At the end of the twentieth century, a moral panic developed around claims regarding a Devil-worshipping cult that made use of sexual abuse, murder, and cannibalism in its rituals, with children being among its victims.[44] Initially, the alleged perpetrators of such crimes were labelled "witches", although the term "Satanist" was soon adopted as a favoured alternative,[44] and the phenomenon itself came to be called "the Satanism Scare".[45] Promoters of the claims alleged that there was a conspiracy of organised Satanists who occupied many different professions, from the police to politicians, and that they had been powerful enough to cover up their crimes.[44]
One of the primary sources for the scare was Michelle Remembers, a 1980 book by the Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder in which he detailed what he claimed were the repressed memories of his patient (and wife) Michelle Smith. Smith had claimed that as a child she had been abused by her family in Satanic rituals in which babies were sacrificed and Satan himself appeared.[46] In 1983, allegations were made that the McMartin family—owners of a preschool in California—were guilty of sexually abusing the children in their care during Satanic rituals. The allegations resulted in a lengthy and expensive trial, in which all of the accused would eventually be cleared.[47] The publicity generated by the case resulted in similar allegations being made in various other parts of the United States.[48] A prominent aspect of the Satanic Scare was the claim by those in the developing "anti-Satanism" movement that any child's claim about Satanic ritual abuse must be true, because children would not lie.[49] Although some involved in the anti-Satanism movement were from Jewish and secular backgrounds,[50] a central part was played by fundamentalist and evangelical forms of Christianity, in particular Pentecostalism, with Christian groups holding conferences and producing books and videotapes to promote belief in the conspiracy.[45] Various figures in law enforcement also came to be promoters of the conspiracy theory, with such "cult cops" holding various conferences to promote it.[51] The scare was later imported to the United Kingdom through visiting evangelicals and became popular among some of the country's social workers,[52] resulting in a range of accusations and trials across Britain.[53]
In the late 1980s, the Satanic Scare had lost its impetus following increasing scepticism about such allegations,[54] and a number of those who had been convicted of perpetrating Satanic ritual abuse saw their convictions overturned.[55] In 1990, an agent of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Ken Lanning, revealed that he had investigated 300 allegations of Satanic ritual abuse and found no evidence for Satanism or ritualistic activity in any of them.[55] In the UK, the Department of Health commissioned the anthropologist Jean La Fontaine to examine the allegations of SRA.[56] She noted that while approximately half did reveal evidence of genuine sexual abuse of children, none revealed any evidence that Satanist groups had been involved or that any murders had taken place.[57] She noted three examples in which lone individuals engaged in child molestation had created a ritual performance to facilitate their sexual acts, with the intent of frightening their victims and justifying their actions, but that none of these child molestors were involved in wider Satanist groups.[58]
Source : en.wikipedia.org
One of the primary sources for the scare was Michelle Remembers, a 1980 book by the Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder in which he detailed what he claimed were the repressed memories of his patient (and wife) Michelle Smith. Smith had claimed that as a child she had been abused by her family in Satanic rituals in which babies were sacrificed and Satan himself appeared.[46] In 1983, allegations were made that the McMartin family—owners of a preschool in California—were guilty of sexually abusing the children in their care during Satanic rituals. The allegations resulted in a lengthy and expensive trial, in which all of the accused would eventually be cleared.[47] The publicity generated by the case resulted in similar allegations being made in various other parts of the United States.[48] A prominent aspect of the Satanic Scare was the claim by those in the developing "anti-Satanism" movement that any child's claim about Satanic ritual abuse must be true, because children would not lie.[49] Although some involved in the anti-Satanism movement were from Jewish and secular backgrounds,[50] a central part was played by fundamentalist and evangelical forms of Christianity, in particular Pentecostalism, with Christian groups holding conferences and producing books and videotapes to promote belief in the conspiracy.[45] Various figures in law enforcement also came to be promoters of the conspiracy theory, with such "cult cops" holding various conferences to promote it.[51] The scare was later imported to the United Kingdom through visiting evangelicals and became popular among some of the country's social workers,[52] resulting in a range of accusations and trials across Britain.[53]
In the late 1980s, the Satanic Scare had lost its impetus following increasing scepticism about such allegations,[54] and a number of those who had been convicted of perpetrating Satanic ritual abuse saw their convictions overturned.[55] In 1990, an agent of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Ken Lanning, revealed that he had investigated 300 allegations of Satanic ritual abuse and found no evidence for Satanism or ritualistic activity in any of them.[55] In the UK, the Department of Health commissioned the anthropologist Jean La Fontaine to examine the allegations of SRA.[56] She noted that while approximately half did reveal evidence of genuine sexual abuse of children, none revealed any evidence that Satanist groups had been involved or that any murders had taken place.[57] She noted three examples in which lone individuals engaged in child molestation had created a ritual performance to facilitate their sexual acts, with the intent of frightening their victims and justifying their actions, but that none of these child molestors were involved in wider Satanist groups.[58]
Source : en.wikipedia.org
No comments:
Post a Comment