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“Research on organised abuse emphasises the diversity of organised abuse cases, and the ways in which serious forms of child maltreatment cluster in the lives of children subject to organised victimisation (eg Bibby 1996b, Itziti 1997, Kelly and Regan 2000). Most attempts to examine organised abuse have been undertaken by therapists and social workers who have focused primarily on the role of psychological processes in the organised victimisation of children and adults. Dissociation, amnesia and attachment, in particular, have been identified as important factors that compel victims to obey their abusers whilst inhibiting them from disclosing their abuse or seeking help (see Epstein et al. 2011, Sachs and Galton 2008). Therapists and social workers have surmised that these psychological effects are purposively induced by perpetrators of organised abuse through the use of sadistic and ritualistic abuse. In this literature, perpetrators are characterised either as dissociated automatons mindlessly perpetuating the abuse that they, too, were subjected to as children, or else as cruel and manipulative criminals with expert foreknowledge of the psychological consequences of their abuses. The therapist is positioned in this discourse at the very heart of the solution to organised abuse, wielding their expertise in a struggle against the coercive strategies of the perpetrators. Whilst it cannot be denied that abusive groups undertake calculated strategies designed to terrorise children into silence and obedience, the emphasis of this literature on psychological factors in explaining organised abuse has overlooked the social contexts of such abuse and the significance of abuse and violence as social practices.”

SilencePsychologyViolenceDiversityResearchMemoryPsychologicalDenialAttachmentSecretsTherapistsDissociationAmnesiaSurvivorsRitual AbuseVictimsOrganized AbusePsychotherapistsOrganised AbuseRitualistic AbuseSocial WorkersEpsteinVictimisationAbusive GroupsDisclosingGaltonSachsSocial Contexts
Book:Organised Sexual Abuse
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“This vacillation between assertion and denial in discussions about organised abuse can be understood as functional, in that it serves to contain the traumatic kernel at the heart of allegations of organised abuse. In his influential ‘just world’ theory, Lerner (1980) argued that emotional wellbeing is predicated on the assumption that the world is an orderly, predictable and just place in which people get what they deserve. Whilst such assumptions are objectively false, Lerner argued that individuals have considerable investment in maintaining them since they are conducive to feelings of self—efficacy and trust in others. When they encounter evidence contradicting the view that the world is just, individuals are motivated to defend this belief either by helping the victim (and thus restoring a sense of justice) or by persuading themselves that no injustice has occurred. Lerner (1980) focused on the ways in which the ‘just world’ fallacy motivates victim-blaming, but there are other defences available to bystanders who seek to dispel troubling knowledge. Organised abuse highlights the severity of sexual violence in the lives of some children and the desire of some adults to inflict considerable, and sometimes irreversible, harm upon the powerless. Such knowledge is so toxic to common presumptions about the orderly nature of society, and the generally benevolent motivations of others, that it seems as though a defensive scaffold of disbelief, minimisation and scorn has been erected to inhibit a full understanding of organised abuse. Despite these efforts, there has been a recent resurgence of interest in organised abuse and particularly ritualistic abuse (eg Sachs and Galton 2008, Epstein et al. 2011, Miller 2012).”

LawUnderstandingJusticeMediaCrimeTrustHorrorAuthorityEvidenceVictimSocial JusticeBlameMental HealthInjusticeMemoryTraumaKarmaDebateInnocenceDenialToxicChild AbuseInvestigationFairnessBeliefsCultTestimonyMisunderstandingSexual AbuseScornDefenceDisbeliefTherapistsHysteriaWorld ViewLegalRitual AbuseAttackSociety DenialProsecutionSexual ViolenceSatanic Ritual AbuseCover UpPedophileVictim BlamingChild ProtectionAccusationsRecovered MemoriesTraumaticOrganized AbusePaedophilesOrganised AbuseCoverupMoral PanicCult AbuseMillerSocial WorkersPedophile RingsConfabulationChild SexEpsteinJust WorldRitualised AbuseDiscreditingSense Of SafetyMiscarriages Of JusticeGaltonMinimisationSachsSafe WorldSelf Efficiacy
Book:Organised Sexual Abuse
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“Some readers may find it a curious or even unscientific endeavour to craft a criminological model of organised abuse based on the testimony of survivors. One of the standard objections to qualitative research is that participants may lie or fantasise in interview, it has been suggested that adults who report severe child sexual abuse are particularly prone to such confabulation. Whilst all forms of research, whether qualitative or quantitative, may be impacted upon by memory error or false reporting. there is no evidence that qualitative research is particularly vulnerable to this, nor is there any evidence that a fantasy— or lie—prone individual would be particularly likely to volunteer for research into child sexual abuse. Research has consistently found that child abuse histories, including severe and sadistic abuse, are accurate and can be corroborated (Ross 2009, Otnow et al. 1997, Chu et al. 1999). Survivors of child abuse may struggle with amnesia and other forms of memory disturbance but the notion that they are particularly prone to suggestion and confabulation has yet to find a scientific basis. It is interesting to note that questions about the veracity of eyewitness evidence appear to be asked far more frequently in relation to sexual abuse and rape than in relation to other crimes. The research on which this book is based has been conducted with an ethical commitment to taking the lives and voices of survivors of organised abuse seriously.”

LawUnderstandingJusticeFantasyMediaCrimeTrustHorrorAuthorityEvidenceVictimSocial JusticeBlameMental HealthInjusticeMemoryTraumaKarmaDebateInnocenceDenialToxicChild AbuseInvestigationFairnessBeliefsCultLieTestimonyMisunderstandingSexual AbuseScornDefenceDisbeliefTherapistsHysteriaAmnesiaWorld ViewLegalRitual AbuseAttackSociety DenialProsecutionSexual ViolenceSatanic Ritual AbuseCover UpPedophileVictim BlamingChild ProtectionAccusationsRecovered MemoriesTraumaticOrganized AbusePaedophilesOrganised AbuseCoverupMoral PanicCult AbuseMillerRossSocial WorkersPedophile RingsConfabulationChild SexEpsteinJust WorldRitualised AbuseDiscreditingSense Of SafetyMiscarriages Of JusticeEye WitnessGaltonMinimisationSachsSafe WorldSelf EfficiacyChuMemory Error
Book:Organised Sexual Abuse
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“Today, acknowledgement of the prevalence and harms of child sexual abuse is counterbalanced with cautionary tales about children and women who, under pressure from social workers and therapists, produce false allegations of ‘paedophile rings’, ‘cult abuse’ and ‘ritual abuse’. Child protection investigations or legal cases involving allegations of organised child sexual abuse are regularly invoked to illustrate the dangers of ‘false memories’, ‘moral panic’ and ‘community hysteria’. These cautionary tales effectively delimit the bounds of acceptable knowledge in relation to sexual abuse. They are circulated by those who locate themselves firmly within those bounds, characterising those beyond as ideologues and conspiracy theorists. However firmly these boundaries have been drawn, they have been persistently transgressed by substantiated disclosures of organised abuse that have led to child protection interventions and prosecutions. Throughout the 1990s, in a sustained effort to redraw these boundaries, investigations and prosecutions for organised abuse were widely labelled ‘miscarriages of justice’ and workers and therapists confronted with incidents of organised abuse were accused of fabricating or exaggerating the available evidence. These accusations have faded over time as evidence of organised abuse has accumulated, while investigatory procedures have become more standardised and less vulnerable to discrediting attacks. However, as the opening quotes to this introduction illustrate, the contemporary situation in relation to organised abuse is one of considerable ambiguity in which journalists and academics claim that organised abuse is a discredited ‘moral panic’ even as cases are being investigated and prosecuted.”

LawJusticeMediaCrimeHorrorAuthorityEvidenceBlameMemoryDebateInnocenceDenialChild AbuseInvestigationCultTestimonySexual AbuseDisbeliefTherapistsHysteriaLegalRitual AbuseAttackSociety DenialProsecutionSatanic Ritual AbuseCover UpPedophileVictim BlamingChild ProtectionAccusationsRecovered MemoriesOrganized AbusePaedophilesOrganised AbuseCoverupMoral PanicCult AbuseSocial WorkersPedophile RingsConfabulationChild SexRitualised AbuseDiscreditingMiscarriages Of JusticeMulti PerpetratorMulti Victim
Book:Organised Sexual Abuse
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“Allegations of multi-perpetrator and multi-victim sexual abuse emerged to public awareness in the early 1980s contemporaneously with the denials of the accused and their supporters. Multi-perpetrator sexual offences are typically more sadistic than solo offences and organised sexual abuse is no exception. Adults and children with histories of organised abuse have described lives marked by torturous and sometimes ritualistic sexual abuse arranged by family members and other care-givers and authority figures. It is widely acknowledged, at least in theory, that sexual abuse can take severe forms, but when disclosures of such abuse occur, they are routinely subject to contestation and challenge. People accused of organised, sadistic or ritualistic abuse have protested that their accusers are liars and fantasists, or else innocents led astray by overly zealous investigators. This was an argument that many journalists and academics have found more convincing than the testimony of alleged victims.”

LawMediaCrimeHorrorAuthorityBlameMemoryDebateDenialChild AbuseInvestigationCultTestimonySexual AbuseProstitutionDisbeliefWalesLegalAbuse Of PowerIncestRitual AbuseSociety DenialGroomingSatanic Ritual AbuseAllegationsCover UpPedophileVictim BlamingChild ProtectionAccusationsRecovered MemoriesOrganized AbusePaedophilesOrganised AbuseCoverupMoral PanicPedophile RingsChild SexRitualised AbuseColin BatleyRitualisticEye Of HorusKidwellyMulti PerpetratorMulti VictimContested
Book:Organised Sexual Abuse
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“In her book claiming that allegations of ritualistic abuse are mostly confabulations, La Fontaine’s (1998) comparison of social workers to ‘nazis’ shows the depth of feeling evident amongst many sceptics. However, this raises an important question: Why did academics and journalists feel so strongly about allegations of ritualistic abuse, to the point of pervasively misrepresenting the available evidence and treating women disclosing ritualistic abuse, and those workers who support them, with barely concealed contempt? It is of course true that there are fringe practitioners in the field of organised abuse, just as there are fringe practitioners in many other health-related fields. However, the contrast between the measured tone of the majority of therapists and social workers writing on ritualistic abuse, and the over-blown sensationalism of their critics, could not be starker. Indeed, Scott (2001) notes with irony that the writings of those who claimed that ‘satanic ritual abuse’ is a ‘moral panic’ had many of the features of a moral panic: scapegoating therapists, social workers and sexual abuse victims whilst warning of an impending social catastrophe brought on by an epidemic of false allegations of sexual abuse. It is perhaps unsurprising that social movements for people accused of sexual abuse would engage in such hyperbole, but why did this rhetoric find so many champions in academia and the media?”

MediaDenialBritainContemptChild AbuseSexual AbuseHypeTherapistsChild Sexual AbuseHysteriaMisinformationMass MediaRitual AbuseNazisSociety DenialEpidemicSatanic Ritual AbuseJournalistsAllegationsHyperboleDisinformationSensationalismReportScapegoatingOrganized AbuseRitualistic AbuseMoral PanicSatanic PanicFalse AllegationsSocial WorkersSkepticsConfabulationRitual Abuse MythScepticsJean La FontaineMisrepresentations
Book:Organised Sexual Abuse
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