The Satanic panic
A fear in the 1980s and early 1990s, mainly in the United States, that secret Satanic cults were abusing children.
Also: satanic ritual abuse panic, SRA, ritual abuse scare
The scare grew from the 1980 book Michelle Remembers, co-written by a psychiatrist and his patient, and from the McMartin preschool case in California, which began in 1983 and ended without convictions after years of trial. Cases in many US states, Britain and elsewhere followed, backed by recovered-memory therapy and by training for police and social workers. Investigations, including a 1992 FBI report by Kenneth Lanning, found no evidence of an organised network of Satanic cults. Several convicted people were later freed, and the book's claims were discredited. Sociologists treat it as a moral panic. Real child abuse exists, and critics argue that the panic harmed genuine investigation as well as innocent people.