Ritual abuse has been defined as "a brutal form of abuse of children, adolescents, and adults, consisting of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, and involving the use of rituals." (Report of the Ritual Abuse Task Force - Los Angeles County Commission for Women) and as "the abuse of a child, weaker adult, or animal in a ritual setting or manner....is generally used to mean prolonged, extreme, sadistic abuse, especially of children, within a group setting. The group's ideology is used to justify the abuse, and abuse is used to teach the group's ideology. The activities are kept secret from society at large, as they violate norms and laws." (Survivorship - Frequently Asked Questions)
Lawrence Pazder introduced the term "ritualized abuse" in 1980, describing the experiences of an adult survivor that was disclosing satanic abuse memories. He defined the phenomenon as "repeated physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual assaults combined with a systematic use of symbols, ceremonies, and machinations designed and orchestrated to attain malevolent effects."
There is a lot of evidence supporting the existence of ritual abuse crimes as a worldwide phenomenon. Bottoms, Shaver and Goodman found in their 1993 study evaluating ritual abuse claims that in 2,292 alleged ritual abuse cases, 15% of the perpetrators in adult cases and 30% of the perpetrators in child cases confessed to the abuse.
Anne Johnson Davis in her book Hell Minus One reported that her parents confessed to her abuse in writing and verbally to clergymen, and to the detectives from the Utah Attorney General’s Office. Her suppressed memories started when she was in her mid-30s, which were fully substantiated by her mother and stepfather.
Recently an online survey of over one thousand people (the Extreme Abuse Survey) answered questions about ritual abuse and extreme abuse crimes. In a summary of the survey, it was found that ritual abuse/mind control is a global phenomenon. Fifty-five percent stated they were abused in a Satanic cult.
Many scientific journal articles have discussed the reality of ritual abuse. A study which identified 270 cases of sexual abuse in day care settings found that allegations of ritual abuse occurred in thirteen percent of the cases. Additional evidence of ritual abuse in day care and child abuse cases has been found in news reports, journal articles and legal transcripts.
Ritual abuse occurrences have also been found in other places in the world besides the United States. Reports of ritual abuse have also been found in multiple personality disorder sufferers. Sociologist Stephen Kent believes that intergenerational satanic accounts are possible and that rituals related to them may come from a deviant interpretation of religious texts. Others have stated that the theories and research around recovered memory strongly confirm the reality of the ritual abuse of ritual abuse survivors.
References
Johnson Davis, Anne Hell Minus One: My Story of Deliverance From Satanic Ritual Abuse and My Journey to Freedom Transcript Bulletin Publishing - ISBN 978-0-9788348-0-7 - 2008
Gould, C., & Cozolino, L. (1992) “Ritual abuse, multiplicity, and mind-control.” Special Issue: Satanic ritual abuse: The current state of knowledge. Journal of Psychology and Theology 20(3):194-6
Lawrence, K.J.; Cozolino, L.; Foy, D.W. (1995). Psychological sequelae in adult females reporting childhood ritualistic abuse.Child Abuse & Neglect 19 (8): 975-984.doi:10.1016/0145-2134(95)00059-H.
Gould, C. (1995). Denying ritual abuse of children.Journal of Psychohistory, 22(3), 329-339.
Sexual Abuse in Day Care: A National Study - Executive Summary - March 1988 - Finklehor, Williams, Burns, Kalinowski http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/1c/82/61.pdf
deMause, Lloyd, Why Cults Terrorize and Kill Children The Journal of Psychohistory 21 (4) 1994
Summit, R.C. (1994). The Dark Tunnels of McMartin Journal of Psychohistory 21 (4): 397-416.
Jonker, F.; Jonker-bakker, P. (1991). “Experiences with ritualistic child sexual abuse: a case study from the Netherlands”. Child Abuse and Neglect 15: 191-196. doi:10.1016/0145-2134(91)90064-K. PMID 2043971
Sinason, V (1994). Treating Survivors of Satanist Abuse. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-10543-9.
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