Editing Satanic panic (section)

{{Short description|Widespread moral panic alleging abuse}}
{{Redirect|Ritual abuse|abuse administered under the guise of religion|Religious abuse}}
{{Other uses|Satanic panic (disambiguation)}}

{{Use mdy dates|cs1-dates=ly|date=November 2021}}

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 North America 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]]'', 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 abuse|physical]] and [[Child sexual abuse|sexual abuse]] of people in the context of [[occult]] or [[Theistic Satanism|Satanic]] rituals. Some allegations involve a [[conspiracy]] of a global Satanic cult that includes the wealthy and [[elite]] in which children are abducted or bred for [[Child sacrifice|human sacrifice]], [[child pornography|pornography]], and [[child prostitution|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'' was more common early on; this later became ''satanic ritual abuse'' and further [[secularized]] into simply ''ritual abuse''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bottoms |first1=Bette L. |last2=Davis |first2=Suzanne L. |title=The Creation of Satanic Ritual Abuse |journal=Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology |date=1 June 1997 |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=112–132 |doi=10.1521/jscp.1997.16.2.112 |issn=0736-7236}}</ref> Over time, the accusations became more closely associated with [[dissociative identity disorder]] (then called multiple personality disorder)<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mulhern |first1=Sherrill |title=Satanism, Ritual Abuse, and Multiple Personality Disorder: A Sociohistorical Perspective |journal=International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis |date=1 October 1994 |volume=42 |issue=4 |pages=265–288 |doi=10.1080/00207149408409359 |pmid=7960286 |issn=0020-7144}}</ref> and anti-government [[conspiracy theory|conspiracy theories]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lewis |first1=James R. |last2=Tollefsen |first2=Inga B. |title=The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements: Volume II |date=12 April 2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-061152-1 |page=252 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KisRDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT252}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Lavin |first1=Talia |date=2020-09-20 |title=QAnon, Blood Libel, and the Satanic Panic |magazine=The New Republic |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/159529/qanon-blood-libel-satanic-panic |access-date=2020-10-24}}</ref>

Initial interest arose via the publicity campaign for Pazder's 1980 book ''Michelle Remembers'', and it 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 show]]s, 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, 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.<ref name=nr/> 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."<ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.1017/S0021875817000858 | volume=51 | title=Editors' Note | year=2017 | journal=Journal of American Studies | pages=v–vii | last1 = Bernier | first1 = Celeste-Marie | last2 = Sewell | first2 = Bevan | last3 = Moynihan | first3 = Sinéad | last4 = Witham | first4 = Nick| issue=3 | doi-access = free }}</ref>

A 1994 article in the ''[[New York Times]]'' stated that: "Of the more than 12,000 documented accusations nationwide, investigating police were not able to substantiate any allegations of organized cult abuse".<ref name="Goleman1994"/>