Satanic ritual abuse

Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) is a phrase coined in the 1980's to refer to well publicised accounts of extreme child abuse allegedly organized by a satanic cult in the USA; these accounts are controversial, some believe in their veracity while others deny their existence. These typically comprise allegations of extreme and sadistic sexual, psychological or physical assault on another, perpetrated by one or more Satanists in a specific ritual. It is similar to the terms ritual abuse, sadistic ritual abuse and organized sadistic abuse.

There is no dispute that some psychotic murderers have called themselves Satanists, or that there have been some people who sexually abuse children, using rituals and perhaps references to the Devil to manipulate them. There are also some "pseudo-satanic" juvenile delinquents. However, in the late 1980s, widespread media accounts that portrayed Satanism as a worldwide conspiracy behind such crimes as child sexual abuse, ritual murder, and cattle mutilation , precipitating what has been called a "moral panic". Therapists reported a flood of accounts of cases of multiple personality disorder in which the person had memories of involvement in a destructive Satanic cult; but objective validation of these memories was seldom forthcoming, and in several cases collateral history proved that claims of Satanic ritual abuse were false.

What is very much in dispute is whether there is a vast Satanist conspiracy or extensive networks of "ritual abuse" practitioners, and whether there are have been any cases in which Satanic belief systems have contributed to abuse.

Not all cults are Satanic, and not all sadism is ritualistic or even a group activity. Whether or not a given ritual is abusive is also dependent on context: eating pork is commonplace to billions of people, while forcing a devout Muslim or Jew to eat pork would be abusive. Some cultures believe male circumcision or female genital mutilation are quite appropriate, and neither Christianity or Satanism may have anything to do with their beliefs.

In the interest of precision, therefore, addresses abuse that has a specific association with Satanic belief or symbols, and refers readers to the articles on forms of abuse that do not involve Satanic belief or symbols.

Gould, whose paper on ritual abuse said "The evidence is rapidly accumulating that the problem of ritual abuse is considerable in scope and extremely grave in its consequences," only addressed Satanism with the comment "While ritual abuse is certainly an integral part of some kinds of Satanism, it is most likely that the deeper reason for the prevalence of ritual abuse is that, simply put, it reliably creates a group of people who function as unpaid slaves to the perpetrator group. Because their core personalities are amnesic to their cult activities, these ritual abuse victims pose little threat to their controllers. "..

Young's study does, in the available abstract, "Thirty-seven adult dissociative disorder patients who reported ritual abuse in childhood by satanic cults are described" but there is no further detail on the specifics of the Satanic symbolism or validation beyond patient accounts..

One article has termed the Wikipedia article on the subject a promotion of pedophilia, while others regard it as a moral panic or as a subversion ideology.

A 1992 report by Kenneth V. Lanning, Supervisory Special Agent, Behavioral Science Unit, National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, Federal Bureau of Investigation said "Most people today use the term to refer to abuse of children that is part of some evil spiritual belief system, which almost by definition must be satanic." Williams observes that the definition is especially difficult for law enforcement. Ritual with a child is not necessarily abusive; rites of passage such as First Communions, Bar Mitzvahs, and other coming-of-age ceremonies are ritual by definition.