Satanic panic

Satanic panic was a wave of public fear, especially in the 1980s and 1990s, that Satanists were committing widespread ritual abuse and crime. Investigations often found no credible evidence for the sensational claims.

False memory: A recollection that is inaccurate or of an event that did not occur. Therapeutic and investigative practices sometimes encouraged people to recall alleged abuse without reliable corroboration.
Kern County child abuse cases: A series of California investigations and prosecutions involving alleged child abuse in the early 1980s. These cases helped establish investigative patterns later associated with satanic ritual abuse claims.
Lawrence Pazder: A Canadian psychiatrist who co-wrote Michelle Remembers with his patient Michelle Smith. His book helped popularize the satanic ritual abuse narrative.
Child sexual abuse: Sexual activity imposed on a child by an adult or older person, including contact and noncontact abuse. Real abuse existed independently of the panic's unsupported claims of vast satanic networks.
Recovered-memory therapy: Psychotherapy that seeks to recover memories of traumatic events believed to have been repressed. Some practitioners used suggestive techniques that helped generate satanic ritual abuse allegations.
West Memphis Three: Three Arkansas men convicted as teenagers in the 1993 murders of three boys and later released through Alford pleas. Satanic imagery and subcultural suspicion influenced public interpretations of the murders.
Michelle Smith: A Canadian woman whose alleged recovered memories of satanic abuse were recounted in Michelle Remembers. Her account became an influential template for later claims.
Satanic ritual abuse: An allegation that people commit sexual or physical abuse as part of organized Satanic rituals. This specific claim became the panic's defining accusation, despite weak supporting evidence.
Day-care sex-abuse hysteria: A series of allegations and prosecutions claiming widespread sexual abuse in American day-care centers. These cases became a prominent setting for claims of organized satanic abuse.
Franklin child prostitution ring allegations: Allegations of an elite child prostitution network in Omaha that a grand jury investigation found unsupported. The claims combined abuse allegations, conspiracy narratives, and satanic themes.

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