The term sex rings is used to avoid the suggestion that the concept of satanic abuse reflects reality. Two patterns of cases are described: historical child sex rings and multidimensional child sex rings. Historical child sex rings usually involve male offenders who are true pedophiles, male victims, a sexual motivation for the offenses, child pornography, and control of the victim through the seduction process. In contrast, multidimensional child sex rings involve multiple young victims, who were first abused between birth and age 6; multiple offenders; fear as the controlling tactic; and bizarre or ritualistic activity. In multidimensional sex rings, as many as 40-50 percent of the offenders are women, offenders are rarely pedophiles, victims are both male and female, motivation is multidimensional, and control occurs through fear. Appended investigative guidelines, forms, reading list, and 21 references