WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE FOR “RITUAL ABUSE”?
Supervisory Special Agent Kenneth Lanning, MS, of the FBI, with extensive experience consulting on multi-victim, multi-perpetrator child sexual abuse cases, concluded that there is no evidence for a widespread satanic conspiracy perpetrating cult-based ritual abuse (Lanning, 1992). Other reputable nationwide studies support this conclusion (Bottoms, Shaver, & Goodman, in press). Because professionals disagree about what constitutes “ritual abuse,” and no mechanisms are in place at the local, state, or national levels to track reports of ritual abuse or to investigate the validity of ritual elements, no reliable data are available about its prevalence. A recent nationwide study has concluded that many allegations of abuse now referred to as “ritualistic” have nothing to do with supernatural beliefs, Satanists, or organized cults (Bottoms, Shaver, & Goodman, in press). In one national research study of sexual abuse in day care (Finkelhor & Williams, 1988), one or more ritual elements wer
