Satanic Ritual Abuse In The 1980's

Beginning in the mid-1980s, allegations of “satanic ritual abuse” began cropping up all over America. Satanic ritual abuse is “activities such as cannibalism, animal sacrifice, and child sexual abuse that are assumed to be carried out by organized underground cults” (“satanic”). Beginning in mid-1984 with the very first case up until the end of 1987, over 100 cases had been confirmed by the police throughout the United States (Nathan, 76). Despite the abundant number of cases and allegations of satanic ritual abuse, also known as SRA, “there [was and still is] a complete absence of independent evidence, corroborating the existence of such cults or their alleged activities such as human sacrifice, cannibalism, and sex and death orgies” (Putnam,

It is understandable the fear and frenzy those living with young children in the 1980s must have faced. The satanic ritual abuse trials brought together many people claiming abuse, psychotherapists claiming to be able to help, and a myriad of interest groups that could promote their goals by appealing to some facet of the ordeal. During and in the ensuing aftermath of the abuse frenzy, much research was conducted on the survivors of satanic ritual abuse and the jurors who had to make decisions on satanic ritual abuse cases. “A survey of 12,000 cases of satanic ritual abuse revealed most of these individuals were diagnosed with [post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as] PTSD, and [dissociative identity disorder, also known as] DID (Precin, 59). Other common symptoms of satanic ritual abuse included “dissociation, survival guilt, bizarre self-abuse, indoctrinated beliefs, and substance abuse” (Precin, 59). Through this survey it was determined that the treatments for PTSD and DID worked remarkably well for supposed satanic ritual abuse victims. Patricia Precin, an occupational therapist, working for the New York Institute of Technology, conducted a case study that investigated a specific intervention for someone with PTSD, DID and a history of satanic ritual abuse. The intervention tested was a treadmill running

In the aftermath of the satanic ritual abuse scare, a moral crusade sprung up. A moral crusade can have many definitions, but here it is meant “to describe an organized and collective attempt to shape deviance policies and definitions” (DeYoung, 1). Typically speaking, a moral crusade will happen whenever enough people respond in a similar fashion to an exigent social issue, in this case, satanic ritual abuse. Although common sense would have us believe that satanic ritual abuse allegations were in no way real because of the lack of evidence, another part of us sustains it and uses it as a platform to highlight and fight for “society’s most cherished values and institutions.” As a result of the moral crusade allegations of satanic abuse were easier to make and taken more seriously. The moral crusade also impacted the law and lead to the “creation of a new law criminalizing ritualistic abuse” (DeYoung, 404). While the moral crusade makes those a part of it feel like they are helping society, they, in reality, only “add[ed] little, of anything at all, to the protection of children” (DeYoung