For nearly two decades, there have been widespread allegations of the existence of a well-organized intergenerational satanic cult whose members sexually molest, torture and murder children across the United States. The allegations may have reached their peak when the old and less decent Geraldo Rivera (he's turned over a new leaf, in case you haven't heard) did one of his sleazy talk shows on the topic. As far as I know, Geraldo has no plans to do a follow-up program announcing the conclusions of a four- year study which found no single case with unequivocal corroborating evidence of satanic ritual abuse.
The study was conducted by University of California at Davis psychology professors Gail S. Goodman and Phillip R. Shaver, in conjunction with Jianjian Qin of UC Davis and Bette I. Bottoms of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Their study was supported by the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. The researchers investigated more than 12,000 accusations and surveyed more than 11,000 psychiatric, social service and law enforcement personnel. The researchers could find virtually no evidence for a single case of satanic cult ritual abuse.
If there are thousands of baseless accusations, how do they originate? Most of them are said to originate with children. Since there is a widespread belief that children wouldn't make up stories of eating other children or being forced to have sex with giraffes after flying in an airplane while they were supposed to be in day care, the stories are often taken at face value by naive prosecutors, therapists, police officers and parents. Yet, the researchers found that children are unlikely to invent stories of satanic ritual abuse on their own. So, where do the stories come from? They probably come from the therapists, the district attorneys, police and parents. Anyone who has viewed the video tapes of the interrogation of children by therapists in the McMartin pre-school case or read of the transcripts of the Wenatchee, Washington, or similar cases, knows that there is ample evidence that therapists and law enforcement personnel encourage and reward children for accepting the suggestions of bizarre abusive behavior. They also discourage truth by refusing to accept no for an answer, forcing children to undergo interrogations which last until the interrogator gets what he or she is after.
There is a sad irony in all this. Those making the accusations of satanic ritual abuse are mainly religious people. The researchers found, however, that "Many more children are being abused in the name of God than in the name of Satan." According to Gail Goodman, the law protects parents who deny their children life-saving medical care and that such denial of care amounts to child abuse. The denial of medical care on religious grounds may be just the tip of the iceberg, however. There is a growing movement among certain Christians which is a kind of "tough-love" approach to child rearing. In some ways, the method is reminiscent of Watson and his behaviorist approach to child rearing: treat the child as if he or she is a miniature version of an adult who lacks self-discipline. Support your abuse with Biblical quotes and who knows how many millions will follow in your footsteps.
A summary of the Goodman et. al. study may be obtained for free by calling the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect at 1-800-394-3366. The complete report is available for $28.
further reading
Concerned Citizens for Legal Accountability
The Satanic Ritual Abuse Home Page
Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) The Ontario Center for Religious Tolerance Page on the new witchhunt for satanic abusers of children
"The Hard Facts About Satanic Ritual Abuse," by Bob and Gretchen Passaintino
Links to Witchhunt related articles and WWW sites
"Mending a Broken Trust" by Mark Sauer
Nathan, Debbie and Michael Snedeker. Satan's Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt,(New York, NY: BasicBooks, 1995).
Review of Satan's Silence by Philip Jenkins