ABSTRACT
The statistics on organized Satanism (also called “adult Satanism” (Introvigne 1997)) can be reconstructed in a fairly precise way, as it is practically impossible that an organized group may completely escape the survey carried out by experts and police organs. An estimate to calculate the number of people adhering to organized Satanic groups in Italy (referring to the year 2003) can count about 240 members which can be summarized in the following table:
Table 1 Adherents to groups of organized Satanism In Italy
Bambini di Satana 50 Chiesa di Satana (rationalist) 20 Chiesa di Satana (occultist) 20 Minor groups 150 Altogether 240
Therefore, despite the numbers often supplied by mass media – those who propose such numbers should, of course, be capable of supporting their statements
with evidence as far as we can see from the numbers right now – the groups of organized Satanists only represent an insignificant percentage of the Italian population. Thus organized Satanism is a phenomenon that is often overrated; the statistics suggest that it concerns only a few thousand people all over the world.
