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163-493: The Satanic panic is a moral panic consisting of over 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse ( SRA , sometimes known as ritual abuse , ritualistic abuse , organized abuse , or sadistic ritual abuse ) starting in the United States in the 1980s, spreading throughout many parts of the world by the late 1990s, and persisting today. The panic originated in 1980 with the publication of Michelle Remembers ,

326-474: A social constructionist approach to moral panics, challenging the assumption that sociology is able to define, measure, explain, and ameliorate social problems . Reviewing empirical studies in the social constructionist perspective, Goode and Ben-Yehuda produced an " attributional " model that identifies essential characteristics and placed more emphasis on strict definition than cultural processes. They arrived at five defining "elements", or "criteria", of

489-543: A Catholic church, and/or secreted away by people who are posing as parishioners receiving communion. In 2014, the Dakhma of Angra Mainyu held a public Black Mass at the Oklahoma Civic Center and planned to include the desecration of a consecrated host, which was to be "stomped on". Instead, the host was returned through an attorney after the archdiocese filed a lawsuit for its recovery. The sacrilege of

652-403: A basement. Pazder was also responsible for coining the term ritual abuse . Michelle Remembers provided a model for numerous allegations of SRA that ensued later in the same decade. On the basis of the book's success, Pazder developed a high media profile, gave lectures and training on SRA to law enforcement, and by September 1990 had acted as a consultant on more than 1,000 SRA cases, including

815-485: A belief system would contradict their strict dietary laws, which forbid the consumption of blood, even when consuming kosher animals . Jews in the Middle Ages were frequently victims of similar accusations, considered more serious than desecration of other revered items, such as relics or images of Jesus and the saints. The accusations were often supported only by the testimony of the accuser, who may potentially bear

978-582: A body, stories include special industrial furnaces. The patients' allegations change, and they creatively find "solutions" to objections. The second group to make allegations of SRA were young children. During the "Satanic Panic" of the 1980s, the techniques used by investigators to gather evidence from witnesses, particularly young children, evolved to become very leading, coercive and suggestive, pressuring young children to provide testimony and refusing to accept denials while offering inducements that encouraged false disclosures. The interviewing techniques used were

1141-469: A book co-written by Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder and his patient (and future wife), Michelle Smith, which used the controversial and now discredited practice of recovered-memory therapy to make claims about satanic ritual abuse involving Smith. The allegations, which arose afterward throughout much of the United States, involved reports of physical and sexual abuse of people in the context of occult or Satanic rituals. Some allegations involve

1304-662: A broad array of vague symptoms that were ultimately common, non-specific and subjective, purported to be capable of diagnosing SRA in most young children. By the late 1980s, allegations began to appear throughout the world (including Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia ), in part enabled by English as a common international language and in the United Kingdom, assisted by Gould's list of indicators. Belief in SRA spread rapidly through

1467-648: A common reason given for massacres and expulsions throughout the Middle Ages in Europe. Similar accusations were made against Muslims, Protestants and in witchcraft trials ; witch-hunter's guides such as the Malleus Maleficarum refer to hosts as being objects of desecration by witches. It is part of many descriptions of the Black Mass , both in ostensibly historical works and in fiction. In

1630-550: A congressional committee that children were being forced to engage in scatological behavior and watch bizarre rituals in which animals were being slaughtered. Shortly after, the United States Congress doubled its budget for child-protection programs. Psychiatrist Roland Summit delivered conferences in the wake of the McMartin trial and depicted the phenomenon as a conspiracy that involved anyone skeptical of

1793-509: A consecrated host" as well as other sacred objects "in order to perform various evil rites to harm our Lord, his holy church, and our faith." Sixteenth-century inquisitors and polemicists likewise accused former Muslims, whom they saw as false converts, of host desecration. For example, the Inquisition of Cuenca charged one former Muslim with purchasing stolen hosts and stringing them up in a latrine (as some former Judaists supposedly did). In

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1956-725: A conspiracy of a global Satanic cult that includes the wealthy and elite in which children are abducted or bred for human sacrifice , pornography , and prostitution . Nearly every aspect of the ritual abuse is controversial, including its definition, the source of the allegations and proof thereof, testimonies of alleged victims, and court cases involving the allegations and criminal investigations. The panic affected lawyers, therapists, and social workers who handled allegations of child sexual abuse . Allegations initially brought together widely dissimilar groups, including religious fundamentalists, police investigators, child advocates, therapists, and clients in psychotherapy . The term satanic abuse

2119-598: A decline in concern for the perceived social threat is an indicative feature of the movements situated in Moral Panic. During the years 1919 to 1920, followed by the late 1940s to the 1950s, the United States had a moral panic over communism and feared being attacked by the Soviet Union . In the late 1940s and the 1950s, a period now known as the McCarthy Era , Senator Joseph McCarthy used his power as

2282-411: A growing number of scholars, officials and reporters questioning the reality of the accusations, and a variety of successful lawsuits against mental health professionals. Some feminist critics of the SRA diagnoses maintained that, in the course of attempting to purge society of evil, the panic of the 1980s and 1990s obscured actual child-abuse issues, a concern echoed by author Gary Clapton. In England,

2445-533: A host died in 1631, according to Jacques Basnage , quoting from Menasseh Ben Israel . In some cases host desecration legends emerged without actual accusations, as was the case of the host desecration legend of Poznan (Posen). The accusation of host desecration gradually ceased after the Reformation as more Christian denominations no longer believe in hosts being the body and blood of Christ. However, sporadic instances of host desecration libel occurred even in

2608-890: A large increase in child protection investigations in America, Britain, and other developed countries, along with a heightened public awareness of child abuse . The investigation of incest allegations in California was also changed, with cases led by social workers who used leading and coercive interviewing techniques that had been avoided by police investigators. Such changes in the prosecution of cases of alleged incest resulted in an increase in confessions by fathers in exchange for plea bargains . Shortly thereafter, some children in child protection cases began making allegations of horrific physical and sexual abuse by caregivers within organized rituals, claiming sexual abuse in Satanic rituals and

2771-495: A large number of children being killed or abused in Satanic rituals. From a law enforcement perspective, an intergenerational conspiracy dedicated to ritual sacrifice whose members remain completely silent, make no mistakes and leave no physical evidence is unlikely; cases of what the media incorrectly perceived as actual cult sacrifices (such as the 1989 case of Adolfo Constanzo ) have supported this idea. A third variation of ritual abuse involves non-religious ritual abuse in which

2934-410: A larger umbrella. While most notable in the United States, other countries such as Romania have seen exposure to or promotion of the idea as well. Blues was one of the first music genres to receive this label, mainly due to a perception that it incited violence and other poor behavior. In the early 20th century, the blues was considered disreputable, especially as white audiences began listening to

3097-479: A lifetime of Devil worship . Other allegations included bizarre sexual acts such as necrophilia , forced ingestion of semen , blood and feces , cannibalism , orgies , liturgical parody such as pseudosacramental use of feces and urine ; infanticide , sacrificial abortions to eat fetuses and human sacrifice ; satanic police officers who covered up evidence of SRA crimes and desecration of Christian graves . No evidence of any of these claims has ever been found;

3260-453: A moral panic over Satanism and child abuse. After skeptical inquiry, explanations for allegations of SRA have included an attempt by radical feminists to undermine the nuclear family , a backlash against working women, homophobic attacks on gay childcare workers, a universal need to believe in evil, fear of alternative spiritualities, "end of the millennium" anxieties, or a transient form of temporal lobe epilepsy. In his book Satanic Panic ,

3423-617: A moral panic: Goode and Ben-Yehuda also examined three competing explanations of moral panics: Similarly, writing about the Blue Whale Challenge and the Momo Challenge as examples of moral panics, Benjamin Radford listed themes that he commonly observed in modern versions of these phenomena: In over 40 years of extensive study, researchers have identified several general clusters of topics that help describe

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3586-476: A national television special on the alleged secret cults, claiming "Estimates are that there are over one million Satanists in [the United States and they are] linked in a highly organized, secretive network." Tapings of this and similar talk show episodes were subsequently used by religious fundamentalists , psychotherapists , social workers and police to promote the idea that a conspiracy of Satanic cults existed and these cults were committing serious crimes. In

3749-629: A new mass medium has entered the social scene, it has spurred public debates on social and cultural norms, debates that serve to reflect, negotiate and possibly revise these very norms.… In some cases, debate of a new medium brings about – indeed changes into – heated, emotional reactions … what may be defined as a media panic . Recent manifestations of this kind of development include cyberbullying and sexting . A central concern of modern mass media has been interpersonal crime. When new types or patterns of crime emerge, coverage expands considerably, especially when said crime involves increased violence or

3912-404: A patient making allegations of SRA was the therapist's predisposition. Further, the alleged similarities between patient accounts (particularly between adults and children) turned out to be illusory upon review, with adults describing far more elaborate, severe and bizarre abuse than children. Bette Bottoms, who reviewed hundreds of claims of adult and child abuse, described the ultimate evidence for

4075-416: A pattern of construction and reaction with greater foothold than mods and rockers – the moral panic. According to Cohen, there are five sequential stages in the construction of a moral panic: Cohen observed further: Sometimes the object of the panic is quite novel and at other times it is something which has been in existence long enough, but suddenly appears in the limelight. Sometimes

4238-481: A police report against the reporters. The police took no action despite a potential charge under Section 298A (1) of the Penal Code for causing disharmony, disunity or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill will, or prejudicing the maintenance of harmony or unity, on grounds of religion. The desecration caused widespread outrage and condemnation from non-Muslims as well as Muslims across the country. Parties including

4401-685: A prejudice against the accused Jew or the Jewish people. Despite this, some alleged perpetrators were tried and found guilty, on little evidence or through torture. The penalties for Jews accused of defiling sacred hosts were severe. Many Jews, after accusations and torture, "confessed" to abusing hosts, and the accused Jews were condemned and burned, sometimes with all the other Jews in the community, as happened in Beelitz in 1243, in Prague in 1389, and in many German cities, according to Ocker's writings in

4564-651: A psychologist. The Matamoros murders produced the bodies of 12 adults who were ritually sacrificed by a drug gang inspired by the film The Believers , but did not involve children or sexual abuse. The McMartin case resulted in no convictions and was ultimately based on accusations by children with no proof beyond their coerced testimonies. A 1990/1991 survey of clinicians, which reviewed 386 allegations of ritual and 191 allegations of religious abuse, described 10% and under 3% of those allegations, respectively, as unfounded following social service investigation. Dutch investigative journalists from Argos ( NPO Radio 1 ) collected

4727-473: A public citizen without institutional discipline or restraint." In 2009, two Muslim reporters from Al-Islam , a small Malaysian magazine, participated in a Catholic Mass, while undercover writing an article on cases of apostasy from Islam ( riddah ) and received Holy Communion. The reporters afterwards spat out the Host and photographed it to prove they had not apostatised themselves. The resulting photo

4890-419: A religious framework onto perpetrators. The latter in particular failed to substantively improve on or replace "Satanic" abuse as it was never used to describe any rituals except the Satanic ones that were the core of SRA allegations. Abuse within the context of Christianity, Islam, or any other religions failed to enter the SRA discourse. Allegation of cult-based abuse is the most extreme scenario of SRA. During

5053-474: A rusty nail, which he also used to pierce a few ripped-out pages of the Quran and The God Delusion , put them all in the trash along with old coffee grounds and a banana peel. He provided a photograph on his blog of these items in the garbage and wrote that nothing must be held sacred, encouraging people to question everything. In addition, he described the history of allegations of host desecration, emphasizing

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5216-646: A senator to conduct a witch hunt for communists he claimed had infiltrated all levels of American society, including Hollywood, the State Department , and the armed forces. When he began, he held little influence or respect within the Senate, but he exploited Americans' fears of communism (and Congress' desire to not lose re-election) to rise to prominence and keep the hunt going in spite of an increasingly apparent lack of evidence, often accusing those who dared oppose him of being communists themselves. Over

5379-440: A set of interviews from Child Protective Services , the interviews from the two trials were "significantly more likely to (a) introduce new suggestive information into the interview, (b) provide praise, promises, and positive reinforcement, (c) express disapproval, disbelief, or disagreement with children, (d) exert conformity pressure, and (e) invite children to pretend or speculate about supposed events." Specific allegations from

5542-443: A sexually transmitted disease, in their throats," according to the report by a district attorney . The evidence for SRA was primarily in the form of testimonies from children who made allegations of SRA, and adults who claim to remember abuse during childhood, that may have been forgotten and recovered during therapy . With both children and adults, no corroborating evidence has been found for anything except pseudosatanism in which

5705-453: A similar accusation, former Muslims allegedly stole a church's hosts and contemptuously threw them onto the ground. Since 1549, Counter-Reformers occasionally accused Protestants of desecrating the Host. For example, a Catholic account claims that in 1561 a group of French Protestants were so irritated by a church's bell-ringing that they responded by assaulting the church, harming and killing several parishioners, and intentionally desecrating

5868-420: A spot where a body was buried, but no body was found and no earth was disturbed, therapists resort to special pleading , saying that the patient was hypnotically programmed to direct investigators to the wrong location, or the patient was fooled by the cult into believing that a crime was not committed. If the alleged bodies were cremated and police point out that ordinary fires are inadequate to completely destroy

6031-468: A substantiated case. A British study published in 1996 found 62 cases of alleged ritual abuse reported to researchers by police, social and welfare agencies from the period of 1988 to 1991, representing a tiny proportion of extremely high-profile cases compared to the total number investigated by the agencies. Anthropologist Jean La Fontaine spent several years researching ritual abuse cases in Britain at

6194-610: A symptom of a moral crisis and a form of scapegoating for economic and social ills. Information about SRA claims spread through conferences presented to religious groups, churches and professionals such as police forces and therapists as well as parents. These conferences and presentations served to organize agencies and foster communication between groups, maintaining and spreading disproven or exaggerated stories as fact. Members of local police forces organized into loose networks focused on cult crimes, some of whom billed themselves as "experts" and were paid to speak at conferences throughout

6357-519: A watershed change in public perceptions of satanic ritual abuse accusations. In 1995, Geraldo Rivera issued an apology for his 1987 television special which had focused on the alleged cults. In 1996 astrophysicist and astrobiologist Carl Sagan devoted an entire chapter of his final book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark to a critique of claims of recovered memories of alien abductions and satanic ritual abuse, citing material from

6520-518: A year were being killed by a network of Satanists, what one psychiatrist writing in a psychiatric journal called “a hidden holocaust”. Explanations for how Satanists covered up this slaughter included their infiltrating media and law enforcement, as well as morticians and crematorium operators to make sure no bodies were ever found. Other versions claimed that there were no missing persons because Satanists used certain women as breeders, providing Satanists with thousands of babies for human sacrifices. By

6683-482: Is also president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, accepted the apology and said that no further (legal) action would be taken. A Black Mass is a Satanic ritual designed to satirize or invert a traditional Catholic mass . Consecrated hosts are a common ingredient in black masses, becoming the subject of desecration. The hosts must first be stolen from the tabernacle of

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6846-474: Is closer to a psychological illness rather than a sociological phenomenon. Though the term moral panic was used in 1830 by a religious magazine regarding a sermon, it was used in a way that completely differs from its modern social science application. The phrase was used again in 1831, with an intent that is possibly closer to its modern use. Though not using the term moral panic , Marshall McLuhan , in his 1964 book Understanding Media , articulated

7009-602: Is credence to allegations of SRA and continue to discuss the topic. Publications by Cathy O'Brien claiming SRA was the result of government programs (specifically the Central Intelligence Agency 's Project MKULTRA ) to produce Manchurian candidate -style mind control in young children were picked up by conspiracy theorists, linking belief in SRA with claims of government conspiracies. In the 2007 book Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) , authors Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson cite an ongoing belief in

7172-712: Is no contemporary evidence for the burnings in documents of the 13th century. Another famous case that took place in 1290, in Paris, was commemorated in the Church of the Rue des Billettes and in a local confraternity. The case of 1337, at Deggendorf , celebrated locally as part of the "Deggendorfer Gnad" until 1992, led to a series of massacres across the region. In 1370 in Brussels the charge of host desecration, linked to an actual recovered relic of desecrated hosts currently found in

7335-532: Is often academically considered irrational (see Cohen's model of moral panic, below). Examples of moral panic include the belief in widespread abduction of children by predatory pedophiles and belief in ritual abuse of women and children by Satanic cults . Some moral panics can become embedded in standard political discourse , which include concepts such as the MeToo movement , Red Scare , racism , and terrorism . It differs from mass hysteria , which

7498-666: Is provided beyond case studies and brief summaries. Three other cases considered corroborating by the public—the McMartin preschool trial , the Country Walk case and the murders in Matamoros , by Adolfo Constanzo —ultimately failed to support the existence of SRA. The primary witness in the Country Walk case repeatedly made, then withdrew accusations against her husband amid unusual and coercive inquiries by her lawyer and

7661-502: The New York Times said that: "Of the more than 12,000 documented accusations nationwide, investigating police were not able to substantiate any allegations of organized cult abuse". Among the explanations of why the panic occurred when it did, or "took the shape that it did", include Allegations of horrific acts by outside groups, including cannibalism , child murder, torture , and incestuous orgies can place minorities in

7824-515: The Argos journalists received an anonymous email stating the journalists had to 'beaware' because "they know about your investigation", remarking "they're going to get rid of evidence – just like they did with Dutroux ". The same day as the journalists received the e-mail, the warehouse in the Bollenstreek burnt down. According to Argos, the damage had been classified so severe by

7987-537: The Cathedral of St. Gudula and long celebrated in a special feast, and to artistic depictions also found in the cathedral, led to the burning of six Jews (other times given twenty) and, reportedly, the expulsion of the town's Jewish population (see Brussels massacre ). In 1510, at Knoblauch in Havelland 38 Jews were executed and more expelled from Brandenburg . An alleged host desecration in 1410, at Segovia ,

8150-689: The Catholic Church , the transubstantiation of the Eucharist means the "body, blood, soul, and divinity" of Jesus Christ are present in the form of the consecrated host and adored . Theft, sale, or use of the host for a profane purpose is considered a grave sin and sacrilege, which incurs the penalty of excommunication , which is imposed automatically in the Latin Church (See Latin Church Code canon 1367, or Code of Canons of

8313-511: The Federal Bureau of Investigation , local police, social services agencies and childhood protective services in many cases), with wide differences in suspicion and confirmation, often in disagreement with each other. Finkelhor, upon receiving a "confirmation", would collect information from whoever was willing or interested to provide it and did not independently investigate the cases, resulting in frequent errors in his conclusions. No data

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8476-668: The Harvard Theological Review . According to William Nichol, over 100 instances of Jews pleading guilty to the desecration of sacred hosts have been recorded. The first recorded accusation was made in 1243 at Beelitz , south of Potsdam. Tradition records that as a consequence the Jews of Beelitz were burned on a hill before the Mill Gate, which was subsequently, and until 1945, called the Judenberg, although there

8639-610: The Virgin Mary and Archangel Michael . Explanations for a lack of any evidence of abuse on Michelle’s body were that it had been miraculously removed by St. Mary. Not explained was testimony from Michelle’s father and two sisters, contradicting the memoir, as well as a 1955/56 St. Margaret’s School yearbook. The yearbook includes a photo taken in November 1955 showing Michelle attending school and appearing healthy, when according to Pazder’s book Michelle spent that month imprisoned in

8802-624: The Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and associate professor Anne-Marie Slotboom. In December 2022 Hendriks returned a report which found there is no evidence of organized abuse with ritualistic features and “Overall, victims are the only primary source reporting this type of abuse and no support for its existence is found from other sources.” The majority of adult testimonials were given by adults while they were undergoing psychotherapy , in most cases they were undergoing therapy which

8965-618: The cannibalism of Christian babies and desecration of the Eucharist , and the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries. Torture and imprisonment were used by authority figures in order to coerce confessions from alleged Satanists, confessions that were later used to justify their executions. Records of these older allegations were linked by contemporary proponents in an effort to demonstrate that contemporary Satanic cults were part of an ancient conspiracy of evil, though ultimately no evidence of devil -worshiping cults existed in Europe at any time in its history. A more immediate precedent to

9128-401: The pentagram to be evidence of a Satanic cult. Ambiguous crimes in which actual or erroneously believed symbols of Satanism appear have also been claimed as part of the SRA phenomenon, though in most cases the crimes cannot be linked to a specific belief system; minor crimes such as vandalism, trespassing and graffiti were often found to be the actions of teenagers who were acting out . There

9291-499: The restrictive laws around them worldwide date back to this period. In early 1960s Britain, the two main youth subcultures were Mods and Rockers . The "Mods and Rockers" conflict was explored as an instance of moral panic by sociologist Stanley Cohen in his seminal study Folk Devils and Moral Panics , which examined media coverage of the Mod and Rocker riots in the 1960s. Host desecration Accusations against Jews were

9454-589: The 1840s, particularly as it related to religion, politics, and jobs. Nativist criticism of immigrants from Catholic nations centered upon the control of the Pope over church members. The concern regarding the social threat led the Know-Nothing Party in the 1856 presidential election to win 21.5% of the vote. The quick decline in political success for the Know Nothing-Party as a result of

9617-671: The 18th and 19th century. In 1761 in Nancy , several Jews from Alsace were executed on a charge of sacred host desecration. The last recorded accusation was brought up in Berlad , Romania , in 1836. Juan Manuel included in his 1335 anthology El Conde Lucanor a tale about a treacherous priest who gave the Host to some Muslims, who then proceeded to drag it through the mud while mocking it. In 1465, Christians who opposed King Enrique IV of Castile defamed him by claiming that under his reign, "some Jews and Moors sought on several occasions to obtain

9780-507: The 1987 Geraldo Rivera television special. Secular proponents appeared, and child protection workers became significantly involved. Law enforcement trainers, many themselves strongly religious, became strong promoters of the claims and self-described "experts" on the topic. Their involvement in child sexual abuse cases produced more allegations of SRA, adding credibility to the phenomenon. As the explanations for SRA were distanced from evangelical Christianity and associated with "survivor" groups,

9943-544: The 1990s, psychologist D. Corydon Hammond publicized a detailed theory of ritual abuse drawn from hypnotherapy sessions with his patients, alleging they were victims of a worldwide conspiracy of organized, secretive clandestine cells who used torture, mind control and ritual abuse to create alternate personalities that could be "activated" with code words; the victims were allegedly trained as assassins, prostitutes, drug traffickers, and child sex workers (to create child pornography ). Hammond claimed his patients had revealed

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10106-569: The 1994 Mencken Award winner for Best Book presented by the Free Press Association, Jeffery Victor wrote that, in the United States, the groups most likely to believe rumors of SRA are rural, poorly educated, religiously conservative white blue-collar families with an unquestioning belief in American values who feel significant anxieties over job loss, economic decline and family disintegration. Victor considered rumors of SRA

10269-618: The Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, Murphy Pakiam ; the Catholic Lawyers Society; as well as numerous editorials in the media, criticised the government and the Attorney-General for its failure to act. Some nine months later, in early March 2010, Al-Islam published an apology to the Catholic Church and other Christians for the article. It was posted on the website of its publisher. Archbishop Pakiam, who

10432-570: The Catholic Church has allowed certain countries to allow communicants to receive the Host in the hand, rather than directly onto the tongue, reviving an "ancient custom". Communion in the hand is now widespread in many parts of the world. The practice means that access to consecrated Hosts is easier than in the past, since the person receiving it in the hand may pretend to place it in their mouth for consumption. About this, Pope Benedict XVI cited: "I am not opposed in principle to Communion in

10595-536: The Catholic priest Gavin Langmuir, that these accusations against Jews represented profound doubt about the truth of Christianity. Although the doctrine of transubstantiation did not imply that, by consuming the host, Christians were eating flesh and drinking blood in the normal sense, the language used to describe the dogma would have been interpreted as completely alien to Judaism and Jewish law . For Jews, such

10758-803: The Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order (1978), Marxist Stuart Hall and his colleagues studied the public reaction to the phenomenon of mugging and the perception that it had recently been imported from American culture into the UK. Employing Cohen's definition of moral panic , Hall and colleagues theorized that the "rising crime rate equation" performs an ideological function relating to social control . Crime statistics , in Hall's view, are often manipulated for political and economic purposes; moral panics could thereby be ignited to create public support for

10921-606: The Dutch House of Representatives approved a motion in which the PvdA, GL and the SP requested that an independent investigation be conducted into the nature and extent of "organized sadistic abuse of children", bypassing Grapperhaus' original refusal to investigate. In a Skeptical Inquirer article JD Sword discusses the outcomes of a subsequent commission appointed by Grapperhaus and led by Jan Hendriks, professor of criminology from

11084-740: The Eastern Churches canon 1442.) Some denominations, especially Lutherans, have similar beliefs regarding the Eucharist and the Real Presence , though they reject the Roman Catholic concept of transubstantiation, preferring instead the doctrine of the sacramental union , in which "the body and blood of Christ are so truly united to the bread and wine of the Holy Communion that the two may be identified. They are at

11247-428: The Host is mistakenly regarded as a fictitious crime committed primarily by pagans and fringe groups. Recent research indicates that hosts were actually desecrated, especially in connection with war crimes, which was particularly the case when the aim was to expose as idolatrous the enemy's religious cult, whose altars and churches were demonstratively vandalized. Since the host had a very special ideological meaning within

11410-404: The Host. In his July 8 blog entry, University of Minnesota Morris biology professor Paul Zachary Myers criticized the reaction to a University of Central Florida student's perceived act of host desecration (the student had attempted to bring the host to a friend who was curious about communion). Myers described the level of harassment against the student and expressed his intent to desecrate

11573-615: The Innocent that they predisposed children to violence. Comic books appeared in congressional hearings, and organisations promoted book burnings . Wertham's work resulted in the creation of the Comics Code , which drastically limited what kind of content could be published. As a result of these limitations, many comics publishers and illustrators were forced to leave the profession, and the content produced by those that remained became tamer and more focused on superheroes . During

11736-446: The Jewish people were responsible for the killing of Jesus, whom Christians regard as God become man—was a generally accepted Christian belief. It was spuriously claimed that Jews stole hosts (objects to which they attached no significance, religious or otherwise), and further spuriously claimed that they abused these hosts to re-enact the crucifixion of Jesus by stabbing or burning them. It has been asserted by modern scholars, such as

11899-445: The McMartin children. She coerced disclosures by using lengthy interviews that rewarded discussions of abuse and punished denials. The trial testimony that resulted from such methods was often contradictory and vague on all details except for the assertion that the abuse had occurred. Although the initial charges in the McMartin case featured allegations of Satanic abuse and a vast conspiracy, these features were dropped relatively early in

12062-437: The McMartin preschool trial. Prosecutors used Michelle Remembers as a guide when preparing cases against alleged Satanists. Michelle Remembers , along with other accounts portrayed as survivor stories, are suspected to have influenced later allegations of SRA, and the book has been suggested as a causal factor in the later epidemic of SRA allegations. The early 1980s, during the implementation of mandatory reporting laws, saw

12225-478: The McMartin trial resulted in no convictions for any of the accused, while other cases resulted in lengthy sentences, some of which were later reversed. Scholarly interest in the topic slowly built, eventually resulting in the conclusion that the phenomenon was a moral panic, which, as one researcher put it in 2017, "involved hundreds of accusations that devil-worshipping paedophiles were operating America's white middle-class suburban daycare centers." A 1994 article in

12388-502: The Real Presence, Anglicanism had favored receptionism — the doctrine that while the bread and wine in the Eucharist continue to exist unchanged after consecration, the faithful communicant receives together with them the body and blood of Jesus. Whatever the doctrine selected, among Anglicans the consecrated bread and hosts are reserved and treated with great reverence. Since the publication of Memoriale Domini in 1969,

12551-403: The SRA panic diverted resources and attention away from proven abuse cases; this resulted in a "hierarchy" of abuse in which SRA was the most serious form, physical and sexual abuse being minimized and/or marginalized, and "mere" physical abuse no longer worthy of intervention. As criticism of SRA investigations increased, the focus by social workers on SRA resulted in a large loss of credibility to

12714-490: The SRA phenomenon, despite a complete lack of evidence, as demonstration of confirmation bias in believers; it further points out that a lack of evidence is actually considered by believers in SRA as additional evidence, demonstrating "how clever and evil the cult leaders were: They were eating those babies, bones and all." A Salt Lake City therapist, Barbara Snow , was put on probation in 2008 for planting false memories of satanic abuse in patients. One notable client of hers

12877-543: The Streets (1956), 12 Angry Men (1957), The Delinquents , High School Confidential (1958), and the 1957 Broadway musical West Side Story . Fixation on the switchblade as the symbol of youth violence, sex, and delinquency resulted in demands from the public and Congress to control the sale and possession of such knives. State laws restricting or criminalizing switchblade possession and use were adopted by an increasing number of state legislatures, and many of

13040-490: The United States and published a report in 1988. The report found 270 cases of sexual abuse, of which 36 were classified as substantiated cases of ritual abuse. Mary de Young has pointed out that the report's definition of "substantiated" was overly liberal as it required only that one agency had decided that abuse had occurred, even if no action was taken, no arrests made, no operating licenses suspended. In addition, multiple agencies may have been involved in each case (including

13203-465: The United States. Religious revivalists also took advantage of the rumors and preached about the dangers of Satanism to youth and presented themselves at paid engagements as secular experts. At the height of the panic, the highly emotional accusations and circumstances of SRA allegations made it difficult to investigate the claims, with the accused being assumed as guilty and skeptics becoming co-accused during trials, and trials moving forward based solely on

13366-433: The abuse as "astonishingly weak and ambiguous" particularly given the severity of the alleged abuse. Therapists however, were found to believe patients more as the allegations became more bizarre and severe. In cases in which patients made claims that were physically impossible, or in cases in which the evidence which was found by police is contradictory, the details which are reported will often change. If patients pointed to

13529-531: The abuse had a spiritual or social goal for the perpetrators, pseudo-ritualism in which the goal was sexual gratification and the rituals were used to frighten or intimidate victims, and psychopathological ritualism in which the rituals were due to mental disorders . Subsequent investigators have expanded on these definitions and also pointed to a fourth alleged type of Satanic ritual abuse, in which petty crimes with ambiguous meaning (such as graffiti or vandalism ) generally committed by teenagers were attributed to

13692-431: The actions of Satanic cults. By the early 1990s, the phrase "Satanic ritual abuse" was featured in media coverage of ritualistic abuse but its use decreased among professionals in favor of more nuanced terms such as multi-dimensional child sex rings, ritual/ritualistic abuse, organized abuse or sadistic abuse, some of which acknowledged the complexity of abuse cases with multiple perpetrators and victims without projecting

13855-545: The allegations made by children and adults were the same, in reality the statements made by adults were more elaborate, severe, and featured more bizarre abuse. In 95 percent of the adults' cases, the memories of the abuse were recovered during psychotherapy. For several years, a conviction list assembled by the Believe the Children advocacy group was circulated as proof of the truth of satanic ritual abuse allegations, though

14018-535: The appearance of the Church of Satan and other explicitly Satanist groups which added a kernel of truth to the existence of Satanic cults; the development of the social work or child protection field, and its struggle to have child sexual abuse recognized as a social problem and a serious crime; and the popularization of post-traumatic stress disorder , repressed memory , and the corresponding survivor movement. Michelle Remembers , written by Canadians Michelle Smith and her husband, psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder ,

14181-446: The available evidence. Shortly afterward, more than 100 preschools across the country became the object of similar sensationalist allegations, which were eagerly and uncritically reported by the press. Throughout the McMartin trial, media coverage of the defendants (Peggy McMartin and Ray Buckey) was unrelentingly negative, focusing only on statements by the prosecution. Michelle Smith and other alleged survivors met with parents involved in

14344-461: The behest of the government, finding that all of the cases of alleged satanic ritual abuse that could be substantiated were cases where the perpetrators' goal was sexual gratification rather than religious worship. Producing several reports and the 1998 book Speak of the Devil , after reviewing cases reported to police and children's protective services throughout the country, LaFontaine concluded that

14507-488: The blues during the 1920s. Jazz was another early receiver of the label. At the time, traditionalists considered jazz to contribute to the breakdown of morality. Despite the veiled attacks on blues and jazz as "negro music" often going hand-in-hand with other attacks on the genres, urban middle-class African Americans perceived jazz as "devil's music", and agreed with the beliefs that jazz's improvised rhythms and sounds were promoting promiscuity. Some have speculated that

14670-489: The cases included: A variety of these allegations resulted in criminal convictions; in an analysis of these cases Mary de Young found that many had had their convictions overturned. Of 22 daycare employees and their sentences reviewed in 2007, three were still incarcerated, eleven had charges dismissed or overturned, and eight were released before serving their full sentences. Grounds included technical dismissals, constitutional challenges and prosecutorial misconduct. SRA and

14833-465: The central core values of consensual society and as posing a threat to both the values of society and society itself, hence the term " folk devils ". Setting out to test his hypotheses on mods and rockers, Cohen ended up in a rather different place: he discovered a pattern of construction and reaction with greater foothold than mods and rockers – the moral panic. He thereby identified five sequential stages of moral panic. Characterizing

14996-424: The central themes of the discussion among English child abuse professionals was the assertion that people should simply "believe the children", and that the testimony of children was sufficient proof, which ignored the fact that in many cases the testimony of children was interpreted by professionals rather than the children explicitly disclosing allegations of abuse. In some cases this was simultaneously presented with

15159-460: The community. Stanley Cohen , who developed the term, states that moral panic happens when "a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests". While the issues identified may be real, the claims "exaggerate the seriousness, extent, typicality and/or inevitability of harm". Moral panics are now studied in sociology and criminology , media studies , and cultural studies . It

15322-516: The concept academically in describing the effects of media. As a social theory or sociological concept , the concept was first developed in the United Kingdom by Stanley Cohen , who introduced the phrase moral panic in a 1967–1969 PhD thesis that became the basis for his 1972 book Folk Devils and Moral Panics . In the book, Cohen describes the reaction among the British public to

15485-418: The concept was for the purpose of analyzing the definition of and social reaction to these subcultures as a social problem . He was interested in demonstrating how agents of social control amplified deviance , in that they potentially damaged the identities of those labeled as "deviant" and invited them to embrace deviant identities and behavior. According to Cohen, these groups were labelled as being outside

15648-603: The conspiracy was masterminded by a Jewish doctor in Nazi Germany , but who now worked for the Central Intelligence Agency with a goal of worldwide domination by a Satanic cult. The cult was allegedly composed of respectable, powerful members of society who used the funds generated to further their agenda. Missing memories among the victims and absence of evidence was cited as evidence of the power and effectiveness of this cult in furthering its agenda. Hammond's claims gained considerable attention, due in part to his prominence in

15811-556: The context of Satanic ritual abuse in the United States was McCarthyism in the 1950s. The underpinnings for the contemporary moral panic were found in a rise of five factors in the years leading up to the 1980s: the establishment of fundamentalist Christianity and the founding and political activism of the religious organization which was named the Moral Majority ; the rise of the anti-cult movement which accused abusive cults of kidnapping and brainwashing children and teens;

15974-502: The culture of social control , and the public . The concept of "moral panic" has also been linked to certain assumptions about the mass media . In recent times, the mass media have become important players in the dissemination of moral indignation, even when they do not appear to be consciously engaged in sensationalism or in muckraking . Simply reporting a subset of factual statements without contextual nuance can be enough to generate concern, anxiety, or panic. Cohen stated that

16137-426: The diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder (DID); soon after, accounts similar to Michelle Remembers began to appear, with some therapists believing the alter egos of some patients were the result of demonic possession . Protestantism was instrumental in starting, spreading, and maintaining rumors through sermons about the dangers of SRA, lectures by purported experts, and prayer sessions, including showings of

16300-507: The differences between definitions of a moral panic as described by American versus British sociologists. Kenneth Thompson claimed that American sociologists tended to emphasize psychological factors, while the British portrayed "moral panics" as crises of capitalism . British criminologist Jock Young used the term in his participant observation study of drug consumption in Porthmadog , Wales, between 1967 and 1969. In Policing

16463-407: The elements", although they have "never attempted to explain the manner of the change", thus rejecting philosophical terms to describe it. The Methodist Church similarly holds that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist "through the elements of bread and wine", but maintains that how he is present is a Holy Mystery. Until the 19th-century Oxford Movement reintroduced the classic doctrine of

16626-408: The experiences and stories of over two hundred victims of organized sexual abuse. A hundred and forty victims told Argos about ritual abuse. Six well-known people were mentioned as perpetrators by multiple participants in the investigation, and over ten abuse locations. A warehouse in the Bollenstreek was marked as a location for 'storage' and the production of child pornography. During the investigation

16789-491: The factors believed to have led to the construction of the bizarre disclosures of SRA by the children and changes to forensic and interviewing techniques since that time has resulted in a disappearance of the allegations. Analysis of the techniques used in two key cases (the McMartin Preschool and Wee Care Nursery School trials) concluded that the children were questioned in a highly suggestive manner. Compared with

16952-491: The field of hypnosis and psychotherapy. Satanic ritual abuse brought together several groups normally unlikely to associate, including psychotherapists, self-help groups, religious fundamentalists and law enforcement. Initial accusations were made in the context of the rising political power of the conservative Christian right within the United States, and religious fundamentalists enthusiastically promoted rumors of SRA. Psychotherapists who were actively Christian advocated for

17115-652: The fire department, that a cause of fire could not be determined. As a response to parliamentary questions following the Argos investigation, Dutch Minister of Justice and Security Ferdinand Grapperhaus said on August 27, 2020, that there would be 'no independent investigation into Ritual Abuse' of children in The Netherlands. The Green Left , the Socialist Party and the Labour Party criticized Grapperhaus for his decision. On October 13, 2020,

17278-514: The following decades, the Comics Code was loosened in scope before finally being abolished in 2011. In the United States, a 1950 article titled "The Toy That Kills" in the Women's Home Companion , about automatic knives, or " switchblades ", sparked significant controversy. It was further fuelled by highly popular films of the late 1950s, including Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Crime in

17441-596: The frequent use of such allegations in medieval Europe to justify anti-Semitism . According to Donohue, as the Pharyngula website was accessible via a link from the University of Minnesota website, it should be bound by the institution's code of conduct which requires faculty to be "respectful, fair and civil" when dealing with others. Subsequently, Myers explained to the Star Tribune that while his post

17604-564: The hand; I have both administered and received Communion in this way myself… The idea behind my current practice of having people kneel to receive Communion on the tongue was to send a signal and to underscore the Real Presence with an exclamation point" Receiving on the tongue is still the official norm of the Catholic Church, while receiving in the hand [via the Memoriale Domini indult] is, in English-speaking countries,

17767-467: The host, which the Catholic Church considers a grave matter . Myers expressed outrage that Fox News appeared to be inciting viewers to cause further problems for the student and ridiculed reports that armed guards would attend the next Mass. Myers suggested that if any of his readers could acquire some consecrated Eucharistic hosts for him, he would treat the wafers "with profound disrespect and heinous cracker abuse, all photographed and presented here on

17930-520: The idea of SRA, adding a veneer of respectability to the idea as well as offering an opportunity for prosecutors to exchange advice on how to best secure convictions—with tactics including destruction of notes, refusing to tape interviews with children, and destroying or refusing to share evidence with the defense. Had proof been found, SRA would have represented the first occasion where an organized and secret criminal activity had been discovered by mental health professionals. In 1987, Geraldo Rivera produced

18093-441: The idea that it did not matter if SRA actually existed, that the empirical truth of SRA was irrelevant, that the testimony of children was more important than that of doctors, social workers and the criminal justice system. The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect conducted a study led by University of California psychologist Gail Goodman , which found that among 12,000 accusations of ritual or religious-linked abuse, there

18256-417: The initial period of interest starting in the early 1980s the term was used to describe a network of Satan -worshipping, secretive intergenerational cults that were supposedly part of a highly organized conspiracy engaged in criminal behaviors such as forced prostitution , drug distribution and pornography . These cults were also thought to sexually abuse and torture children in order to coerce them into

18419-428: The late 1980s, therapists or patients who believed someone had suffered from SRA could suggest solutions that included Christian psychotherapy , exorcism , and support groups whose members self-identified as "anti-Satanic warriors". Federal funding was increased for research on child abuse, with large portions of the funding allocated for research on child sexual abuse. Funding was also provided for conferences supporting

18582-575: The mainstream culture; putting strain on welfare , education , and housing systems; and excessive involvement in crime. The advent of any new medium of communication produces anxieties among those who deem themselves as protectors of childhood and culture. Their fears are often based on a lack of knowledge as to the actual capacities or usage of the medium. Moralizing organizations, such as those motivated by religion, commonly advocate censorship , while parents remain concerned. According to media studies professor Kirsten Drotner: [E]very time

18745-566: The mass media is the primary source of the public's knowledge about deviance and social problems. He further argued that moral panic gives rise to the folk devil by labelling actions and people. Christian Joppke , furthers the importance of media as he notes, shifts in public attention "can trigger the decline of movements and fuel the rise of others." According to Cohen, the media appear in any or all three roles in moral panic dramas: In their 1994 book Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance , Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda take

18908-459: The more extreme interpretations often being seen as evidence of an effective conspiracy rather than an indication that the allegations are unfounded. The religious beliefs or atheism of the disputants have also resulted in different interpretations of evidence, and as well as accusations of those who reject the claims being "anti-child". Both believers and skeptics have developed networks to disseminate information on their respective positions. One of

19071-408: The motivations ascribed to purported Satanists shifted from combating a religious nemesis, to mind control and abuse as an end to itself. Clinicians, psychotherapists and social workers documented clients with alleged histories of SRA, though the claims of therapists were unsubstantiated beyond the testimonies of their clients. In 1987, a list of "indicators" was published by Catherine Gould, featuring

19234-439: The need to "police the crisis". First to name the phenomenon, Stanley Cohen investigated a series of "moral panics" in his 1972 book Folk Devils and Moral Panics . In the book, Cohen describes the reaction among the British public to the seaside rivalry between the " mod " and " rocker " youth subcultures of the 1960s and 1970s. In a moral panic, Cohen says, "the untypical is made typical". Cohen's initial development of

19397-525: The newsletter of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation . By 2003, allegations of ritual abuse were met with great skepticism, and belief in SRA was no longer considered mainstream in professional circles; although the sexual abuse of children was and is a real and serious problem, allegations of SRA were essentially false. Reasons for the collapse of the phenomenon include the failure of criminal prosecutions against alleged abusers,

19560-409: The only rituals she uncovered were those invented by child abusers to frighten their victims or justify the sexual abuse. In addition, the sexual abuse occurred outside of the rituals, indicating the goal of the abuser was sexual gratification rather than ritualistic or religious. In cases involving satanic abuse, the satanic allegations by younger children were influenced by adults, and the concerns over

19723-428: The organization itself no longer exists and the list itself is "egregiously out of date". Two investigations were carried out to assess the evidence for SRA. In the United Kingdom, a government report produced no evidence of SRA, but several examples of false satanists faking rituals to frighten their victims. In the United States, evidence was reported but was based on a flawed method with an overly liberal definition of

19886-417: The pain of their clients, which is for them more important than the truth of their patients' statements. A sample of 29 patients in a medical clinic reporting SRA found no corroboration of the claims in medical records or in discussion with family members. and a survey of 2,709 American therapists found the majority of allegations of SRA came from only sixteen therapists, suggesting that the determining factor in

20049-402: The panic after fearing a threat to prevailing social or cultural values are ' moral entrepreneurs ', while those who supposedly threaten social order have been described as ' folk devils '. In the early 1990s, Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda produced an " attributional " model that placed more emphasis on strict definition than cultural processes. Many sociologists have pointed out

20212-413: The panic passes over and is forgotten, except in folk-lore and collective memory; at other times it has more serious and long-lasting repercussions and might produce such changes as those in legal and social policy or even in the way the society conceives itself. Characterizing the reactions to the mod and rocker conflict, Cohen identified four key agents in moral panics: mass media , moral entrepreneurs ,

20375-867: The phenomenon. By 1986, social worker Carol Darling argued to a grand jury that the conspiracy reached the government. Her husband Brad Darling gave conference presentations about a Satanic conspiracy of great antiquity which he now believed was permeating American communities. In 1985, Patricia Pulling joined forces with psychiatrist Thomas Radecki , director of the National Coalition on Television Violence, to create B.A.D.D. (Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons). Pulling and B.A.D.D. saw role-playing games generally and Dungeons & Dragons specifically as Satanic cult recruitment tools, inducing youth to suicide, murder, and Satanic ritual abuse. Other alleged recruitment tools included heavy metal music , educators, child care centers, and television. This information

20538-462: The practical norm. Kneeling to receive communion is still the norm among Anglicans and Lutherans. As of 2015 , host desecration is a crime in Spain, and in the 1983 Code of Canon Law . Accusations of host desecration ( German : Hostienschändung ) leveled against Jews were a common pretext for massacres and expulsions throughout the Middle Ages in Europe. The libel of " Jewish deicide "—that

20701-402: The priesthood and among celebrities has somewhat altered the original notion of pedophiles being complete strangers , their presence in and around the family is hardly acknowledged. Substances used for pleasure such as alcohol and other drugs are popularly subject to legal action and criminalization due to their alleged harms to the health of those who partake in them or general order on

20864-470: The profession. SRA, with its sensational narrative of many victims abused by many victimizers, ended up robbing the far-more-common and proven issue of incest against children of much of its societal significance. The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect devised the term religious abuse to describe exorcism , poisoning , and drowning of children in non-satanic religious settings in order to avoid confusion with SRA. Some groups still believe there

21027-406: The proof presented by those who alleged the reality of cult-based abuse primarily consisted of the memories of adults recalling childhood abuse, the testimony of young children and extremely controversial confessions. The idea of a murderous Satanic conspiracy created a controversy dividing the professional child abuse community at the time, though no evidence has been found to support allegations of

21190-497: The ranks of mental health professionals (despite an absence of evidence) through a variety of continuing education seminars, during which attendees were urged to believe in the reality of Satanic cults, their victims, and not to question the extreme and bizarre memories uncovered. Proof was provided in the form of unconnected bits of information such as pictures drawn by patients, heavy metal album covers, historical folklore about devil worshippers, and pictures of mutilated animals. During

21353-590: The rare crime that exists that may be labeled "satanic" does not equate to the existence of a conspiracy or network of religiously-motivated child abusers. Moral panic A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society . It is "the process of arousing social concern over an issue", usually perpetuated by moral entrepreneurs and mass media coverage, and exacerbated by politicians and lawmakers . Moral panic can give rise to new laws aimed at controlling

21516-501: The reactions to the mod and rocker conflict, he identified four key agents in moral panics: mass media , moral entrepreneurs , the culture of social control , and the public . In a more recent edition of Folk Devils and Moral Panics , Cohen suggested that the term "panic" in itself connotes irrationality and a lack of control. Cohen maintained that "panic" is a suitable term when used as an extended metaphor. Setting out to test his hypotheses on mods and rockers, Cohen discovered

21679-476: The rituals were delusional or obsessive . There are incidents of extreme sadistic crimes that are committed by individuals, loosely organized families and possibly in some organized cults, some of which may be connected to Satanism, though this is more likely to be related to sex trafficking ; though SRA may happen in families, extended families and localized groups, it is not believed to occur in large, organized groups. Investigators considered graffiti such as

21842-452: The rivalry between the " mod " and " rocker " youth subcultures of the 1960s and 1970s. Cohen's initial development of the concept was for the purpose of analyzing the definition of and social reaction to these subcultures as a social problem . According to Cohen, a moral panic occurs when a "condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests." To Cohen, those who start

22005-457: The rock phase of the panic in the 1970s and 1980s contributed to the popularity of the satanic ritual abuse alleged moral panic in the 1980s. In the United States, substantial limits were placed on comic book content during the 1950s, especially in the horror and crime genres. This moral panic was promoted by the psychologist Fredric Wertham , who claimed that comics were a major source of juvenile delinquency, arguing in his book Seduction of

22168-462: The role of the " Other ", as well create a scapegoat for complex problems in times of social disruption. The SRA panic repeated many of the features of historical moral panics and conspiracy theories, such as the blood libel against Jews by Apion in the 30s CE, the wild rumors that led to the persecutions of early Christians in the Roman Empire , later allegations of Jewish rituals involving

22331-697: The same time body and blood, bread and wine…in this sacrament the Lutheran Christian receives the very body and blood of Christ precisely for the strengthening of the union of faith." Both the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Oriental Orthodox Churches, such as the Coptic Church , insist "on the reality of the change from bread and wine into the body and the blood of Christ at the consecration of

22494-586: The satanic and ritual aspects were secondary to and used as a cover for sexual abuse. Despite this lack of objective evidence, and aided by the competing definitions of what SRA actually was, proponents claimed SRA was a real phenomenon throughout the peak and during the decline of the moral panic. Despite allegations appearing in the United States, Netherlands, Sweden, New Zealand and Australia, no material evidence has been found to corroborate allegations of organized cult-based abuse that practices human sacrifice and cannibalism. Though trauma specialists frequently claimed

22657-531: The satanic aspects were found to be compelling due to cultural attraction of the concept but distracting from the actual harm caused to the abuse victims. In more recent years, discredited allegations of SRA have been levelled against Jimmy Savile during the posthumous investigation into his sexual abuse of children , as well as against former Prime Minister Ted Heath (who was previously falsely accused of SRA during his lifetime). David Finkelhor completed an investigation of child sexual abuse in daycares in

22820-532: The seminars, patients provided testimonials of their experiences and presenters stressed that recovering memories was important for healing: Media coverage of SRA began to turn negative by 1987, and the "panic" ended between 1992 and 1995. The release of the HBO made-for-TV movie Indictment: The McMartin Trial in 1995 re-cast Ray Buckey as a victim of overzealous prosecution rather than an abusive predator, and marked

22983-490: The so-called "Satanic Panic" have been called a moral panic and compared to the blood libel and witch-hunts of historical Europe, and McCarthyism in the United States during the 20th century. Stanley Cohen , who originated the term moral panic , called the episode "one of the purest cases of moral panic". The initial investigations of SRA were performed by anthropologists and sociologists, who failed to find evidence of SRA actually occurring; instead they concluded that SRA

23146-406: The streets. Recent examples include methamphetamine , mephedrone , and designer drugs . A series of moral panic is likely to recur whenever humans migrate to a foreign location to live alongside the native or indigenous population, particularly if the newcomers are of a different skin color or religion . These immigrants may be accused of: bringing alien cultures and refusing to integrate with

23309-408: The testimony of very young children without corroborating evidence. No forensic or corroborating evidence has ever been found for religiously based cannibalistic or murderous SRA, despite extensive investigations. The concern and reaction expressed by various groups regarding the seriousness or threat of SRA has been considered out-of-proportion to the actual threat by satanically-motivated crimes, and

23472-573: The trial, and it is believed that they influenced testimony against the accused. Kee MacFarlane , a social worker employed by the Children's Institute International , developed a new way to interrogate children with anatomically correct dolls and used them in an effort to assist disclosures of abuse with the McMartin children. After asking the children to point to the places on the dolls where they had allegedly been touched and asking leading questions , MacFarlane diagnosed sexual abuse in virtually all

23635-415: The trial, and prosecution continued only for non-ritual allegations of child abuse against only two defendants. After three years of testimony, McMartin and Buckey were acquitted on 52 of 65 counts, and the jury was deadlocked on the remaining 13 charges against Buckey, with 11 of 13 jurors choosing not guilty. Buckey was re-charged and two years later released without conviction. In 1984, MacFarlane warned

23798-615: The tropes of SRA and Satanic Panic. Instead of daycare centers being the center of abuse, however, liberal Hollywood actors, Democratic politicians, and high-ranking government officials are portrayed as a child-abusing cabal of Satanists. The term satanic ritual abuse is used to describe different behaviors, actions and allegations that lie between extremes of definitions. In 1988, a nationwide study of sexual abuse in US day care agencies , led by David Finkelhor, divided "ritual abuse" allegations into three categories—cult-based ritualism in which

23961-535: The use of Satanic symbols. These cases garnered the label satanic ritual abuse both in the media and among professionals. Childhood memories of similar abuse began to appear in the psychotherapy sessions of adults. In 1983, charges were laid in the McMartin preschool trial , a major case in California, which received attention throughout the United States and contained allegations of satanic ritual abuse. The case caused tremendous polarization in how to interpret

24124-523: The use of weapons. Sustaining the idea that crime is out of control, this keeps prevalent the fear of being randomly attacked on the street by violent young men. Researchers have considered a number of historical and current events to meet the criteria set out by Stanley Cohen. The brief success of the Know-Nothing Party in the US during the 1850s can be understood as resulting from a moral panic over Irish Catholic immigration dating back to

24287-433: The way in which moral panics operate and the impact they have. Some of the more common clusters identified are: child abuse , drugs and alcohol, immigration , media technologies, and street crime . Exceptional cases of physical or sexual abuse against children have driven policies based on child protection , regardless of their frequency or contradicting evidence from experts. While discoveries about pedophilia in

24450-598: The web." A number of Catholics immediately reacted strongly. William A. Donohue of the Catholic League accused Myers of anti-Catholic bigotry , described his proposal as a threat to desecrate what Catholics hold to be the Body of Christ and sent a letter asking the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Legislature to take action against Myers. Myers pierced a host with

24613-444: The years, there has been concern of various types of new music causing spiritual or otherwise moral corruption to younger generations, often called "the devil's music". While the types of music popularly labeled as such has changed with time, along with the intended meaning of the term, this basic factor of the moral panic has remained constant. It could thus be argued that this is really a series of smaller moral panics that fall under

24776-537: Was Teal Swan . The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), a professional nonprofit organization, is known for its advocacy of contemporary narratives surrounding alleged satanic conspiracies. Historically, the organization has convened annual conference presentations dedicated to the exploration and discussion of these topics. The far-right conspiracy theory movement known as QAnon , which originated on 4chan in 2017, has adopted many of

24939-425: Was "satire and protest", he had received death threats regarding the incident but was not taking them too seriously. The University of Minnesota, Morris (UMM) Chancellor defended Myers, and stated: "I believe that behaviors that discriminate against or harass individuals or groups on the basis of their religious beliefs are reprehensible" and that the school "affirms the freedom of a faculty member to speak or write as

25102-428: Was a result of rumors and folk legends that were spread by "media hype, Christian fundamentalism, mental health and law enforcement professionals and child abuse advocates." Sociologists and journalists noted the vigorous nature with which some evangelical activists and groups were using claims of SRA to further their religious and political goals. Other commentators suggested that the entire phenomenon may be evidence of

25265-606: Was designed to elicit memories of SRA. Therapists claimed that the pain which their patients felt, the internal consistency of their stories and the similarities of the allegations which were made by different patients all proved the existence of SRA, but despite this, the disclosures of patients never resulted in any corroboration; The allegations which were obtained from the alleged victims by mental health practitioners all lacked verifiable evidence, they were entirely anecdotal and they all involved incidents which occurred years or decades earlier. The concern for therapists revolved around

25428-407: Was more common early on; this later became satanic ritual abuse and further secularized into simply ritual abuse . Over time, the accusations became more closely associated with dissociative identity disorder (then called multiple personality disorder) and anti-government conspiracy theories . Initial interest arose via the publicity campaign for Pazder's 1980 book Michelle Remembers , and it

25591-621: Was never any consensus on what actually constituted Satanic ritual abuse. This lack of a single definition, as well as confusion between the meanings of the term ritual ( religious versus psychological ) allowed a wide range of allegations and evidence to be claimed as a demonstration of the reality of SRA allegations, irrespective of which "definition" the evidence supported. Acrimonious disagreements between groups who supported SRA allegations as authentic and those criticizing them as unsubstantiated resulted in an extremely polarized discussion with little middle ground. The lack of credible evidence for

25754-417: Was no evidence for "a well-organized intergenerational satanic cult, who sexually molested and tortured children," although there was "convincing evidence of lone perpetrators or couples who say they are involved with Satan or use the claim to intimidate victims." One such case Goodman studied involved "grandparents [who] had black robes, candles, and Christ on an inverted crucifix—and the children had chlamydia,

25917-412: Was published in 1980. Now discredited , the book was written in the form of an autobiography, presenting the first modern claim that child abuse was linked to Satanic rituals. According to the “memoir”, at the age of five Michelle was tortured by her mother for days in "elaborate satanic rituals". As the torture reached a climax, a portal to hell opened and Satan himself appeared, only to be driven away by

26080-862: Was said to have brought about an earthquake; as a result, leading Jews in the city were executed and the local synagogue was seized and re-dedicated as the convent and Church of Corpus Christi. Similar accusations, resulting in extensive persecution of Jews, were brought forward in 1294, at Laa , Austria; 1298, at Röttingen , near Würzburg , and at Korneuburg, near Vienna ; 1299, at Ratisbon ; 1306, at St. Pölten ; 1330, at Güstrow ; 1338, at Pulkau ; 1388, at Prague ; 1401, at Glogau ; 1420, at Ems; 1453, at Breslau ; 1478, at Passau ; 1492, at Sternberg , in Mecklenburg ; 1514, at Mittelberg, in Alsace ; 1556, at Sochaczew , in Poland. The last Jew burned for stealing

26243-420: Was shared at policing and public awareness seminars on crime and the occult, sometimes by active police officers. None of these allegations held up in analysis or in court. In fact, analysis of youth suicide over the period in question found that players of role-playing games actually had a much lower rate of suicide than the average. Among the conspiracy theories alleged by the panic were that thousands of people

26406-497: Was sustained and popularized throughout the decade by coverage of the McMartin preschool trial . Testimonials, symptom lists, rumors, and techniques to investigate or uncover memories of SRA were disseminated through professional, popular, and religious conferences as well as through talk shows , sustaining and further spreading the moral panic throughout the United States and beyond. In some cases, allegations resulted in criminal trials with varying results; after seven years in court,

26569-678: Was then published in their May 2009 edition. The magazine, which is owned by Utusan Karya, part of the Utusan Malaysia Group, sent its reporters, including Muhd Ridwan Abdul Jalil, to two churches in the Klang Valley , as part of a special investigative report. The act of desecration occurred at St Anthony's Church in Jalan Robertson, Kuala Lumpur . After its publication, two lay Catholics from Penang , Sudhagaran Stanley and Joachim Francis Xavier, jointly lodged

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