http://www.humanbeing.demon.nl/ipceweb/Library/99-125%20Moral%20Panics.htm
Moral panics and the social construction of deviant behavior:
a theory and application to the case of ritual child abuse.
Sociological
Perspectives
Fall/1998
Victor, Jeffrey S.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The past offers numerous examples of collective behavior during which
widespread, fearful rumors and accusations about dangerous deviants resulted
in false accusations of crime against many innocent people. Various terms
have been used to label this form of collective behavior: persecution,
witch-hunt, scare, and panic. In some cases, the widely feared deviants are
products of ethnic, racial or religious stereotypes. The most familiar
example is that of anti-Semitic persecutions, including the Nazi program of
genocide. In other cases, the invented deviants are creations of pure
imagination. The classic example is the European witch-hunt, during which
perhaps over one hundred thousand people were executed, because they were
believed to posses evil magical powers (Ben-Yehuda 1981; Levack 1987). In
still other cases, the deviants are stereotypes of members of groups that are
widely believed to be a political threat in a society. An example is the
anti-Communist 'Red Scare' in the U.S of the 1950s, during which many
thousands of Americans were labeled as subversives and lost their jobs (Caute
1978).
In this article, I suggest a rationale for classifying all these forms of
collective behavior together as moral panics. The objective of the article is
to develop a theory of the causes and transmission of moral panics. The
article first presents criteria for identifying moral panics. Secondly, the
article presents models for analyzing the social conditions that cause moral
panics and lead to the social construction of definitions of deviance.
Finally, the article offers principles for understanding the international
transmission of moral panics. In order to illustrate the theoretical
analysis, the article presents information about the recent moral panic
involving criminal accusations of ritual child abuse by secret, satanic
cults.
PART I: THE CHARACTERISTICS OF MORAL PANICS
In simplification, a moral panic is a societal response to beliefs about a
threat from moral deviants(1). The term "moral panic" was coined by
British sociologist Stanley Cohen in his book, Folk Devils and Moral Panics:
The Creation of Mods and Rockers, a study of British public reaction to the
deviant behavior of the "mods" and "rockers" youth. Cohen
used the term to identify a form of collective behavior characterized by
widely circulating rumor stories disseminated by the mass media, which exaggerated
the threat posed by some newly identified type of moral deviants (Cohen
1972). Cohen defined a moral panic as a form of collective behavior during
which:
A condition, episode, person or group emerges to become defined as a threat
to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylized and
stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moral barricades are manned by
editors, bishops, politicians and other right thinking people; socially
accredited experts pronounce their diagnosis and solutions; ways of coping
are evolved or (more often) resorted to; the condition then disappears,
submerges or deteriorates and becomes visible (Cohen 1972: 9).
Cohen employed a societal reaction/labeling perspective on deviance, which
was an early antecedent of current social constructionism.
The concept of a moral panic has been widely used by British sociologists.
However, American sociologists have regarded it as suffering from a lack of
precise indicators and made little use of it until recently. In an attempt to
make the concept less ambiguous, Goode and Ben-Yehuda have suggested the
following five specific indicators of a moral panic (summarized from Goode
and Ben-Yehuda 1994:33-39).
1. Volatility - The sudden eruption and subsiding of concern about a newly
perceived threat to society from a category of people regarded as being moral
deviants.
2. Hostility - The deviants are regarded with intense hostility as enemies of
the basic values of the society and attributed stereotypes of 'evil'
behavior.
3. Measurable Concern - Concern about the threat is measurable in concrete
ways, such as attitude surveys.
4. Consensus - There is consensus in significant segments of the population
that the threat is real and serious.
5. Disproportionality - Concern about the numbers of moral deviants and the
extent of the harm that they do is much greater than can be verified by
objective, empirical investigations of the harm. Even though the measurable
concern is great, the numbers of deviants are minimal or even non-existent
and their harm is very limited or even non-existent.
In brief, a moral panic is a form of collective behavior characterized by
suddenly increased concern and hostility in a significant segment of a
society, in reaction to widespread beliefs about a newly perceived threat
from moral deviants. Careful, empirical examination at a later time, however,
reveals that the perceived threat was greatly exaggerated or nonexistent. A
moral panic often gives rise to social movements aimed at eliminating the
threatening deviants and may generate moral crusades and political struggles
over use of the law to suppress the dangerous deviants. Local rumor-panics,
riots and ethnic programs may occur in reaction to belief in the threat.
However, such dramatic behavior is not an essential element of the collective
behavior. Belief, not emotion, is the motivational dimension of a moral
panic. The essence of a moral panic is that significant segments of a society
are reacting to a socially constructed threat from moral deviants. The main observable
behavior during a moral panic is the communication of claims, accusations and
rumors.
The Study of Rumors and Claims about Moral
Deviants
A contemporary (or urban) legend is the type of rumor that is most commonly
part of a moral panic. Contemporary legends are varieties of persistent rumor
stories, transmitted primarily in oral communication, and secondarily through
the mass media. The stories communicate shared anxieties about a newly
perceived threat. The stories also communicate a moral-political message
conveyed in the form of age-old recurring motifs and metaphors (Victor
1993b). Contemporary legends are told as if stories are true, just as
ordinary rumors, and widely believed as if the stories are likely to be true.
However, unlike ordinary rumors, the stories are more persistent, and less
relevant to specific, localized people and events.
A contemporary legend is a process of collective behavior which consists
primarily of the collaborative creation and communication of rumor stories in
ever changing variations (Ellis 1990). It is not a fixed and unchanging
narrative. It is always emergent out of interaction and never finished. The
story is constantly being reshaped, as people add parts, forget parts and
distort parts. Contemporary legends are often regarded as being merely
amusing tales having little social consequence, like those about poisonous
spiders found in bunches of bananas or fried rats served as chicken. However,
some contemporary legends can have harmful consequences, such as false
accusations of crime, the destruction of reputations and property, riots and
even killings. Examples of harmful contemporary legends include those that
promote racist and anti-Semitic hatred.
Exaggerated claims-making about deviants is a central phenomenon during moral
panics. Therefore, an analysis of the claims-making process is the focus of a
social constructionist study of deviant behavior. The content of claims about
deviance include matters such as: stereotypes of deviants and their behavior,
typologies of variations among deviants, descriptions of the dangers and
particular harms caused by deviants and rationales for dealing with deviants.
The basic premise of social constructionism is that deviance is a socially
constructed meaning. These claims construct the definitions (symbolic
meanings) attributed to deviance. Therefore, social constructionist research
and analysis focus upon the claims-makers, rather than the behavior and
people defined as deviant; the rhetoric and propaganda of the claims-makers,
their vested interests, their authority and power in a society (Best 1989;
Conrad and Schneider 1992).(2)
The claims made about satanic ritual abuse (hereafter abbreviated as SRA)
have been studied by Hicks (1991), Jenkins (1992), Nathan and Snedeker
(1995), and Victor (1993a, 1994, 1995, 1996). Most claims assert that there
exist secret, criminal organizations, which commit horrible crimes against
children, motivated by worship of Satan. Some claims assert the existence of
an international conspiratorial network. Less extreme versions assert that
the secret networks consist only of intergenerational family clans. Ritual
torture and sexual abuse of children is done supposedly to
"program" children to reverse good and evil. The purported aim is
to "brainwash" children into the ideology of Satan worship. In
their Satan-worshipping rituals, these criminals supposedly sometimes kill
and sacrifice infants born to impregnated "breeders" and commit
cannibalism with the body parts. Some claims-makers even assert that satanic
cults kidnap runaway youth for ritual sacrifice, commit random murders of
indigent people, and engage in the criminal businesses of child pornography,
forced prostitution and drug dealing. These criminals are able to maintain
their secrecy and avoid detection, according to the claims-makers, because
satanists have infiltrated all the institutions of society.
The main evidence to support these claims consists primarily of accusations
made by hundreds of adult psychotherapy patients who report decades-old
memories of ritual torture and sexual abuse by their parents, and similar
accusations made by children against their parents or child care workers. The
authorities making these claims include some psychotherapists, social
workers, local law enforcement officials, fundamentalist clergy, and members
of anti-cult organizations.
The Moral Panic Over Satanic Ritual Child Abuse
There is no research on the precise number of people who have made
accusations of SRA against their parents, or childcare workers and others in
the United States,
and there is no precise count of the number of criminal prosecutions.
However, a random sample national survey of 2,272 clinical psychologists who
are members of the American Psychological Association found almost 3,000
cases reported by the 802 psychotherapists, who said that they had seen at
least one case of SRA. These psychotherapists reported seeing 1,228 cases of
adults who they defined as victims of SRA and 1,500 cases of children who
they defined as victims of SRA (Bottoms, Shaver, and Goodman 1996). The
numbers of SRA cases are likely much higher, considering that many thousands
of psychotherapists are psychiatrists, clinical social workers and diverse
kinds of counselors.
Some SRA accusations have been taken to the criminal courts. A national
survey of a sample of 706 district attorneys, 1,037 social service workers
and 2,912 law enforcement agencies found that 302 respondents had encountered
at least one SRA case (Goodman, Qin, Bottoms, and Shaver, 1995). A legal
survey done by the False Memory Syndrome Foundation of criminal cases
involving allegations of child sexual abuse made by adults based upon
purported recovered memories offers more useful data, at least about
accusations made by adults against their parents. A legal survey of 78
criminal cases done in September, 1996, found that in the United States from
1989 through early 1996, 47 cases (60%) involved adult allegations of ritual
abuse (FMSF, personal communication, 9/96). By the early 1990s, many adult
former psychotherapy patients had retracted their memories of SRA and filed
malpractice lawsuits against their former therapists and hospitals. Another
legal survey done by the False Memory Syndrome Foundation conducted on 59
civil lawsuits between 1991 and 1997 found 34 cases (57%) involved purported
memories of SRA (FMSF Legal Survey 1998).
The rapid rise and decline of SRA accusations gives evidence to the
volatility of a moral panic. Claims about ritual child abuse by satanic cults
began to appear rather suddenly. The oldest known satanic cult
"survivor" account was published in 1980 in the book, Michelle
Remembers (Smith and Pazder 1980). SRA testimonials, accusations and rumors
spread rapidly thereafter in the United States during the early
1980s and then declined rapidly during the early 1990s.
There is evidence of widespread concern and hostility in response to SRA
accusations. It can be found in satanic cult crime accounts in the mass
media: in popular books and magazine articles, in small-town newspaper
articles, and on television talk shows (Hicks 1991; Victor 1993a). Evidence
can also be found in records from SRA professional training seminars for
psychotherapists and social workers offered at professional conferences, and
in continuing education programs at colleges (Mulhern 1991, 1994; Nathan and
Snedeker 1995). Further evidence can be found in the hundreds of accusations
of SRA against parents and childcare workers, many of which have led to civil
and criminal trials.
There is evidence that SRA accusations were regarded as being "real and
serious" by sizable segments of the American population. A 1994 national
survey reported in Redbook magazine, for example, found that 70 percent of
Americans "believe that at least some people who claim that they were
abused by satanic cults as children, but repressed the memories for years,
are telling the truth" (Ross 1994:88). Further evidence of widespread
belief in the existence of the SRA comes from a 1989 Texas statewide telephone poll which found
that 80% of the respondents believed that Satanism is an increasing problem
in American society (reported in Crouch and Damphousse 1992). In addition,
survey research has found that a sizable percentage of American and British
psychotherapists, social workers and counselors believe SRA accounts, in part
or whole, as accurate accounts of satanic cult crime; or at least attribute
credibility to them (Andrews, Morton, Bekerian, Brewin, Davies, and Mollon
1995; Bottoms, Shaver, and Goodman 1996; Poole, Lindsay, Memon, and Bull
1995). This research means that thousands of professionals who claim
authority in understanding human behavior believe that there exists a real
threat from satanic cult child abusers.
Finally, there is evidence that the societal reaction to the claims was
disproportionate to the threat posed by SRA. So far, no law enforcement
agency or research study has found the kind of physical evidence needed to
support accounts of SRA. No one has turned up written or electronic
communications, bank account records, meetings in process, members who can
identify leaders, or any of the vast number of bodies of people supposed
murdered by satanic cults. Official government reports from several countries
could find no such evidence to support claims about SRA. These reports
include those from the Department of Health of the United Kingdom (La
Fontaine 1994); from the Netherlands Ministry of Justice (1994); from the
Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI (Lanning 1992); and state agencies in
Michigan (Michigan State Police 1990), Virginia (Virginia State Crime
Commission Task Force 1991), and Washington (Parr 1996). In addition, a
national survey of psychotherapists could not find a single SRA accusation
reported by the psychotherapists, where there was reliable evidence to
corroborate SRA accusations from either children or adults (Bottoms, Shaver,
and Goodman 1996). In the reports of psychotherapists about their patients'
SRA accusations, there is no convincing external corroborating evidence for
the existence of satanic cult criminals, in either organizations or
intergenerational family clans.
The only social phenomena that exists which bares any resemblance to SRA
claims are teenage delinquents and mentally disordered killers who tall
themselves "satanists". However, these deviants do not constitute
an organization, a criminal network or a religious cult. Therefore, in the
absence of any scientific evidence to confirm the existence of organized
groups that torture and sexually abuse children in satanic rituals, it is
reasonable to suggest that the societal reaction to SRA claims has been
excessive.
PART II: THE CAUSES OF MORAL PANICS
Theoretical Models of Moral Panics
Goode and Ben-Yehuda (1994) offer three theoretical models for analyzing the
causes of moral panics: 1) the grass roots model, 2) the elite-engineered
model and 3) the interest group model. These models can be used to understand
different types of moral panics.
The Grass Roots Model - suggests that a moral panic arises spontaneously
across a broad spectrum of a society's population. The concern and anger
about the threat from perceived moral deviants is a response to persistent
and widespread social stresses. Anxieties arising from these social stresses
are not able to gain direct expression. Instead, the anxieties are displaced
and directed toward social deviants, who become regarded as the cause of
concern. Newly detected deviants essentially function as collective
scapegoats for the anxieties transferred to them (Victor 1992). The targeted
deviants are perceived through cultural symbols, which reflect the real,
underlying social stresses.
The actions of special interest groups are not necessary to promote moral
outrage directed at the newly perceived dangerous deviants. The mass media
and social control authorities basically reflect public opinion about the
reality of the threat. The key argument of the grass roots model is that
these agencies cannot fabricate public concern where none previously existed.
However, particular triggering events, or catalysts, may provoke sudden
outbreaks of the moral outrage. The role of a contemporary legend in the
grass roots model of a moral panic is its function as a catalyst for a sudden
outbreak of collective behavior, such as in an aggressive mob.
An example of a grass roots moral panic occurred in France in 1968, when widespread
rumors in several cities accused Jewish clothing store owners of kidnapping
teenage girls in their stores and selling them into forced prostitution,
controlled by international criminal syndicates (Morin 1971). Mobs attacked
Jewish-owned clothing stores. The contemporary legend story was based on
centuries-old ethnic stereotypes and folklore about Jews as kidnappers of
Christian children (Hsia 1988; Langmuir 1990). A similar grass-roots moral
panic resulted in a series of over sixty local and regional rumor-panics
across the United States
from 1983 through 1993, in response to a contemporary legend about secret,
criminal satanic cults which supposedly kidnapped blond, blue-eyed virgins,
for use in ritual sacrifice (Victor 1989; 1991; 1993a). Another example is
the moral panic involving contemporary legend stories about sadists who
purportedly give children poisoned or dangerous treats for Halloween
trick-or-treat, which sometimes lead to local scares about Halloween sadists
(Best and Horiucht 1985).
The Elite-Engineered Model - suggests that a powerful elite can orchestrate a
moral panic. The elite uses the major institutions of a society to promote a
campaign to generate and sustain public moral outrage about a threat from a
target category of deviants. The actual intention of the campaign is to
divert attention away from real problems in a society, the solution of which
would threaten the economic and political interests of the elite. The elite
fabricates a description of the threat and uses the institutions of society,
including the mass media, religion, and law enforcement, to shape public
opinion. The threat from supposed dangerous deviants is invented, or at least
exaggerated, by the elite, to serve its own vested interests. A contemporary
legend can be employed by a powerful elite to influence public opinion about
a fictitious threat, in order to divert attention from social problems.
In Medieval times, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church organized moral
panics and persecutions directed at the Cathar heretics and later the Knights
Templars. Another example of an elite-engineered moral panic occurred after
Czarist agents used the Jewish conspiracy legend to arouse moral outrage against
the Jews, as a means of diverting attention and anger away from the problem
of widespread poverty in Russia.
The moral panic lead to organized mob attacks and massacres of Jewish
villagers. Other moral panics orchestrated by an elite which led to ethnic
mass murder, include the murder of about a million Chinese Indonesians in
1965 organized by the Muslim-led army, and the mass murder of hundreds of
thousands of Tutsi citizens in Rwanda in 1994 organized by Hutu
leaders. The Stalinist purges and persecution of millions of fabricated
internal enemies of the Soviet Union is
another example. An example of this type of moral panic in American society
is that of 1950s anti-Communist witch-hunt in American society. This moral
panic has been interpreted (albeit a controversial interpretation) as having
been deliberately orchestrated by the American corporate and political elite,
as a way of destroying socialist and union organizing (Gibson 1988; Irons
1974).
The Interest Group Model - suggests that moral panics are an unintended
consequence of moral crusades launched by specific interest groups and their
activists, who attempt to focus public attention on moral evils that they
perceive to be threats to society. In modern times, many interest groups
direct their efforts toward presenting their concerns in the mass media in
order to influence public opinion. Interest groups and their moral
entrepreneurs usually sincerely believe that their efforts serve a moral
cause beneficial to the whole society. Nevertheless, their efforts also
function to advance their own group's social influence, prestige, wealth and
ideological goals. As these interest groups become increasingly successful in
influencing public opinion, they stimulate resistance and conflict from
competing interest groups. The interest group model suggests that a moral
threat expressed in a pre-existing contemporary legend story may be
consistent with the moral concerns of certain interest groups and can be
employed by them as an instrument to influence public opinion. The
contemporary legend may also serve to enhance an interest group's credibility
and authority in some special area of moral concern.
An example of a moral panic prompted by interest groups is the "white
slavery" scare, which occurred in the U.S from 1907 to 1914. The white
slavery scare was a product of a moral crusade against prostitution promoted
by fundamentalist Protestants and the women's Suffragette movement. During
this scare, the mass media aroused public opinion by publishing many stories
claiming that organized criminal syndicates kidnapped young women and forced
them into prostitution. Hundreds of unmarried, cohabiting young men, as well
as adulterous lovers were accused of engaging in white slavery; some of whom
were arrested and imprisoned (Langum 1994).
Another example of a moral panic sparked by interest groups is the "baby
parts" scare that occurred in several Latin America
countries. A contemporary legend claims that poor children are being
kidnapped and butchered for use of their body parts by wealthy North
Americans in transplant surgery. Communists and other leftists in Latin America used the baby parts contemporary legend
to attack American capitalism and to benefit their political and ideological
goals (Campion-Vincent 1990, 1997). The rumors have resulted in physical
attacks on Americans. As recently as 1994, two American women in Guatemala
were attacked by mobs, which believed that the women were searching for
children to kidnap (Johnson 1994; Lopez 1994).
Another example of a moral panic prompted by interest groups was the
"stranger-danger" during the 1980s. Best (1990) showed how
contemporary legend stories about crimes against children including,
kidnapping, child murder, child pornography, arose from to exaggerated claims
made by child-protection organizations. A series of similar moral panics
arose in Great Britain
at about the same time, that linked concerns about serial sex murders,
homosexual pedophile rings, sexual child abuse and satanic ritual abuse.
Jenkins (1992) showed how these moral panics were caused by exaggerated
claims about threats to children made by several interest groups including,
child protection organizations, Protestant fundamentalists, and feminist
groups.
False Accusations and the Social Construction
of Imaginary Deviants
How is it possible that a moral panic could be caused by widespread
accusations of crime, lacking in evidence that the criminals even exist? The
key insight is that accusations of crime are a claims-making activity. False
accusations can construct imaginary deviants, when social control authorities
systematically legitimize the accusations.
Criminologist Elliott Currie has shown how even when deviant acts are purely
imaginary, as is the case of witchcraft, people can always be found and
fitted into the stereotype of the deviants. Currie's (1968) study of the
European witch-hunts suggests that a particular combination of four
circumstances caused false accusations of witchcraft to be affirmed by
authorities as evidence of that some people were witches. First, there was
widespread belief in and fear of secret, conspiratorial witches who
supposedly practiced black magic to harm people. Second, in response, there
gradually evolved a new occupation of experts specialized in detecting
witches, the witch-finders. Third, the witch-finders used ambiguous tests
(spectral evidence) to detect witches, so that people accused were almost
automatically found guilty. This confirmed their expertise and enhanced the
authority of the witch-finders. Fourth, the ideology of traditional Christian
religion concerning Satan's corrupting influence fueled the Inquisition's
search for any kind of potential heretic.
False accusations are a necessary part of a moral panic. In order for a moral
panic to take hold among a large number of people, it is necessary for some
people to be publicly identified with the perceived threat, even if the
deviance of which they are accused is purely imaginary. It is necessary for a
group that feels threatened to find visible scapegoats. Klemke and Tiedeman
(1990) studied a wide variety of false accusations of crimes and false
labeling of persons as deviants, in order to determine the kinds of social
conditions that increase the prevalence of false accusations. They found that
three social conditions tend to be associated with increases in false
accusations. One, there exists a widespread belief in a society that a threat
exists from new kinds of deviants. Two, there is competition between newer
and more traditional agencies and authorities of social control over
jurisdictions of authority. The newer authorities attempt to expand and
justify their authority. Three, the investigation of the newly perceived
deviance relies on diagnostic instruments and tests, which are oversimplified
and ambiguous; and therefore, easily make errors in identifying deviants. I
want to suggest a fourth social condition that produces false accusations
drawn from my research (Victor 1993a). It is one that results in a distinctly
moralistic perception of the deviance: symbolic resonance of the perceived
threat with a demonology (to be explained shortly).
THE CAUSES OF MORAL PANICS: THE CASE OF RITUAL
CHILD ABUSE
The following interpretation of the causes of the moral panic over satanic
ritual abuse is offered as a case study illustration of social dynamics of
the interest group model of moral panics. It also illustrates how false
accusations of deviance during moral panics can construct purely imaginary
deviants.
Widespread Belief in a Threat from New Forms
of Deviance
Belief in a potential threat from moral deviants must spread widely in a
society, before a moral panic can get started. How did belief in a threat
from secret satanic cults spread widely in American society? Most past
studies of moral panics assume that belief in a new threat from moral
deviants is largely a product of mass media sensationalism (McRobbie and
Thornton 1995). However, this was not the case in the satanic cult scare.
Instead, the mass media basically disseminated the claims of authorities
presented as being so-called experts in detecting satanic cult crime.
Crouch and Damphousse (1992) carried out a content analysis of satanic cult
scare stories in eight major city newspapers in the U.S. They concluded that the
newspapers provided a forum for purported experts who claimed to be able to
identify the symptoms of satanic cult crime (local police, clergy, and
psychotherapists). However, the newspapers did not deliberately try to
inflame rumors about these crimes. In my own research, I came to a similar
conclusion about the role of the mass media. The moral panic involving SRA
spread widely only after some segments of the mass media popularized the
claims of authorities who lent credibility to rumors and accusations about
satanic cult crime (Victor 1993a:253-255). Specifically, claims-making from
the so-called experts was rare in large city newspapers and largely absent on
national television news. In contrast, claims-making by these experts about
satanic cult crime was common on national television talkshows, in small-town
newspapers, and in Christian religious books.
Timing is also crucial to the emergence of a moral panic. The moral panic
involving SRA began at a time, in the early 1980s, when several similar moral
panics involving the motif of violent victimization of children had emerged.
There was already widespread belief that child sexual abuse was much more
common than had previously been thought (Howitt 1992). In the early 1980s,
there was already moral panic over crimes against children, involving claims
that thousands of children were being kidnapped, sexually assaulted and
murdered (Best 1990). As a result, the general public was more receptive to
the authorities that lent credibility to SRA stories, than had the timing been
different.
The Expansion of Authority in Social Control
Authority plays a key role in defining forms of deviant behavior. Authority
also provides legitimacy for claims about new threats to society. Established
institutional authorities do not easily regard new claims about threats to
society as being credible. However, when new forms of authority begin to
develop and to compete for power over a jurisdiction with previously
established authorities, the newer authorities may be tempted to use a newly
perceived threat to expand their power. In such conditions, the newer
authorities are likely to over-reach their expertise and attribute
credibility to false accusations of victimization by a newly discovered
threat. I believe that this is the key factor that led to the legitimization
of SPA accusations.
Some sociologists who specialize in the study of deviant behavior believe
that the most important contemporary social change affecting authority to
define the meanings of deviance is the process of the medicalization of
social control (Conrad 1992; Conrad and Schneider 1992). In the twentieth
century, the social authority to define and interpret deviant behavior has
gradually shifted from religious and political authorities, to medical and
mental health authorities. Medical and mental health authorities commonly
view deviant behavior through the lens of the medical model as being a form
of sickness rather than as sin or crime. Increasingly, lawmakers, courts and
the general public call upon medical and mental health authorities to
function as social control authorities. When these authorities offer
judgements about psychological health and illness, they make implicit
judgements about good and evil. (The concept of sickness as a departure from
biological homeostasis is relatively value-free. However, it is difficult to
escape moral judgements implicit in any concept of "abnormality",
when applied to human behavior.) A good example is how homosexual behavior
was first defined by religious authorities as a sin, and then redefined by
medical authorities (psychiatrists) as a psychological sickness. More
recently, in 1973, homosexual behavior was again redefined by psychiatrists
under political pressure, and normalized as an expression of a
gender-orientation (Bayer 1987). Medical and mental health authorities still
commonly interpret the nature of deviant alcohol and drug use, as being forms
of mental illnesses (Johnson and Waltezko 1992; Roman 1988).
One consequence of the medicalization of social control is that medical and
mental health authorities have been drawn, however reluctantly, into the
arenas of politics, lawmaking, and legal judgements. Other authorities, such
as legislators, police, judges, and juries, increasingly rely upon their
"expertise". The medicalization of social control is a product of
American society's confidence in medical techniques to manage life's
problems. It is not the result of any deliberate planning on the part of
medical and mental health authorities. The metaphor of deviance as sickness
now has such a powerful influence in American popular culture that rapists,
serial murderers, child molesters, habitual gamblers, excessive dieters,
people who commit suicide, and even members of unconventional religious
"cults" are commonly portrayed as "sick" people in mass
media entertainment. As a consequence, allegations of psychological
abnormality often replace allegations of immorality in everyday discourse.
Pfohl (1977) provides an excellent social constructionist analysis of the
political developments leading to the redefinition of violent physical
aggression by parents against children from a crime, to a public health
concern relabeled "child abuse" (see also Howitt 1992). Indications
of severe physical trauma in a child, in cases of a suspected crime were
initially redefined as "symptoms" of the battered child
"syndrome". Thereafter, medical and mental health experts, rather
than police, became the authorities relied upon to define the indicators of
criminal behavior. Parents suspected of "child abuse" were
redefined as possibly "sick" personalities and treated as
"patients", rather than being treated as suspects of crime, and
therefore, fully protected by civil liberties laws. Medical and mental health
authorities were inevitably drawn, however reluctantly, into legal judgements
of parents suspected of engaging in child abuse. Some of them lobbied
government for new laws and more funds to deal with what they claimed was the
discovery of the new and widespread public health problem of "child abuse".
The mass media sensationalized reports about a newly discovered epidemic of
"child abuse", even though there was no scientific evidence that
violent physical assaults against children had increased over past decades.
We can understand the social construction the of concept of ritual child
abuse as similarly a product of the medicalization of social control. The
concept is an extension of sensationalized concern about an epidemic of child
abuse, and later sexual child abuse. Initially, some mental health
specialists who claimed to have developed new medical techniques capable of
detecting illegal sexual contact between adults and children ("sexual
child abuse") believed that their clients' accounts of sexual
victimization by secret satanic cults might be true. These mental health
professionals included some psychotherapists specialized in the treatment of
mental disorders characterized by dissociated memory processes. They claimed
that these disorders were caused primarily by sexual activity forced upon a
child by an adult. (Mulhern 1991, 1994, provides a detailed history of the
roles of these mental health professionals in the social construction of
SRA.) These mental health professionals also included some child protection
social workers specialized in the detection and treatment of sexually
victimized children. (Nathan and Snedeker 1995, provide a detailed study of
the history of the role of these mental health professionals in the social
construction of SRA.)
Psychotherapists specialized in the treatment of dissociative disorders and
social workers specialized in the treatment of sexually victimized children
were drawn into collaboration with each other. They shared a similar focus of
professional interest in sexual child abuse and they also shared a similar
social situation. These specialists were both struggling to gain greater
recognition and respect within their larger community of professionals. If
this important discovery could be confirmed in the courts of law and science,
these specialists would obtain well-deserved recognition and respect for
their newly developing expertise.
These interest groups attempted to publicize their "discovery" of
SRA, by communicating them to other professional specialists, and also to the
general public. In doing so, they influenced professional and public opinion
about claims concerning satanic cult crimes against children. At first, these
specialists organized professional training seminars focusing on the their
techniques for detecting ritual child abuse. Their audiences included diverse
types of other therapists; but also self-proclaimed victims, and interested
non-therapists, such as police, clergy, nurses, and medical doctors (Mulhern
1991; 1994; Victor 1993a). Some of these therapists communicated their "discovery"
of SRA, by publishing articles in specialized professional journals and in
popular culture books. (Examples can be found in: Cozolino 1989; 1990;
Feldman 1993; Fewster 1990; Friesen 1991; Gould and Cozolino 1992; Hill and
Goodwin 1989; Hudson 1991; Kelley 1988; 1989; Mayer 1991; Noblitt and Perskin
1995; Ross 1995; Ryder 1992; Shaffer and Cozolino 1992; Sakheim and Devine
1992; Smith 1993; Smith and Pazder, 1980; Young, Sachs, Braun, and Watkins
1991).
The "discovery" of the ritual sexual abuse of children by secret
satanic cults thrust these marginal specialists into the spotlight of mass
media attention, even when they did not seek it, because their discovery was
so sensational. The mass media quickly responded to the bizarre accounts of
SRA and invited these SRA "experts" to discuss their discovery on
television talk-shows, on radio programs, and in newspaper and magazine
articles (Victor 1993a). The mass media used the dramatic claims of these
"experts" to attract audiences.
Some were also asked to be professional advisors to social movement
organizations concerned with sexual child abuse. Some of them even helped to
lobby state legislatures for new laws to protect children from criminal
satanic cults and were successful in obtaining laws in at least four states.
The passage of special laws against SPA then functioned to provide political
legitimacy to SRA accusations. All of these activities set the stage for a
counter-reaction to claims about SRA.
When some interest groups expand their authority and power, they almost
inevitably encounter opposing interest groups. The SPA claims of
"recovered memory" therapists and child protection social workers
aroused the concerns of many behavioral scientists, as well as
psychotherapists whose therapy was grounded in behavioral and biomedical
treatments. In response, these professionals organized themselves to
influence professional and public opinion, flaming the issue in a civil
liberties context (possibly false accusations and false memories), rather
than one focused on the purported symptoms of psychologically abnormal
behavior (Beckett 1996).
Faulty Techniques for Investigating Deviant
Behavior
Widespread false accusations of deviance are produced, when authorities rely
upon faulty techniques for distinguishing between true and false accusations.
The key problem in investigations of accusations of sexual child abuse,
including SRA accusations, is that reliable, scientific techniques have not
yet been developed for distinguishing between true and false accusations of
child sexual abuse (Ofshe and Watters 1994; Pendergrast 1995; Wakefield and
Underwager 1994; Yapko 1994). Three types of faulty investigative techniques
have been used to detect SPA: 1) those employing unreliable indicators, 2)
those resulting in false confessions and false accusations; and 3) those
resulting in false memories.
Unreliable Indicators
Faulty techniques in the investigation of sexual child abuse include highly
ambiguous check-lists of indicators used by child protection counselors to
identify supposed "symptoms" of sexual abuse in a child's
personality (Nathan and Snedeker 1995). Ambiguous lists of indicators are
also used by psychotherapists to identify the supposed long-range effects of
sexual abuse in the behavior of their adult patients (Lindsay and Read 1994;
Loftus 1993). When authorities rely upon ambiguous indicators of deviance,
false accusations become inevitable. When authorities believe that their
indicators are reliable, an accusation by an authority figure easily leads to
the presumption of guilt.
False Confessions and False Accusations
It was common for investigators in past moral panics to rely upon
manipulative or coercive interrogations to produce false confessions and
false accusations. False confessions coerced by torture were common during
the European witch-hunts. However, voluntary false confessions of witchcraft
also occurred. Frightened women sometimes voluntarily confessed to being
witches and to having had intercourse with the Devil, thereby condemning themselves
to death (Cohn 1975; Jackson 1995; Sebald 1990). The elaborately detailed SRA
accounts from children can also be explained by certain interrogation
techniques (Nathan and Snedeker 1995). Interaction research has shown how
commonly used conversational patterns during interrogations between child
protection workers and children suspected of being sexually abused, can
easily prompt a child's false confirmation of abuse, due to the adult's
authority and child's fear of coercion. (Lloyd 1992).
False Memories
Survey research has found that those psychotherapists who claim to have had
patients with memories of SPA, are also those who are most likely to use
"memory recovery" techniques (Bottoms, Shaver, and Goodman 1996).
Many cognitive psychologists suggest that the "memory recovery"
techniques employed by some therapists to uncover long forgotten
"repressed" memories of childhood sexual abuse, are the means by
which false memories are elicited (Lindsay and Read 1994; Loftus 1993). (Currently,
there is heated scientific debate about whether or not unconscious,
"repressed" memories actually exist.) The label "memory
recovery" technique encompasses a very wide variety of questionable
techniques. These include: hypnosis, guided imagery and visualization exercises,
stream-of-consciousness daily journal writing, interpreting dreams as
messages from the unconscious, interpreting physical symptoms as "body
memories", and interpreting unconscious memories in a patient's
drawings.
Memory recovery techniques easily create false memories resulting from
therapist suggestion effects (Lindsay and Read 1994). In the interaction
between therapist and patient, patients respond to direct or subtle
suggestions from their therapists, by offering accounts of SRA that they
think will please their therapists. In their search for explanations for
their ambiguous anxieties, patients gradually come to believe that their
accounts of SPA are their own, genuine memories of past events. The crucial
factor is the effect of the therapist's authority in influencing a
suggestible patient's perceptions about ambiguous anxieties.
Symbolic Resonance with a Demonology
What is the mechanism whereby shared moral beliefs lead to the consensual
validation of particular claims and accusations of deviance? The concept of a
master frame and framing processes has been employed by sociologists to study
how the ideologies of social movements are linked to the cognitive schema of
individual participants (Hunt, Benford, and Snow 1994; Snow and Benford 1992;
Snow, Rochford, Worden, and Benford 1986). A master frame functions to
organize selective attention to particular problems, to attribute meaning to
them, to articulate relevant events and experiences, to explain the
underlying causes and to propose solutions. A demonology cognitively
functions like a master frame for interpreting possible threats to people's
shared moral values. Claims about a threat from moral deviants are viewed
through the perceptual lens of culturally shared demonologies, especially when
there is great ambiguity and little manifest evidence to verify the claims.
Some anthropologists use the term "demonology" to refer to the core
of a moral belief system, that cognitively organizes that system of moral
thought. A demonology is an explanation of the ultimate power that threatens
to destroy the moral order of a society. Stevens (1991:21) defines a
demonology as "an ideology of evil, a elaborate body of belief about an
evil force that is inexorably undermining society's most cherished values and
institutions". I use the term "symbolic resonance with a
demonology", to indicate that certain purported threats may be
symbolically consistent, or resonant, with a demonology and are more likely
to be attributed credibility, whereas others are ignored and disregarded
because they are inconsistent. The cultural symbols of specific claims about
moral threats may be consistent (or resonant) with the demonologies held by
specific interest groups. This consistency contributes to their consensual
validation of the reality of those claims within groups(3).
In other words, people who share a moral belief system are likely to
selectively define certain purported moral threats, and not others, as ones
to be taken seriously by society. For example, in my research on the
dissemination of satanic cult crime stories, I found that fearful satanic
cult rumors spread more rapidly through particular social networks in which
people shared moral beliefs. Curiously, specific social and communication
networks, and not others, functioned as selective conduits for the
contemporary legend stories, transmitting claims about threats and giving the
claims consensual validation (Victor 1993a). My research found that claims
and accusations about SRA are symbolically resonant with three different
demonologies. These are 1) Christian traditionalist, 2) social conservative
and 3) feminist.
The Traditional Christian Demonology
People who accept the Christian traditionalist demonology regard the ultimate
cause of evil, as being due to the activities or workings of Satan. In this
frame, Satan-worshippers are seen as being actual agents of Satan, who are
trying to spread immorality of all kinds, in order to destroy the moral order
of American society and hasten Satan's take over of the world. The logic is
that if good people are working for God, than evil people must be working for
Satan. Thus, satanic cult crime and SRA in particular are simply more
examples of the growing moral corruption in American society by
"evil" people, who reject God and true Christianity (Jenkins 1992;
Jenkins and Maier-Katkin 1992; Lippert 1990; Victor 1994). An increasing
number of psychotherapists identify themselves as being "Christian
therapists". (Goleman 1991).
The Social Conservative Demonology
People who hold the social conservative demonology regard "liberal
permissiveness" as the underlying cause of most social evils. In this
frame, "ritualistic crime" is seen as being a product of the
hedonistic pursuit of pleasure and power and the increasing climate of moral
permissiveness. SRA is viewed as being one more manifestation of the moral
decline and corruption of American society, which has its source in the moral
anarchy of the 1960s. The social conservative demonology is most likely to be
found among local police who are self-proclaimed experts in investigating
satanic cult crime (Hicks 1991).
The Feminist Demonology
There are different feminist ideologies. Some emphasize socio-economic
inequality as being the essential destructive force in society. However,
other feminist ideologies hold a demonology that regards male dominance in
society (patriarchy) and its exploitation of women and children as the
essential underlying threat to the moral order of society. Feminist
psychotherapists and social workers, who hold the latter demonology, are
those most likely to attribute credibility to accusations of SRA (Nathan
1991; Nathan and Snedeker 1995; Victor 1993a). They frame SRA accusations in
terms of an analogy with the victimization of women by male sexual aggression,
as in cases of rape, incest and sexual harassment. They see ritual child
abuse as one more example of the hidden sexual exploitation of women and
children They regard skepticism about accusations of SRA, as one more attempt
by men to discredit women and children's testimony about their sexual
victimization by men. Yet, they ignore the fact that many of the people who
have been accused of SRA are mothers and female childcare workers.
PART III CROSS-NATIONAL CULTURAL DIFFUSION OF
MORAL PANICS
Accusations, claims and rumors about satanic cult crime have surfaced in many
countries other than the United
States since the mid-1980s. These
countries include: Canada (Lippert 1990), the United Kingdom (Jenkins 1992;
La Fontaine 1994), Australia (Guilliantt 1996; Richardson 1997), New Zealand
(Hill and Barnett 1994), the Netherlands (Netherlands Ministry of Justice
1994), Norway (Dyrendal 1998), and Sweden. Some psychotherapists suggest that
the vivid accounts of SRA, given by children and adult psychotherapy patients
in so many different nations, are evidence that secret, criminal satanic
cults exist around the world. They assume that it is impossible for accounts
of victimization that are so similar, to surface about the same time, in so
many distant countries. However, sociologists and anthropologists who are
familiar with past examples of cultural diffusion are likely to be quite
skeptical of such an assumption.
One informative example took place in the twelfth century and involved
accusations remarkably similar to those of ritual child abuse. Accusations of
ritual child murder made against the Jews originated in twelfth century England, then traveled quickly across the
English Channel to northern France,
and from there to Germany,
Spain
and the rest of Christian Europe (Langmuir 1990). These false accusations
spread across many different societies, long before the existence of modern
mass media. The accusations are known as "the blood libel".
A study of cross-national cultural diffusion between social movements by
McAdam and Rucht (1993) offers useful theoretical principles for
understanding the cultural diffusion of collective behavior. McAdam and
Rucht's study is particularly important, because moral panics are spread by
social movements, at least in part. In the case of SRA accusations, Christian
fundamentalist and feminist social movements played a central role. McAdam
and Rucht emphasize that the transmission of new ideas from one society to
another is more likely, the more similar the culture, social organization and
social roles in the recipient society. Particularly important for the
transmission of new ideas between social movements are similarities in
language, ideologies and the occupations of activists. Secondly, McAdam and
Rucht suggest that there must exist social networks of contact and channels
of communication between people playing similar institutional roles in the
sending and recipient societies. More specifically, there must first be to be
direct, interpersonal contacts. These direct contacts activate selective
attention to indirect channels of communication, such as newspapers,
magazines, television, radio, books, and professional journals.
There are significant differences between the cross-national diffusion of new
ideas used by social movements and the diffusion of the causes of moral
panics. The main content transmitted between social movements involves
movement tactics and the elaboration of ideological theory. In contrast, the
main content transmitted in moral panics involves: 1) contemporary legend
stories, claims, and accusations about a newly perceived threat from
deviants, and 2) new techniques for detecting deviants. Unfortunately, there
is space in this article only to outline my findings about the transmission
of these contents about satanic cult crime from the United States to other countries.
My sources included newspaper and magazine articles, as well as personal
communications with scholars in other countries (Victor 1993a).
Similarities between Transmitter and Adopters
One obvious similarity between the various societies in which satanic cult
crime stories have appeared is that of language. All are societies in which
English is either the primary language, or a common second language. The
shared language facilitates rapid communication, both through direct
interpersonal contacts and through indirect channels of communication.
A second similarity is the existence of sizable population subgroups that
share ideologies containing the same demonologies. More specifically, all the
societies where SRA accusations have surfaced contain relatively influential
groups of fundamentalist Protestant Christians, as well as feminists.
Another key similarity is the existence of similar occupations. In these
societies, medical and mental health professionals (especially
psychotherapists and child protection workers), fundamentalist clergymen,
local police, and journalists have publicized claims about satanic cult
crime. Many of the claims-makers in these occupations hold either a Christian
traditionalist or feminist demonology. These professionals are able to make
personal contact with their American counterparts at international
conferences in the United
States or in their home countries.
Thereafter, they establish more personal social networks and channels of
communication.
A contrast with a culture where claims about satanic cult crime have not
taken root is useful. In France,
SRA accusations being made in American society and nearby England are regarded with
ridicule, if they are known at all. Journalists and popular writers are often
quite critical of the foibles of American culture and often resistant to what
they consider to be cultural fads coming from America. In France, only 17% of the population believe in
the existence of the Devil compared with 65% in the U.S., according to opinion polls
(Gallup 1982:98). Fundamentalist Protestantism has no political significance.
French feminism, which centers its demonology upon a critique of the
capitalist elite and socioeconomic injustice, is ideologically quite
different from Anglo-American feminism. It is likely that cross-national,
personal contacts between people in the same occupations, such as medical
doctors, psychotherapists and police, are relatively uncommon, due in part to
language and cultural differences.
Channels of Communication
Americans communicated claims about satanic cult crime to foreign nationals
through direct interpersonal contacts at professional conferences for therapists,
social workers, police, clergy, and journalists. These conferences were
located in the United
States, or in the home countries, where
American "experts" were often invited to share their new ideas.
Some of these conferences offered training sessions in how to identify
satanic cult crime, or symptoms of SRA (Mulhern 1994). (The spread of new
ideas via this means is familiar to many scholars.) It is through direct
contacts such as these, that claims about secret satanic cults spread very
quickly from the U.S., to Canada and the United
Kingdom The indirect, non-relational channels which
transmitted satanic cult crime stories from the U.S. included elements of the
mass media. Christian books about satanic cult crime were quickly reprinted
for Protestant fundamentalists in other countries, or sold in
English-language versions. American television talk shows presenting
testimonials by SRA survivors were broadcast in some English speaking
countries. They quickly produced their own homegrown products with similar
content. American pop culture magazines circulate in English-speaking
countries. Foreign newspapers and magazines reported stories about SRA, often
citing American "experts" in the study of SRA. The existence of
these mass media presentations means that some patients in psychotherapy and
some children were familiar with SRA allegations, shortly after they first
surfaced in the United
States.
More important than indirect mass media channels of communication were
professional channels. Foreign medical doctors and psychotherapists commonly
subscribe to specialized American professional journals, as a source of new
ideas. The journal of the International Society for the Study of Multiple
Personality and Dissociation (Dissociation) offered several early articles
identifying SRA as a real and serious concern (Hill and Goodwin 1989). In
addition, American-made lists of symptoms of SRA and mimeographed conference
papers about SRA written by American "experts" circulated widely in
Europe (Kaye and Klein 1987). These were
then cited as authoritative sources about SRA, in the professional papers of
English-speaking, European mental health specialists. As a result, Europeans
were quick to apply the very same faulty investigative techniques that
contributed to causing the American moral panic over SRA.
In conclusion, the cross-national diffusion of claims, accusations and rumors
about deviance which cause moral panics, occurs through similar social
processes as those which account for their diffusion within a heterogeneous,
industrial society. Claims about a threat from newly perceived deviance
travel faster through specific social networks and communication channels,
where they are attributed credibility by authorities and by a shared
demonology. The key phenomena is differential social and communication
networks.
SUMMARY
This article developed a theory of moral panics and illustrated the theory
with research about the moral panic over ritual child abuse by satanic cults.
The theory is designed to explain forms of collective behavior previously
labeled witchhunts, persecutions, panics, scares, and purges. It is drawn
from symbolic interactionist theory and a social constructionist perspective
on deviance perspective.
A moral panic can be defined as a societal response to beliefs about a threat
from newly perceived moral deviants. A moral panic has five distinguishing
characteristics. First, the societal reaction shows volatility in the form of
a sudden eruption and subsiding of concern about the threat. Second, the
concern about the threat is widespread in a society. Third, the purported
deviants are regarded as a threat to the basic moral values of the society.
Fourth, there is consensus in significant segments of the population that the
threat is real. Fifth, concern about the threat is disproportional to
empirical measures of harm from the purported deviants. The possible causes
of moral panics can be analyzed by employing three models of moral panics: 1)
a grass roots model, 2) an elite-engineered model, and 3) an interest group
model
The moral panic over satanic ritual abuse is best understood through use of
the interest group model. The underlying causes of a moral panic promoted by
interest groups include the following four social conditions. First, there is
a widespread belief in the existence of a threat from new forms of deviance,
spread by contemporary legend rumors and the mass media. Social control
authorities then legitimize the belief. Second, a new form of authority is
expanding its jurisdiction over the social control of deviance. Third, the
new authorities employ faulty techniques for investigating deviance that
cannot adequately distinguish between true and false accusations of deviance.
Fourth, there exists a symbolic consistency (resonance) between the purported
threat and a widely held demonology, which functions as a cognitive frame
about the ultimate nature of "evil". These four social conditions
operate simultaneously to socially construct definitions of deviance. The
definitions of deviance constructed by a moral panic take the form of
stereotypes of actual deviants, or even imaginary deviants (as is the case of
satanic cult criminals). The key social processes influencing belief in a
threat from moral deviants within interest groups are: 1) legitimization of
belief by authority and 2) the consensual validation of reality.
The cross-national diffusion of the causes of moral panics involves: 1) the
communication of claims, rumors and accusations about the newly perceived
threat from moral deviants and 2) the communication of faulty techniques for
detecting the deviants. Cross-national communication requires certain
similarities between transmitters in one society and adopters in the
receiving society; particularly in language, culturally inherited demonology,
and occupational roles. The cross-national diffusion of the conditions that
cause moral panics also requires specific channels of communication.
Initially, there must be direct interpersonal contacts. That encourages
selective attention to indirect channels of communication, via the mass media
and special interest publications. Requirements for the cross-national
diffusion of a moral panic are essentially similar to those that account for
the internal diffusion within a society of claims, rumors and accusations of
deviance: differential social and communication networks.
NOTES
1. Moral panics are a product of socio-political processes and not
psychological characteristics of individuals, such as suggestibility, a
disposition to fantasize, delusions, or personal anxieties. The implications
of this concept sharply differ from psychiatric concepts, such as "mass
hysteria" or "emotional contagion". Psychiatric concepts focus
upon emotionality (labeled as "irrational"). In contrast, the
concept of moral panic focuses upon cognition and communication behavior. A
sociological analysis of the mass adoption of the sick role in outbreaks of
unusual collective behavior, often labeled "mass psychogenic
illness", can be found in Bartholomew (1994) and Gehlen (1977). Also,
see Bartholomew (1990) and Stallings (1994) for recent critiques of the mass
hysteria and emotional contagion concepts.
2. Criticism of social constructionism has emphasized that this perspective
ignores the "objective" realities of deviant behavior, such as the
empirically verifiable physical, psychological and interpersonal harms that
may result from certain behaviors (Miller and Holstein 1993). The criticism
suggests that the social constructionist perspective regards claims-making about
deviance, as if it comes into existence entirely unrelated to any objective
empirical measures of harm done by deviant behavior in a society. In
response, social constructionists argue that a "contextual" form of
social constructionist research does relate the claims defining deviance to
empirical measures of those claims (Best 1993). My analysis of SRA
accusations follows the contextual form of social constructionist
3. I don't wish to deny that many people's critical thinking ability can lead
them to be personally skeptical about claims that are consistent with their
moral beliefs. However, it is quite another matter for individuals to
challenge the conformity pressures that enforce consensual beliefs within
their own social networks.
REFERENCES
Andrews, Bernice, Morton, John, Berkerian, Debra, Brewin, Chris, Davies,
Graham, and Mollon, Phil. 1995."The Recovery of Memories in Clinical
Practice: Experiences and Beliefs of British Psychological Society
Practitioners". The Psychologist May: 209-214.
Bartholomew, Robert E. 1990. "Ethnocentricity and the Social
Construction of 'Mass Hysteria'". Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry
14(4):455-494.
-----. 1994. "Tarantism, Dancing Mania and Demonopathy:The
Anthro-Political Aspects of 'Mass Psychogenic Illness'". Psychological
Medicine 24:281-306.
Bayer, Ronald. 1987. Homosexuality and American Psychiatry. Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University
Press.
Beckett, Katherine. 1996. "Culture and the Politics of Signification:
The Case of Child Sexual Abuse". Social Problems 43(1):57-76.
Ben-Yehuda, Nachman. 1981. "The European Witch Craze of the 14th to 16th
Centuries: Sociologist's Perspective'" American Journal of Sociology
86(1):1-31.
Best, Joel. 1989. Images and Issues: Typifying Contemporary Social Problems. New York: Aldine De
Gruyter.
-----. 1990. Threatened Children: Rhetoric and Concern about Child-Victims. Chicago: University
of Chicago.
-----. 1993. "But Seriously Folks: the Limitations of the Strict
Constructionist Interpretation of Social Problems". Pp. 109-127 in:
Constructionist Controversies: Issues In Social Problems Theory, edited by
Gale Miller and James A. Holstein. New
York: Aldine De Gruyter.
Best, Joel, and Gerald T Horiuchi. 1985 "The Razor Blade in the Apple:
The Social Construction of Urban Legends. Social Problems 32(5):488-499.
Bottoms, Bette L., Shaver, Phillip R., and Goodman, Gail S. 1996. "An
Analysis of Ritualistic and Religion-Related Child Abuse Allegations".
Law and Human Behavior 20(1):134.
Campion-Vincent, Veronique. 1990. "The Baby-Parts Story: a Latin
American Legend." Western Folklore 49(1):9-26.
-----. 1997. La Legend Des Vols D'Organes. Paris, France:
Les Belles Lettres.
Caute, David. 1978. The Great Fear. New
York: Simon and Schuster.
Cohen, Stanley. 1972. Folk Devils and Moral Panics. New
York: St. Martin's
Cohn, Norman.
1975. Europe's Inner Demons. New York: New American
Library.
Conrad, Peter. 1992. "Medicalization and Social Control'. Annual Review
of Sociology 18: 209-232.
Conrad, Peter, and Joseph W. Schneider. 1992. Deviance and Medicalization:
From Badness to Sickness. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Cozolino, Louis J. 1989. "The Ritual Abuse of Children: Implications for
Clinical Practice and Research". Journal of Sex Research 26(1):131-138.
-----. 1990 "Ritual Child Abuse, Psychopathology, and Evil".
Journal of Psychology and Theology 18(3):218-227.
Crouch, Ben M., and Kelly R. Damphousse. 1992. "Newspapers and the
Antisatanism Movement: A Content Analysis". Sociological Spectrum
12:1-20.
Currie, Elliott P. 1986. "Crimes Without Criminals: Witchcraft and its
Control in Renaissance Europe". Law and
Society Review 3(1):7-32.
Dyrendal, Asbjorn. 1998. "Media Constructions of 'Satanism' in Norway,
1988-1997" Foaf-Tale News 43:2-5.
Ellis, Bill. 1990. "Introduction: Contemporary Legends in
Emergence". Western Folklore. 49(1):1-7.
False Memory Syndrome Foundation. 1996. Personal Communication.
-----. 1998. "Data Excerpted from the FMSF Legal Survey, January 1998:
Sample of Reports of Lawsuits Brought Against Mental Health Care Workers
Alleging Creation of False Memory Syndrome Through the Use of Repressed
Memory Therapy". Printed report. (3401 Market Street, Suite 130, Philadelphia,
PA, 19104).
Feldman, Gail Carr. 1993. Lessons in Evil, Lessons from the Light. New York: Crown.
Fewster, Gerry. (Editor) 1990. "In the Shadow of Satan. Journal of Child
and Youth (Calgary, Canada). special issue.
Friesen, James G. 1991. Uncovering the Mystery of MPD. San Bernardino, GA:
Here's Life Pub.
Gallup, George, Jr. 1982. Adventures in Immortality. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Gehlen, Frieda L. 1977."Toward a Revised Theory of Hysterical
Contagion". Journal of Health and Social Behavior 18:27-35.
Gibson, James. 1988. "Political Intolerance and Political Repression
during the Red Scare". American Political Science Review 82(2):511-529.
Goleman, Daniel. 1991. "Therapists See Religion as Aid, Not
Illusion". New York Times Sept.10:C1 & C8.
Goode, Erich, and Nachman Ben-Yehuda. 1994. Moral Panics: The Social
Construction of Deviance. Cambridge,
MA: Blackwell.
Goodman, Gail, Qin, Jianjian, Bottoms, Bette, and Shaver, Phillip R. 1995.
Characteristics and Sources of Allegations of Ritualistic Child Abuse. Final
Report to the National
Center on Child Abuse
and Neglect. Washington, DC:
National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect.
Gould, Catherine, and Louis J. Cozolino. 1992. "Ritual Abuse,
Multiplicity, and Mind Control". Journal of Psychology and Theology
18(3):194-196.
Guilliatt, Richard. 1996. Talk of the Devil: Repressed Memory and the Ritual
Abuse Witch-Hunt. Melbourne,
Australia:
The Text Publishing Co.
Hicks, Robert. 1991. In Pursuit of Satan. Buffalo, NY:
Prometheus Press.
Hill, Michael, and Jenny Barnett. 1994. "Religion and Deviance".
In: Paul F. Green (ed.). Studies in New Zealand
Social Problems, 2nd Ed. Palmerston North, New
Zealand: Dunmore
Press, 231-249.
Hill, Sally and Jean Goodwin. 1989. "Satanism: Similarities between
Patient Accounts and Pre-Inquisition Historical Sources". Dissociation
2(1):39-43.
Howitt, Dennis. 1992. Child Abuse Errors. When Good Intentions Go Wrong. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Hsia, R. Po-Chia. 1988. The Myth of Ritual Murder: Jews and Magic in
Reformation. Germany.
New Haven, CT:
Yale University Press.
Hudson, Pamela S. 1991. Ritual Child Abuse: Discovery, Diagnosis and
Treatment. Sarasota, CA: R & E. Publishers.
Hunt, Scott; Benford, Robert, and Snow, David. 1994. "Identity Fields:
Framing Processes and the Social Construction of Movement Identities".
In New Social Movements: From Ideology to Identity, edited by Enrich Larana,
Hank Johnson, and Joseph Gusfield. Philadelphia:Temple University Press, 183-208.
Irons, Peter. 1974. "The Cold War Crusade of the United States
Chamber of Commerce". In The Specter, edited by Robert Griffith and
Athan Theoharis. New York:
Franklin Watts, 74-89.
Jackson, Louise. 1995. 'Witches, Wives and Mothers: Witchcraft Persecutions
and Women's Confessions in Seventeenth-Century England". Women's History
Review 4(1):63-83.
Jenkins, Phillip. 1992. Intimate Enemies: Moral Panics In Contemporary Great
Britain New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
Jenkins, Philip, and Daniel Maier-Katkin. 1992. "Satanism: Myth and
Reality in a Contemporary Moral Panic". Crime, Law and Social Change
17:53-75.
Johnson, John M., and Linda Waletzko. 1992. "Drugs and Crime: A Study in
the Medicalization of Crime Control. Perspectives in Social Problems. JAI
Press, 3:197-219
Johnson, Tim. 1994. "Rumors, Rage, Xenophobia in Guatemala".
Miami Herald
March 29.
Kaye, Maribeth, and Lawrence Klein. 1987. "Clinical Indicators of
Satanic Cult Victimization". Mimeographed paper presented to the Fourth
International Conference on Multiple Personality/Dissociation, Chicago.
Kelley, Susan S. 1988. "Ritualistic Abuse of Children: Dynamics and
Impact". Cultic Studies Journal 5(2):228-236.
-----. 1989. "Stress Responses of Children to Sexual Abuse and
Ritualistic Abuse in Day Care Centers" Journal of Interpersonal Violence
4(4):502-513.
Klemke, Lloyd W., and Gary H. Tiedeman. 1990. "Toward an Understanding
of False Accusations: the Pure Case of Deviant Labeling. In Deviant Behavior:
Readings in
the Sociology of Norm Violations, edited by Clifton D. Bryant. New York: Hemisphere
Pub., 266-28
La Fontaine, J. S. 1994. The Extent and Nature of Organized and Ritual Abuse:
Research Findings. United Kingdom Department of Health Report. London, United
Kingdom: HMSO Publications.
Langmuir, Gavin I. 1990. Toward a Definition of Antisemitism.
Berkeley, CA.
University of California Press.
Langum, David J. 1994. Crossing Over the Line: Legislating Morality and the
Mann Act. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
Lanning, Kenneth V. 1992. Investigator's Guide to Allegations of
"Ritual" Child Abuse. Quantico, VA: National
Center for the Analysis
of Violent Crime, Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Levack, Brian P. 1987. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe.
New York:
Longman.
Lindsay, D. Stephen, and J. Don Read. 1994. "Incest Resolution
Psychotherapy and Memories of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Cognitive Perspective".
Applied Cognitive Psychology 8:281-338.
Lippert, R. 1990. "The Social Construction of Satanism as a Social
Problem in Canada".
Canadian Journal of Sociology. 15(4):417-439.
Lloyd, Robin IC 1992. "Negotiating Child Sexual Abuse:The Interactional Character
of Investigative Practices". Social Problems 39(2):109-124.
Loftus, Elizabeth F. 1993. "The Reality of Repressed Memories".
American Psychologist 48(5):518-537.
Lopez, Laura. 1994. "Dangerous Rumors". Time April 18.
Mayer, Robert S. 1991. Satan's Children: Case Studies in Multiple
Personality. New York:
G. P. Putnam.
McAdam, Doug, and Rucht, Dieter. 1993. "The Cross-National Diffusion of
Movement Ideas". Annals of the American Association of Political and
Social Sciences 528:56-74.
McRobbie, Angela, and Thornton, Sarah. 1995. "Rethinking 'Moral Panic'
for Multi-Mediated Social Worlds". British Journal of Sociology.
46(4):1-17.
Michigan State Police. 1990. Michigan State Police Occult Survey. East Lansing: Michigan
State Police
Investigative Services Unit.
Miller, Gale, and Holstein, James A. (eds.)
1993. Constructionist Controversies: Issues In Social Problems Theory. New York: Aldine De
Gruyter.
Morin, Edgar. 1971. Rumour In Orleans
New York: Random House.
Mulhern, Sherrill. 1991. "Satanism and Psychotherapy: A Rumor in Search
of an Inquisition". In The Satanism Scare, edited by James T.
Richardson, Joel Best and David G. Bromley. New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 145-172.
-----. "Satanism, Ritual Abuse, and Multiple Personality Disorder: A Sociohistorical
Perspective". The International Journal of Clinical and Experimental
Hypnosis 42(4):265-288.
Nathan, Debbie. 1991. "Satanism and Child Molestation: Constructing the
Ritual Abuse Scare". In James Richardson, Joel Best and David Bromley
(eds.). The Satanism Scare. New
York: Aldine de Gruyter, 75-94.
Nathan, Debbie, and Snedeker, Michael. 1995. Satan's Silence: Ritual Abuse
and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt. New York: Basic Books.
Netherlands Ministry of Justice. 1994. Report of the Working Group on Ritual
Abuse. Den Haag, The Netherlands:
Direction of Constitutional and Criminal Law. (English translation by Jan
Willem Nienhuys).
Noblitt, J. R., and Perskin, P.S. 1995. Cult and Ritual Abuse. Westport, CT:
Praeger.
Ofshe, Richard and E. Watters. 1994. Making Monsters: False Memories
Psychotherapy, and Sexual Hysteria. New
York: Scribners.
Parr, Loni E. 1996. Repressed Memory Claims in the Crime Victims Compensation
Program. Olympia,
WA.: Department of Labor and Industries.
Pendergrast, Mark. 1995. Victims of Memory: Incest Accusations and Shattered
Lives. Hinesburg, VT: Upper Access Books.
Pfohl, Stephen S. 1977. "The 'Discovery' of Child Abuse". Social
Problems 24:310-323.
Poole, Debra; Lindsay, D. Steven; Memon,
Amina, and Bull, Ray. 1995. "Psychotherapy and the Recovery of Memories
of Childhood Sexual Abuse: U.S.
and British Practitioner's Opinions, Practices, and Experiences".
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 63(3):426-437.
Richardson, James T. 1997. "The Social Construction of Satanism:
Understanding an International Social Problem" Australian Journal of
Social Issues 32(1):61-85.
Roman, Paul M. 1988. "The Disease Concept of Alcoholism: Sociocultural
and Organizational Bases of Support" Drugs and Society 2(3):5-32.
Ross, Colin. 1995. Satanic Ritual Abuse: Principles of Treatment. Toronto, Canada:
University of Toronto.
Ross, A. 1994. "Blame it on the Devil". Redbook June: 86-89. 110,
114, 118.
Ryder, Daniel. 1992. Breaking the Circle of Satanic Ritual Abuse. Minneapolis: CompCare.
Sakheim, David K., and Susan E. Devine (eds.). 1992. Out of Darkness:
Exploring Satanism and Ritual Abuse. New York:
Lexington
Books.
Sebald, Hans. 1990. "Witches' Confessions: Stereotypical Structure and
Local Color". Southern Humanities Review 24(4):301-319.
Shaffer, Ruth E., and Louis J. Cozolino. 1992. "Adults Who Report
Childhood Ritualistic Abuse". Journal of Psychology and Theology
18(3):188-193.
Smith, Margaret. 1993. Ritual Abuse: What it is, Why it Happens, How to Help.
New York:
HarperCollins.
Smith, Michelle, and Lawrence
Pazder. 1980. Michelle Remembers. New
York: Congdon & Latte. (Paperback edition by
Pocket Books, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981).
Snow, David A., Rochford, E. Burke, Worden, and Steven; Benford. 1986.
"Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement
Participation". American Sociological Review 51:464-481.
Snow, David and Benford, Robert. 1992. "Master Frames and Cycles of
Protest". In Frontiers of Social Movement Theory, edited by Aldon Morris
and Carol Mueller. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press,
133-155.
Stallings, Robert A. 1994."Collective Behavior Theory and the Study of
Mass Hysteria". In Russell Dynes and Kathleen Tierney (eds.). Disasters,
Collective Behavior and Social Organization. Wilmington,
DE: University of Delaware
Press, 207-228.
Stevens, Phillips. 1991. "The Demonology of Satanism: An Anthropological
View". In: James Richardson; Joel Best, and David Bromley (eds.). The
Satanism Scare. New York:
Aldine de Gruyter, 21-40.
Victor, Jeffrey S. 1989. "A Rumor-Panic about a Dangerous Satanic Cult
in Western New York". New York Folklore 15(1-2):23-49.
-----. 1990. "Satanic Cult Rumors as Contemporary Legends". Western
Folklore 49(1):51-81.
-----. 1991. "The Dynamics of Rumor-Panics about Satanic Cults".
In: James Richardson; Joel Best and David Bromley (eds.). The Satanism Scare.
New York:
Aldine de Gruyter, 221-236.
-----. 1992. "The Search for Scapegoat Deviants". The Humanist
52(5):10-13.
-----. 1993a. Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend. Chicago:Open Court.
-----. 1993b. "The Sociology of Contemporary Legends: A Review of the
Use of the Concept by Sociologists". Contemporary Legend 4:63-84.
-----. 1994. "Fundamentalist Religion and the Moral Crusade Against
Satanism: The Social Construction of Deviance". Deviant Behavior
15:169-198.
-----. 1995. "Satanic Panic Update: The Dangers of Moral Panics".
Skeptic 3(3): 44-5 1.
-----. 1996. "How Should Stories of Satanic Cults Be Understood? Harvard
Mental Health Letter 12(6):8.
Virginia State Crime Commission Task Force.
1991. Final Report of the Task Force Studying Ritual Crime. Richmond:
Virginia State Crime Commission.
Wakefield,
Hollida, and Ralph Underwager. 1994. Return of the Furies: An Investigation
into Recovered Memory Therapy. Chicago:
Open Court.
Yapko, Michael. 1994. Suggestions of Abuse: True and False Memories of
Childhood Sexual Abuse. New York:
Simon and Schuster.
Young, Walter C., Sachs, Roberta G., Braun, Bennett G., and Watkins, Ruth T.
1991. "Patients Reporting Ritual Abuse in Childhood: A Clinical
Syndrome. Report of 37 Cases". Child Abuse and Neglect 15:181-189.
Jeffrey S. Victor is Professor of Sociology at State University of New York, Jamestown Community College. He received his Ph.D.
from SUNY at Buffalo
in 1974. His books include Human Sexuality: A Social Psychological Approach,
and Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend, which received the
H. L. Mencken Book Award for 1993.
|