terrorist religions, demarcate legal religious practice from criminal activity, and acquire techniques specific to occult and terrorist religion crime scene investigation.

    Dawn Perlmutter appeared in an episode of "On the Case with Paula Zahn" (Investigation Discovery Channel)on Sunday, January 8, 2012. She consulted on a 24-year-old cold case homicide that involved the ritualistic murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in the sacristy of a chapel on Easter Saturday, 1980 in Toledo, Ohio. This case involved unusual symbolic and forensic evidence. The episode will be re-run on January 14.

    She was also quoted in a January 12, 2012 NPR article about the U.S. military's desecration of the corpses of Taliban fighters.

    Dawn Perlmutter was interviewed by Robert Siegel August 29, 2014 on National Public Radio's All Things Considered in a segment about beheading as a modern warfare tactic.

    INTRODUCTION

    Contemporary Religious Violence


    Defining Religious Terrorism & Ritualistic Crimes. Categories of Religious Groups. Cult versus Occult. Religious Concepts. Religious Freedom. Ritual. Sacrifice. Crimes Typically Associated with Religious Terrorism and Ritual Violence. Current Trends in Terrorist Weapons. Bioterrorism. Cyberterrorism. Radiological Weapons. Suicide Bombers. Suicide Shooters.

    TERRORIST RELIGIONS

    Millennial Religions & Terrorism


    Millennialism and Related Concepts. Millennial Religious Groups and Law Enforcement. Millennial Classification System. Consulting Religious Scholars. Aum Shinrikyo: A Case Study in Religious Terrorism.

    Domestic Terrorist Religions


    Modern Terrorism. Categories of Domestic Terrorism. Domestic Terrorist Religions. Christian Identity. Church of Jesus Christ Christian. World Church of the Creator. Odinism. Lone Wolves and The Phineas Priesthood. Army of God. Recent Trends in Domestic Terrorist Groups.

    International Terrorist Religions


    Categories of International Terrorism. Islam and Islamic Beliefs. Islamic Religious Sects. Islamic Fundamental Sects. Wahhabism: The Religion of Osama bin Laden. Islamic Fundamentalist Extremist Groups and Beliefs. Acts of Terrorism against America 1982–2002. Violence against Women. Religious Justifications for Violence. Jihad/Holy War. Istishhad/Martyrdom.

    OCCULT RELIGIONS

    Satanism


    Modern Satanism. Defining Satanism. Categories of Satanism. Religious Satanists. Traditional Satanists. Self-styled Satanists. Youth Subculture Satanists. Anti Satanism. Modern Religious Satanic Groups. Ordo Templi Orientis. Church of Satan. Temple of Set. Satanic Violence. Violent Scripture. Vengeance. Satanic Responses to September 11th. Sacrifice (Ritual Homicide). Satanism on the Internet. Similarities in Satanic and Terrorist Religions.

    Vampirism


    Modern Vampires. Vampire Culture. Real Vampires. Vampire Role Players. The Goth Movement. Blood Rituals. Vampire Crimes. The Fetish Scene. Contemporary Vampire Religions. The Sanguinarium. The Temple of the Vampire. The Vampire Church and other Vampire Religious Groups. Vampire Cults.

    Syncretic Religions


    Syncretic Belief Systems. Santeria. Santeria Religious Beliefs. Santeria Rituals and Magical Practices. Initiation. Divination. Spirit Possession. Sacrifice. Voodoo. Brujeria. Palo Mayombe. Human Sacrifice.

    INVESTIGATING RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE

    Ritualistic Crime Scenes


    Crime Scene Clues. Symbols. Magical Alphabets. Sacred Texts. Candle Magic. Calendars. Investigatory Strategies. Compiling a Search Warrant. Conducting an Occult Related Investigation. Strategy for Ritualistic Child Abuse Investigation. Crime Scenes.

    Intelligence Strategies


    Advantages of Understanding Religious Violence. Law Enforcement Issues. Magical Thinking. Recruitment Techniques. Indoctrination Techniques. Satanic Ritual Abuse. Negotiation Techniques. Prevention.

    Symbolic Analysis: Ritual Homicide Typology


    Types of Criminal Profiling. Washington, D.C. Serial Sniper Case Study. Crime Classification. Perpetrators’ Motives and Methods. Symbolic Analysis: Ritual Homicide. Typology Categories: Sacrifice, Ritual Murder, Millennial Murder, Holy War, Iconoclasm, VICAP Forms.
    Glossary of terms
    Index

    Biography

    Dawn Perlmutter

    “Don’t touch anything, photograph everything, then pull this book out of the trunk of your car.”
    — Charles Wetli, Chief Medical Examiner and Director of Forensic Sciences, Suffolk County, New York; Clinical Professor of Pathology at SUNY, Stony Brook

    " … a boon to the literature. … a must-have reference text for crime analysts. .. Dr. Perlmutter has done a superb job in bringing together an encyclopedic volume of hard-to-find information into one book without overwhelming the reader or making the subject so dry that it is impenetrable."

    —Dr. Hank Prunckun, writing in Journal of the AIPIO