One face of the devil: The satanic ritual abuse moral crusade and the law

deYoung, Mary

doi:10.1002/bsl.2370120408

Cited by 12 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…A number of states passed hastily cobbled together ‘panic legislation’ that specifically criminalized the sexual abuse of children in the context of rituals and ceremonies. These laws that do nothing more than add a context to the already criminalized act of sexual abuse have more symbolic than utilitarian value (de Young 1994). No one has ever been prosecuted under any of them.…”

Section: Moral Panic Key Elementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Day Care Ritual Abuse Moral Panic: A Sociological Analysis

Young

2008

Sociology Compass

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A new type of sex crime was discovered in the United States in the 1980s -the sexual abuse of young children in ghastly rituals performed by devil worshippers who happened to be their day care providers. 'Ritual abuse', as this new sex crime came to be termed, appeared to be epidemic during that decade; hundreds of day care centers were investigated and scores of providers were arrested and prosecuted. This article asserts that the day care ritual abuse scare was a moral panic, in fact, the 'purest example' of a moral panic in that the putative threat to children had to be wholly constructed. Using the key sociological elements set out by Cohen (1972Cohen ( /2002, this article analyzes the day care ritual abuse moral panic and concludes by discussing additional key elements that will facilitate future sociological analyses of moral panics.1720 The Day Care Ritual Abuse Moral Panic

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Section: Moral Panic Key Elementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Day Care Ritual Abuse Moral Panic: A Sociological Analysis

Young

2008

Sociology Compass

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“…With regard to the specific subgroup of satanic-ritual abuse cases between 1983 and 1988 investigations of satanic-ritual abuse cases, sometimes in day care settings, were performed in more than 100 counties in the US. These often resulted in draconian sentences followed by reversals of these sentences (de Young, 1994). Local police and FBI investigation units came to the conclusion that there had not been a single documented case of satanic killing, human sacrifice, or cannibalism (Lanning, 1991).…”

Section: Abuse In Day Care Settingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interviewing techniques in sexual abuse cases - a comparison of a day-care abuse case with normal abuse cases 1I thank Jim at the University of Texas, El Paso, USA for letting me participate in his project, for his support, comments and suggestions.

Schreiber

2000

Swiss Journal of Psychology

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In sexual abuse cases children's testimony plays an important role. To evaluate the quality of a witness' statement, the interviewing techniques and the context of the investigative interview have to be considered. The interviewing techniques from the highly publicized day care abuse cases during the 1980s have been repeatedly found to be directive and suggestive. Many of these interviewing techniques, such as positive and negative reinforcement, inducing stereotypes and repeated questioning within and between interviews, have been shown empirically to elicit false statements from young children. Many different interview guidelines point to this problem and suggest alternative interviewing techniques. Overall, there are few quantitative studies of interviewer behavior in sexual abuse cases. None of these has compared the interviewer behavior in a day care abuse case with interviewer behavior in “normal” sexual abuse cases by the Child Protective Service (CPS) in the USA. A first study compared behavior in these two contexts and confirmed the notion that the amount of suggestive interviewing techniques is significantly higher in a sample of day care abuse interviews than in a sample of CPS interviews. These results support the former statements of Ceci & Bruck (1995) that interviews with child witnesses in sexual abuse cases, especially in day care ritual abuse cases, include suggestive interviewing techniques. These have to be discussed considering their impact on statements of child witnesses.

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“…Since the bulk of claims for this sort of cult have been based on protracted and forceful interviews with very young chil-dren and on the results of therapy with adults, in most cases designed to recover memories speci cally of SRA, scholars researching Satanic cults must acquaint themselves with the severe criticisms these interviews and therapies have undergone in the eld of psychology. Human memory, psychologist s have shown, is clearly not a matter of historical snapshots, even in cases of trauma, and it is enormously subject to suggestion , fantasy, social conditions , and cultural in uences (e.g., Ganaway 1989;Ceci and Bruck 1993;Loftus 1993;Coons 1994;DeYoung 1994;Spanos, Burgess, and Burgess 1994;Pressley and Grossman 1994;Ofshe and Watters 1994;Pope 1996;Bottoms, Shaver, and Goodman 1996;De Rivera and Sarbin 1998;cf. Mulhern 1994;Nathan and Snedeker 1995;Haaken 1998;La Fontaine 1998).…”

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confidence: 99%

The Satanic Ritual Abuse Panic as Religious-Studies Data

Frankfurter¹

2003

Numen

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Rumors and alleged memories of Satanic cult activity swept through the U.S. and U.K. during the 1980s and 1990s, confounding scholars of religion, as well as jurists and psychologists, with their combination of tantalizing ritual scenes and dubious forensic evidence. This essay discusses the work done on these Satanic cult claims since the early 1990s in a variety of academic fields; and it critiques some of the scholarly responses from the field of Religious Studies in particular.

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One face of the devil: The satanic ritual abuse moral crusade and the law

Cited by 12 publications

References 36 publications

The Day Care Ritual Abuse Moral Panic: A Sociological Analysis

The Day Care Ritual Abuse Moral Panic: A Sociological Analysis

Interviewing techniques in sexual abuse cases - a comparison of a day-care abuse case with normal abuse cases 1I thank Jim at the University of Texas, El Paso, USA for letting me participate in his project, for his support, comments and suggestions.

The Satanic Ritual Abuse Panic as Religious-Studies Data

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