Library:Satan's Silence
| Satan's Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt | |
|---|---|
| Author | Debbie Nathan & Michael Snedeker |
| First published | 1995 |
| ISBN | — |
| Role | Analysis |
| Domains | Crime & Public Safety Society, Identity & Demographics |
| Tactics | Propaganda Technique Pseudoscience / Junk Science |
Satan's Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt is a 1995 book by Debbie Nathan & Michael Snedeker.
Summary
Journalist Debbie Nathan and defense lawyer Michael Snedeker examine the satanic ritual abuse panic of the 1980s and early 1990s, when day care workers across the United States were accused of bizarre abuse based largely on children's testimony obtained through suggestive interviews.
Key points
- Cases. The authors review prosecutions such as the McMartin Preschool and Kelly Michaels cases.
- Interview methods. Repetitive, leading questioning of young children produced accounts of impossible events.
- Wider forces. The book links the panic to anxieties about day care, therapists' theories and media coverage.
Relevance to Bullshitopedia
The book is a detailed account of one of the clearest modern moral panics and of how well-intentioned investigators produced false evidence.
Related entries
- Satanic ritual abuse at the McMartin Preschool
- Folk Devils and Moral Panics
- The Myth of Repressed Memory