TV & VIDEO - Nov. 1, 1988

A group of scientists and researchers called the Committee for Scientific Examination of Religion sharply criticized Geraldo Rivera’s NBC special, “Devil Worship, Exposing Satan’s Underground,” as “poorly researched,” “sensational,” and “highly irresponsible.” Speaking at a press conference Monday, the group said it found in a two-year investigation that Satanic crime was vastly exaggerated. “A person is more likely to be struck by lightning than to be the victim of Satanic crime,” Shawn Carlson, a physicist at Lawrence Berkeley Labs and the report’s principal author, said. The group said in the last five years, there have been more than 1 million violent crimes committed in the United States but only about 60 listed by police as involving Satanism.