Satanic and/or Ritual Abuse and Related Issues

[t]he preferred term referring to charges that a group of individuals, assumed to be in association with a widespread conspiracy, practice physical, emotional, and spiritual abuse on unwilling victims in a ritualistic manner, especially in connection with a commitment to Satanism.

[Broad definition]
Ritual abuse is the abuse of a child, weaker adult, or animal in a ritual setting or manner.

In a broad sense, many of our overtly or covertly socially sanctioned actions can be seen as ritual abuse, such as military basic training, hazing, racism, spanking children, and partner-battering.

Some abuse is private (Jeffrey Dahmer, for example), some public. Public ritual abuse may be either open or secret.

[Narrow definition]
The term ritual abuse is generally used to mean prolonged, extreme, sadistic abuse, especially of children, within a group setting. The group's ideology is used to justify the abuse, and abuse is used to teach the group's ideology. The activities are kept secret from society at large, as they violate norms and laws.

Any ideology can be twisted or adapted to abusive ends. In the United States, Canada, and Europe, people have reported being ritually abused under the banner of satanism, Christianity, various pagan and pantheistic belief systems, white supremacy movements, nazism, Santeria, voodoo, etc. At the present time, satanism is either the most common ideology under which ritual abuse is practiced, or it is receiving the most attention.

6. SRA may be real, even if exaggerated by some

1. Isolated crimes of abuse and murder by professed Satanists do occur, but this is not what is usually meant by SRA
2. Until hard evidence of SRA is found, there is no reason to believe in it

"Ritual abuse" is one of the most-talked-about, rarest, and least-understood forms of alleged child maltreatment. Experts disagree about whether or not "ritual abuse" exists, the range of situations to include in the category, and the extent and significance of these situations. Some argue that the term "ritual abuse" should be abandoned because it confuses more than it clarifies. Many more questions than answers exist about this highly controversial topic.

Experts have proposed that allegations often classified as "ritual abuse" might reflect three very different situations (Finkelhor & Williams, 1988):

Supervisory Special Agent Kenneth Lanning, MS, of the FBI, with extensive experience consulting on multi-victim, multi-perpetrator child sexual abuse cases, concluded that there is no evidence for a widespread satanic conspiracy perpetrating cult-based ritual abuse (Lanning, 1992). Other reputable nationwide studies support this conclusion (Bottoms, Shaver, & Goodman, in press).

Because professionals disagree about what constitutes "ritual abuse," and no mechanisms are in place at the local, state, or national levels to track reports of ritual abuse or to investigate the validity of ritual elements, no reliable data are available about its prevalence. A recent nationwide study has concluded that many allegations of abuse now referred to as "ritualistic" have nothing to do with supernatural beliefs, satanists, or organized cults (Bottoms, Shaver, & Goodman, in press).

In one national research study of sexual abuse in day care (Finkelhor & Williams, 1988), one or more ritual elements were alleged in 13% of cases. The researchers could not determine whether these allegations were true or false, or whether they might pertain to cult-based ritual abuse, pseudoritualistic abuse, or psychopathological ritualism.

Much more evidence exists for religion-related abuse (i.e., abuse driven by beliefs associated with non-satanic religions or perpetrated by someone with religious authority) than for "ritual abuse" (Bottoms, Shaver, Goodman, & Qin, in press). Religion-related abuse includes such acts as "beating the devil out of a child," abusive "exorcism" and "deliverance" ceremonies, sexual abuse by clergy, and religiously motivated medical neglect.

Professionals are divided over whether or not "ritual abuse" occurs. Much of the controversy in the professional community would likely disappear with the introduction of a coherent, widely-accepted definition of "ritual abuse."

No reliable data are available on the prevalence of different beliefs about "ritual abuse" among professionals. However, in a nationwide study of thousands of interdisciplinary professionals, 11 percent of mental health professionals reported having encountered one or more allegations of child abuse that included ritual elements, as defined by the researchers. A very small group of clinicians (1.4 percent), each claiming to have treated scores of cases, accounted for most of the reports of ritualistic child abuse (Bottoms, Shaver, & Goodman, in press).

A very high percentage of professionals who encountered reports of ritual abuse from patients believed those reports, based largely on patients' strong affect and apparently abuse-related behavioral symptoms, even though other corroborative evidence was often lacking (Bottoms, Shaver, & Goodman, in press).

True accounts of abuse can include false elements that reflect fantasy on the part of victims, misinterpretation or suggestion by interveners, or deception by perpetrators. One of the most difficult challenges for child abuse professionals today is establishing criteria for distinguishing between true and false elements in accounts of abuse.

The ritual abuse scare is the social creation of a late twentieth-century witch hunt. There is no verifiable evidence for claims about a Satanic cult ritual abuse conspiracy. However, there is abundant evidence that an increasing number of moral crusaders are creating a form of deviant behavior, which exists only in their preconceptions. The victims of this rush to judgement include children who are traumatized by the emotional over-reaction and repeated interrogations by well-meaning child protection workers. The victims include children who are taken away from parents who have been falsely accused of ritual sex abuse. Victims also include the parents who are imprisoned and often held with exorbitantly high bail for months before going to trial.

These allegations of Satanic cult ritual sex abuse also distort and confuse investigations of cases in which real sexual abuse has occurred, often resulting in such cases being thrown out of court.

The first indicator that a professional may be a child saver is when he or she becomes a proselytizer. This professional spreads the gospel of satanic ritual abuse, despite the absence of corroborative evidence for such allegations. Lanning (1991) reported that, despite intensive investigations over an eight-year period, law enforcement officials had found no credible evidence supporting allegations of ritual abuse. A five-year governmentally-funded study, conducted by Goodman, Qin, Bottoms, and Shaver (1994), concluded that hard evidence for satanic ritual abuse "was scant to nonexistent" (p. 6). And, more recently, Bottoms and Davis (1997) observed that there never were highly organized satanic ritual abuse cults in this country. They based this conclusion on their own surveys, the fact that the police and FBI agents have never found evidence of satanic ritual abuse, and the discrediting of and the recantations by alleged victims.

But the child savers firmly believe the claims of ritualistic abuse and continue to promulgate this notion (Goodman et al., 1994; Bottoms & Davis, 1997; Bottoms, Shaver, & Goodman, 1996). They reject reports as biased that do not corroborate the existence of satanic ritual abuse. The evidence, however, confirms the conclusion of the San Diego Grand Jury (1992, June), which investigated that county's child protective system and concluded that:

This contemporary myth is far from benign. As Bottoms and Davis (1997) point out, those who become involved with these professionals may live the rest of their lives with a false, painful belief. And they may act on this belief with untold harm to innocent individuals. These are often parents who are subjected to misguided lawsuits and imprisonment for crimes they did not commit.

It is estimated that 185 people were criminally charged in cases alleging satanic ritual abuse between 1983 and 1995 in this country; 113 of them were convicted, and over fifty of those people remain in prison today (Nathan & Snedeker, 1995). Similar cases were discovered in Canada, England, Scotland, Holland, and New Zealand, generating as much controversy as those in this country. The failure of law enforcement agencies and government task forces in this country and abroad to find any convincing corroborating evidence supporting these bizarre allegations has only served to heighten the controversy (LaFontane, 1994; Lanning, 1992; Rapport van werkgroep, 1994).

And so does the long-awaited empirical study by Goodman, Qin, Bottoms and Shaver (1994), funded by the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. The researchers surveyed 6,910 clinical psychologists, social workers, and psychiatrists, and 4,655 agencies, including departments of social services, county district attorneys offices, and municipal law enforcement agencies. Respondents reported 12,264 cases of suspected or alleged satanic ritual abuse involving children and adults. Although the vast majority of respondents believed that each case they reported to the researchers was a "real" case of satanic ritual abuse, they could offer very little, if any, evidence corroborating their belief. What evidence they could offer, such as visible scars on the bodies of their clients, could be accounted for with reasonable alternative explanations, such as self-injury. The researchers also found that there is little agreement between the allegations made by children and the recovered memories of adults; the former tended to talk about such archetypically frightening acts such as being confined in the dark with spiders and snakes, while the latter disclosed the kinds of horrific acts, like cannibalism, blood-drinking, and human sacrifice, which have come to typify the notion of satanic ritual abuse.

In the face of these findings, the researchers raised serious and disturbing questions about the nature and process of recovering traumatic memories, and about the suggestibility of children to repeated and leading questioning by adults seeking confirmation of their beliefs and fears. They also concluded that a richer understanding of the persistence of the belief in the reality of satanic ritual abuse in the absence of corroborating evidence will be found in a sociological analysis of this controversial issue.

This comprehensive resource helps the reader evaluate and understand children's statements in the courtroom. Noting that in many instances testimony is elicited from children using questionable techniques that may be damaging to both defendant and accused, Ceci and Bruck describe procedures that will ensure that interviews and analysis are conducted in a sensitive and professional manager.

This important book drives a stake through the heart of the satanic panic, probably the most dangerous legend of out time... In clear, non-technical language, and drawing upon a wealth of solid data and reliable research, Victor's groundbreaking book dissects the current moral crusade against supposed 'satanism', and finds it to be a witch-hunt based on an urban legend script.

...Pendergrast has written a well-researched and important book, and his findings should rightfully scare all of us. Pendergrast, it must be said, is not an objective reporter: his own daughters have accused him of abuse. His shock at their allegations sparked a personal crisis, leading to the writing of this book. Despite his conflict of interest, Pendergrast tries for evenhandedness, going so far as to offer in-their-own-words chapters by those with repressed memories and the therapists who treat them. But there is also a chapter from the "retractors", women who have realized that their memories of abuse were only products of their own imaginations.

Pendergrast's account of this controversial subject is wide ranging. He covers everything from the nature of memory and hypnosis to such related forms of sexual hysteria as the Salem witch trials to this country's growing cult of victimization. He also chronicles how abuse memories often lead to memories of ritual satanic abuse. His strongest and most effective assaults are reserved for the book The Courage to Heal, the bible of the repressed-memory movement, which informs readers that if you feel you've been abused, even if you don't remember the abuse, you probably have.
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