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Satanic ritual abuse (SRA) refers to reports of physical and sexual abuse of individuals in the context of Satanic rituals. Allegations of SRA first appeared in the early 1980s mainly in the United States and United Kingdom and impacted how legal, therapeutic and social work professions dealt with allegations of abuse. SRA allegations appearing in the media, the courts and in therapy are now generally regarded as having been part a moral panic. Interest in the phenomenon dropped off in the mid-90s and it is now considered outside of the mainstream. The extent of SRA and the definitions used to label it have always been controversial since reports were based primarily on testimonials from children extracted using techniques now considered questionable and leading, and also through adult memories recovered in therapy, often from individuals with a propensity towards dissociation. The only credible evidence found by law enforcement of abuse within rituals was of pseudosatanism, in which the rituals were secondary to the sexual gratification of the perpetrator or used to frighten and intimidate children.

The term "satanic ritual abuse" is used to describe different behaviors, actions and allegations that lie between extremes of definitions.^[1] In a 1988 United States national study on sexual abuse in day care agencies, a three-fold typology was devised to describe "ritual abuse" — cult-based ritualism in which the abuse had a spiritual or social goal for the perpetrators, pseudo-ritualism in which the goal was sexual gratification and the rituals were used to frighten or intimidate victims, and psychopathological ritualism in which the rituals were due to mental disorders.^[2] Subsequent investigators have expanded on these definitions and also pointed to a fourth alleged type of satanic ritual abuse, in which petty crimes with ambiguous meaning (such as graffiti or vandalism) generally committed by teenagers were attributed to the actions of satanic cults.

By the early 1990s, the phrase "satanic ritual abuse" was featured in media coverage of ritualistic abuse but its use decreased among professionals in favour of more nuanced terms such as multi-dimensional child sex rings,^[3] ritual/ritualistic abuse,^[4] organised abuse^[5] or sadistic abuse,^[6] that acknowledged the complexity of abuse cases with multiple perpetrators and victims without projecting a religious framework onto perpetrators.

Conclusions on the origins of allegations of cult-based abuse can include actual abuse by organized groups, pseudosatanism, distortions and false memories, mental illness resulting in false reporting, deliberate lying or hoaxes and in the cases of child testimonies, allegations may be artifacts of the questioning techniques used, and TV special broadcasts.^[7][8][9]

Allegations of cult-based abuse is the most extreme scenario of SRA.^[8] During the initial period of interest from the early 80s the term was used to describe a network of Satan-worshiping, intergenerational cults that were described as a conspiracy of highly organized and secretive, engaging in criminal behaviors such as forced prostitution, drug distribution and pornography, who also sexually abuse and torture children in order to coerce them into a lifetime of Devil worship.^[10] Allegations also included necrophilia, forced ingestion of semen, blood and feces, cannibalism, infanticide, satanic police officers who covered up evidence of SRA crimes and desecration of graves and Christian rituals.^[8] No evidence of any of these claims has ever been found;^{[10][11][12][3]} the proof presented by those who alleged the reality of cult-based abuse primarily consisted of the memories of adults recalling childhood abuse,^[13][8] the testimony of young children^[13][8] and extremely controversial confessions.^[8] In 1987, Geraldo Rivera produced a national television special on these alleged secret cults, claiming "Estimates are that there are over one million Satanists in [the United States and they are] linked in a highly organized, secretive network."^[14] Tapings of this and similar talk show episodes are subsequently used by religious fundamentalists, psychotherapists, social workers and police to promote the idea that a conspiracy of satanic cults existed and was actually involved in serious crimes.^[15] The idea of a murderous satanic conspiracy was a controversy that divided the professional child abuse community though no evidence has been found to support allegations of a large number of children being killed or abused in satanic rituals.^[11][16] From a law enforcement perspective, an intergenerational conspiracy dedicated to ritual sacrifice whose members remain completely silent, make no mistakes and leave no physical evidence is unlikely; cases of actual cult sacrifices (such as the 1989 case of Adolfo Constanzo) have supported this idea.^[3]

Satanic ritual abuse is also used to describe the actions of "pseudo-satanists" who sexually abuse children and use the trappings of satanic rituals and claims of magical powers to coerce and terrify victims but do not believe in the rituals.^[17][18][3] A survey of more than 12,000 SRA allegations found no substantiating evidence for an intergenerational conspiracy though there were several examples of pseudo-satanists.^[19]

A third variation of ritual abuse involves non-religious ritual abuse in which the rituals were delusional or obsessive.^[2] There are incidents of extreme sadistic crimes that are committed by individuals, loosely organized families and possibly in some organized cults, some of which may be connected to Satanism, though this is more likely to be related to sex ring trafficking; though SRA may happen in families, extended families and regional groups, it is not believed to occur in large, organized groups.^[20]

Ambiguous crimes in which actual or erroneously believed symbols of satanism appear have also been claimed as part of the SRA phenomenon, though in most cases the crimes cannot be linked to a specific belief system; minor crimes such as vandalism, trespassing and graffiti were often found to be the actions of teenagers who were acting out.^[21][22][23] Allegations of alleged victims that were obtained from mental health practitioners also occurred, but lacked verifiable evidence, were anecdotal and involved incidents that were years or decades old.^[24]

The phrase "satanic ritual abuse" first arose in the mid-1980s to describe the disclosures of some children in child protection cases, and some adults in psychotherapy. In the early 1980s there was an exponential increase in child protection investigations in America, Britain and other developed countries due to mandatory reporting laws and increased public awareness of child abuse. In a number of investigations, children disclosed alleged organised and ritualistic forms of sexual abuse by parents and caregivers,^[25][26] claims also made by adults in psychotherapy.^[27][28] These disclosures included descriptions of sexual abuse in the context of Satanic cults, rituals and the use of Satanic iconography, garnering the label "satanic ritual abuse" in the media and some professionals. Clinicians, psychotherapists and social workers have documented clients who describe a history of SRA^[6][29] though the claims of therapists are often unsubstantiated beyond the testimonies of their clients.^[3][30][9]

The first claim to link Satanism with ritualistic child abuse was made in the "survivor" story, Michelle Remembers, published in 1980, written by Michelle Smith and her psychiatrist (and later husband) Lawrence Pazder.^[31] The book, along with other survivor stories, are suspected to have influenced later allegations of SRA. Michelle Remembers was also used by prosecutors and police while preparing cases of day care sexual abuse. Smith herself, along with other alleged survivors, met personally with parents involved in the McMartin preschool trial and it is believed that they influenced testimony against the accused.^[32][33][34] Investigations of the events discussed in the book revealed inconsistencies and contradictory facts which challenge the book's accuracy.^[35] Social scientists, skeptical of the veracity of SRA claims have argued that Michelle Remembers in fact played a causal role in the "epidemic" of SRA allegations.^[9][36][37] For Frankfurter the book "became the primary manifesto of SRA."^[9] Others have also noted similarities between SRA and stories of blood libel throughout history.^[38][39]

Mental health professionals precipitated a new consciousness of the SRA phenomenon. In 1983 social worker Kee MacFarlane developed a new way to interrogate children with naked puppets. With the puppets and leading questions she diagnosed sexual abuse in virtually all McMartin chilren. In 1984 MacFarlane warned a congressional committee of "bizarre rituals" involving "scatological behavior" and that the children had to observe "the slaughter of animals."^[40] Convinced by this scenario, the U.S. Congress doubled its budget for child-protection programs. Like MacFarlane, psychiatrist Roland Summit, a satanic cult theorist, depicted the phenomenon as a conspiracy theory. Summit delivered conferences in the wake of the McMartin trial and suggested that people skeptical of SRA might be "reflecting an obligation to the other side or are agents in some ways controlled by the other side."^[41] By 1986 Carol Darling, a social worker, argued in a grand jury that the conspiracy reached the government.^[41] Her husband, Brad Darling, gave conferences about the satanic conspiracy, now permeating the American psyche. Sociologist Jeffrey Victor complains that never before had organized and secret criminal activity been allegedly discovered by mental health professionals.^[42]

Media coverage of SRA began to turn negative by 1987, and the "panic " ended between 1992 and 1995.^[43][44] By 2003 allegations of ritual abuse were met with great skepticism and belief in SRA is no longer considered mainstream in professional circles.^[45]

For several researchers the SRA panic repeated many of the features of conspiracy theory panics such as the myths of perverse Christians in the Roman empire, a Jewish conspiracy, witch hunts of the medieval era, heretics, Satanists as well as McCarthyism in 1950s America.^{[9][46][9][12][47][48]} However, some researchers argue that patient reports of an international Satanic conspiracy do amount to evidence.^[49] Noblitt believes that the veracity of this evidence needs to be examined further,^[49] though Noblitt has been criticized for an incoherent analysis of SRA allegations, ignoring the larger context of the SRA debate as well as the skeptical literature that exists and violating the principle of parsimony by special pleading when explaining contradictory evidence from patients.^[50] The rituals attributed to SRA could be used by alleged intergenerational satanists to justify their actions within a religious, anti-Christian framework,^[51] though others criticize this analysis as consisting of the accounts of an uncertain but small number of alleged survivors, primarily a group of four women, whose allegations have resulted in no prosecution despite the police being informed in three of the four cases. The statements by survivors are pointed out as proof of SRA are "not well founded" and alternative sources for the rituals could include "fundamentalist literature or preaching, the mass media, horror films and magazines as well as the effects of certain forms of therapy or the stories of other survivors." The criticism goes on to state "that possible origins other than esoteric scripturalism have not been considered seriously is at best an academic weakness...and at worst a strong indicator that the veracity of the informants had been accepted in advance."^[52]

Evidence cited for the existence of SRA takes the form of testimony by individuals making allegations.^[17][53] The therapists who advocate the veracity of SRA claims cite the pain expressed and the internal consistency of their patients' stories, as well as the similarity of allegations by different patients in geographically separate areas as evidence for the reality of the stories; despite this, the disclosures of patients have never resulted in the discovery of body parts or missing persons that would corroborate the allegations.^[54] In one analysis of 36 court cases involving ritual sex abuse of children, only one quarter resulted in convictions and the convictions had little to do with ritual sex abuse.^[55] In a 1994 survey of more than 11,000 psychiatric and police workers throughout the US, conducted for the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, researchers investigated approximately 12,000 accusations of group cult sexual abuse based on satanic ritual. The survey found no substantiated reports of well-organized satanic rings of people who sexually abuse children, but they did find isolated incidents involving individuals or couples who used claims of satanism to intimidate victims.^[19] A sample of 29 patients in a medical clinic reporting SRA found no corroboration of the claims in medical records or in discussion with family members.^[56]

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The lack of a single definition for what constitutes SRA, as well as confusion between the meanings of the term ritual (religious versus psychological) allowed a wide range of allegations and evidence to be claimed as a demonstration of the reality of SRA claims, irrespective of which "definition" the evidence supported.^[33] Groups supporting the reality of SRA allegations and those criticizing them as unsubstantiated has resulted in an extremely polarized discussion with little middle ground.^[7][8] The lack of credible evidence for the more extreme interpretations can be seen as evidence of an effective conspiracy rather than an indication that the allegations are unfounded. The atheistic or religious beliefs of the disputants have also resulted in different interpretations of evidence, and as well as accusations of those who reject the claims being "anti-child".^[8] Both believers and skeptics have developed networks to disseminate information on their respective positions.^[57]

The evidence for SRA is primarily in the form of testimonies from victims, of which there are two groups: children and adult survivors reporting memories of childhood abuse that may or may not have been forgotten and recovered during therapy.^{[58][8][12][13][59]} A lack of independent corroborating evidence for many of these claims makes it difficult to put forth a definitive statement about the nature of ritual abuse.^[58] Varying definitions of what constitutes SRA also allows evidence to be claimed both for and against the existence of SRA.^[60][58] Despite allegations appearing in the United States, Holland, Sweden, New Zealand and Australia, no material evidence has been found to corroborate allegations of organized cult-based abuse that practices human sacrifice and cannibalism. One investigation in the United Kingdom found material evidence, confessions and statements from multiple victims proved three cases of abuse in which rituals were invented to justify child sexual abuse, to ensure compliance and prevent disclosure. In these cases, abuse had also occurred outside of rituals, suggesting the ultimate goal was sexual rather than ritualistic or religious.^[33][12] Three cases considered corroborating in North America (the McMartin preschool trial, a pre-school in Country Walk, Florida and the murders in Matamoros, by Adolfo Constanzo) are all problematic. McMartin was extremely controversial and considered ultimately false by professionals and the public; the convicting testimony in the Country Walk case recanted once the witness realized she was not immune from incarceration, and the Matamoros murders produced the bodies of 12 adults who were ritually sacrificed by a cult inspired by the film The Believers, but did not involve children or sexual abuse.^[45]

Research in Australia and Britain suggests that between a third and a quarter of psychotherapists, social workers and counselors have encountered at least one client who discloses allegations of ritualistic abuse.^[61][62][63] A 1996 survey of clinician members of the American Psychological Association found a minority of respondents who had encountered allegations of ritual abuse, most of whom believed their clients. In the more than 12,000 cases investigated, the researchers found none in which the histories were concluded as factual.^[64] According to Bibby, therapist advocates tend to be very concerned over the damage caused to patients, and usually work to increase awareness of sexual abuse. They also believe that recognizing the "reality of their patients' trauma is more important than the high standards of evidence required for legal proof." On the other hand, Bibby claims that professionals who are non-believers work to undermine increased awareness of SRA as well as other types of sexual abuse as part of a backlash against "revelations about the high prevalence and unacceptability of sexual abuse"; non-belivers are concerned over the separation of parents from children due to allegations that have been neither warranted nor proven and see themselves as opposing individuals who are moral crusaders against Satanism and sexual abuse.^[57] Frankfurter's interest in SRA as a subject stems from adult convictions of sexual perversions in fantastic scenarios based on the slimmest evidence. "Here, I felt, was gross injustice".^[9] Coleman describes the ritual abuse allegations of clients in the United Kingdom, including the abuse of children in a cult,^[65] though Coleman's analysis has been criticized for giving a false impression of uniformity in the cases when his account is condensed from many different sources including material from different continents.^[66] LaFontaine points out that in the majority of cases she investigated, more than three-fifths of the total, there were features unique to each case, that the allegations were very different from each other, and that the rituals could not belong to the same national, or international cult.^[67]

A British study found 62 cases of alleged ritual abuse reported to researchers by police, social and welfare agencies from the period of 1988 to 1991 as part of a survey on organized child sexual abuse, noting that all cases of organized abuse represented a "very small proportion" of cases. The investigation did not distinguish between "intergenerational cults" and pseudo-satanic abuse and noted that the survey respondents reported only a minority of the cases and tended to report high-profile cases.^[68] Another British survey in 1994 found an average of 21 out of 242 abuse cases investigated per year in England and Wales involved involved ritual or satanic abuse. In the ritual abuse cases the rituals were found to be secondary to the sexual abuse. In cases involving satanic abuse, the satanic allegations by younger children were influenced by adults, and the concerns over the satanic aspects were found to be compelling due to cultural attraction of the concept, but distracting from the actual harm caused to the abuse victims.^[69]

An estimated 93% of therapists working with alleged ritual abuse survivors in the early and mid 1990's believed that ritual abuse occurs,^[49] though a survey in the United States found that of 2709 practicing clinical psychologists, 1908 had no patients reporting SRA, 785 found one to two cases, and sixteen had treated more than one hundred patients reporting SRA, suggesting that a minority of therapists may be "highly predisposed" to see a disturbed clients as suffering from SRA.^[70] Noblitt states that he has consulted with patients showing signs of both DID and ritual abuse and defines "ritual abuse as abuse that occurs in a ceremonial or circumscribed manner for the purpose of creating or manipulating already created alter mental states."^[71][72]

Some psychologists have described substantiated cases of day care sexual abuse which involved ritualistic abuse^[49][73][2] though some of this research has, in turn, been criticized for an overly liberal definition of what constitutes a "substantiated" case of ritual abuse.^[74] Daycare cases reported as ritual abuse, when compared to those without allegations of ritual abuse, tend to have more perpetrators, sexual contact, a higher number of victims, greater severity of abuse, more types of abuse and greater impacts on the children's behavior;^[75] in cases where SRA is alleged children and adults demonstrate high levels of traumatization and long-term behavioral effects.^{[73][5][76][77]}

SRA has been described by certain researchers as a moral panic and compared to the blood libel and witch-hunts of historical Europe,^{[9][78][43][48]} and McCarthyism in 20th-century America^{[41][79][80][47]} though some psychotherapists believe the reality of their patients allegations regarding SRA.^[51][49] Sociologists and journalists noted the vigorous nature with which some evangelical activists and groups were using claims of SRA to further their religious and political goals.^[47] Other commentators suggested that the entire phenomenon may be evidence of a "moral panic" over Satanism and child abuse.^[81] Skeptical explanations for allegations of SRA have included an attempt by "radical feminists" to undermine the nuclear family,^[82] a backlash against working women,^[41] homophobic attacks on gay childcare workers,^[83] a universal need to believe in evil,^[46] fear of alternative spiritualities,^[12] "end of the millennium" anxieties,^[84] or a transient form of temporal lobe epilepsy.^[85]

Information about SRA claims has been spread through conferences presented to religious groups, churches and professionals such as police forces and therapists as well as parents. These conferences and presentations served to organize agencies and foster communication between groups, maintaining and spreading disproven or exaggerated stories as fact.^[55][47] At the height of the panic, the highly emotional accusations and circumstances of SRA allegations made it difficult to investigate the claims, with accused being assumed as guilty and skeptics becoming co-accused during trials.^[86] No forensic or corroborating evidence has ever been found for religiously-based cannibalistic or murderous allegations of SRA, despite extensive investigations.^{[87][33][88][9]} The concern and reaction expressed by various groups regarding the seriousness or threat of SRA has been considered out of proportion to the actual threat by satanically-motivated crimes, and the rare crime that exists that may be labeled "satanic" does not justify the existence of a conspiracy or network of religiously-motivated child abusers.^[89][90] Specific parts of satanic abuse records could be interpreted as having roots in efforts to defame or reverse Judeo-Christian religions^[51] though many other sources are possible including horror films and SRA-alleging patients exchanging stories.^[52] Victor reviews 61 allegations of SRA in America and concludes there is no basis to them. Lafontaine states that cases of alleged SRA investigated in the United Kingdom were reviewed in detail and the majority were unsubstantiated; three were found to involve sexual abuse of children in the context of rituals, but none involved the Witches' Sabbath or devil-worship that are characteristic of allegations of SRA.^[91] Lafontaine also states that no material evidence has been forthcoming in allegations of SRA, no bones, bodies or blood, in either the United States or Britain. The techniques used by investigators to gather evidence from witnesses, particularly young children, have been criticized for being leading and suggestive, pressuring young children to provide testimony, refusing to accept denials while offering inducements that encouraged "disclosures", all of which were alleged to have led children to "construct bizarre accounts of what happened."^[88]

Kenneth Lanning, an expert in the investigation of child sexual abuse,^[92] has stated that pseudo-satanism may exist but there is no proof for vast conspiracies and human sacrifices.

There are many possible alternative answers to the question of why victims are alleging things that don't seem to be true....I believe that there is a middle ground — a continuum of possible activity. Some of what the victims allege may be true and accurate, some may be misperceived or distorted, some may be screened or symbolic, and some may be "contaminated" or false. The problem and challenge, especially for law enforcement, is to determine which is which. This can only be done through active investigation. I believe that the majority of victims alleging "ritual" abuse are in fact victims of some form of abuse or trauma.^[3]

Reported cases of SRA involve bizarre activities, some of which are impossible, that makes the credibility of victims of child sexual abuse questionable. In cases where SRA is alleged to occur, Lanning describes common dynamics of the use of fear to control multiple young victims, the presence of multiple perpetrators and strange or ritualized behaviors, though allegations of crimes such as human sacrifice and cannibalism do not seem to be true. Lanning also suggests several reasons why adult victims may make allegations of SRA, including "pathological distortion, traumatic memory, normal childhood fears and fantasies, misperception, and confusion".^[18]

Elements of Satanist ritual have featured in some ritual abuse allegations of child abuse and such allegations have appeared throughout the world. The failure of certain high-profile legal cases generated worldwide media attention, and came to play a central feature in the growing controversies over child abuse, memory and the law.^[20]

During the early 1980s, some courts attempted ad hoc accommodations to address the anxieties of child witnesses in relation to testifying before defendants. Screens or CCTV technology are a common feature of child sexual assault trials today; children in the early 1980s were typically forced into direct visual contact with the accused abuser while in court. SRA allegations in the courts catalyzed a broad agenda of research into the nature of children's testimony and the reliability of their oral evidence in court. The findings of this research are somewhat ambiguous, suggesting that neither children nor adults are immune to suggestive interviewing techniques but even extremely suggestive techniques do not inevitably lead to false reports.^[93] One group of researchers concluded that children usually lack the sufficient amount of "explicit knowledge" of satanic ritual abuse to fabricate all of the details of an SRA claim on their own.^[94] However, the same researchers also concluded that children usually have the sufficient amount of general knowledge of "violence and the occult" to "serve as a starting point from which ritual claims could develop."^[94]

SRA has been linked to dissociative identity disorder (DID, also referred to as multiple personality disorder or MPD),^[95] with approximately 20% of DID patients also alleging cult abuse.^[96] Many DID patients report memories that they allege are forms of ritual abuse though most are undocumented.^[97] The first person to publish a survivor story about SRA was Michelle Smith, co-author of Michelle Remembers; Smith was diagnosed by her therapist and later husband Lawrence Pazder with DID.^[98]

A survey investigating 12,000 cases of alleged SRA found that most were diagnosed with DID as well as post-traumatic stress disorder.^[64] The level of dissociation in a sample of women alleging SRA was found to be higher than a comparable sample of non-SRA peers, approaching the levels shown by patients diagnosed with DID.^[99] A sample of patients diagnosed with DID and reporting childhood SRA also present other symptoms including "dissociative states with satanic overtones, severe post-traumatic stress disorder, survivor guilt, bizarre self abuse, unusual fears, sexualization of sadistic impulses, indoctrinated beliefs, and substance abuse".^[95] Commenting on the study, Philip Coons stated that patients were held together in a ward dedicated to dissociative disorders with ample opportunity to socialize, that the memories were recovered through the use of hypnosis (which he considers questionable).^[56] No cases were referred to law enforcement for verification, nor was verification attempted through family members, that existing injuries could have been self-inflicted, that the experiences reported were "strikingly similar" and that "many of the SRA reports developed while patients were hospitalized".^[7] The reliability of memories of SRA elucidated by clients in treatment for DID has been a point of contention in the popular media and with clinicians, some of whom express ambivalence over the reliability of narratives of SRA patients. Most acknowledge that such a narrative is indicative of serious victimisation and trauma.^{[100][improper synthesis?]} A wide number of MPD adult patients in therapy have reported SRA memories that began in childhood.^[27]

Many women claiming to be SRA survivors have been diagnosed as sufferers of DID, and it is unclear if their claims of childhood abuse are accurate or a manifestation of their diagnosis.^[101] A sampling of 29 patients who presented with SRA, 22 were diagnosed with dissociative disorders including DID. The authors noted that 58% of the SRA claims appeared in the years following the Geraldo Rivera special on SRA and a further 34% following a workshop on SRA presented in the area; in only two patients were the memories elicited without the use of "questionable therapeutic practices for memory retrieval."^[56] Claims of SRA by DID patients have been called "...often nothing more than fantastic pseudomemories implanted or reinforced in psychotherapy"^[102] and SRA is a cultural script of the perception of DID.^[103] Some believe that memories of SRA are solely iatrogenically implanted memories from suggestive therapeutic techniques,^[104][105] though this has been criticized by Daniel Brown, Alan Scheflin and Corydon Hammond for over-reaching the scientific data that supports an iatrogenic theory.^[106] Hammond has been criticized for spreading information about cult-based abuse to believing therapists in the form of rumours that deliberately obscures his identity, then using similar claims from other therapists to confirm the reality of his theories while ignoring the possibility that the information may have originated from himself. Hammond has also used therapeutic techniques to gather information from clients that rely solely on information fed by the therapist in a manner that highly suggests iatrogenesis.^[104] Skeptics claimed that the increase in DID diagnosis on the 1980s and 1990s and its association with memories of SRA is evidence of malpractice by treating professionals.^[107]

Much of the body of literature on the treatment of ritually abused patients focuses on dissociative disorders.^[7][108]

SRA allegations have been alleged as "entirely a phenomenon of false memories"; advocates of false memory syndrome (FMS), a controversial diagnosis promoted by the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, claim that false memories are created iatrogenically through suggestion or coercion.^[7] Noblitt and Perskin have stated that unfounded generalizations about ritual abuse are often made without appropriately referring to published research^[109] (though Noblitt and Perskin have themselves been criticized for ignoring the skeptical research about SRA^[50]). They state that the FMSF circulates data that comes from biased and unscientific sources and from the same data derives unfounded conclusions.^[110] In general, there are several examples of media bias promoted in part by FMSF proponents regarding ritual abuse.^[111]

• False allegation of child sexual abuse
• File 18
• List of satanic ritual abuse allegations
• Pace memorandum
• Ritualized child abuse

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