What hysteria?, Cult and Ritual abuse reviews

from http://ritualabuse.us

What hysteria? A systematic study of newspaper coverage of accused child molesters - Ross E. Cheit - Child Abuse & Neglect 27 (2003) 607-623 Results: Most defendants (56.1%) were not mentioned in the newspaper. Factors associated with a greater chance of coverage include: cases involving first-degree charges, cases with multiple counts,cases involving additional violence or multiple victims, and cases resulting in long prison sentences. The data indicate that the press exaggerates “stranger danger,” while intra-familial cases are underreported. Newspaper accounts also minimize the extent to which guilty defendants avoid prison. Conclusions: Generalizing about the nature of child molestation cases in criminal court on the basis of newspaper coverage is inappropriate. The coverage is less extensive than often claimed, and it is skewed in ways that are typical of the mass media....Conclusions - The findings in this study dispute many popular claims about “media hysteria” over child sexual abuse. Based on a comprehensive analysis of all those charged with this crime in Rhode Island in 1 year, it is clear that the coverage was generally limited and often nonexistent. More than half the people charged with child molestation never had their name in the newspaper. Only a handful of those covered received anything more than a few stories, and much of that in brief “fillers” (under 200 words). The lack of support for the “hysteria” position is all the more significant because most of the coverage in this study was in 1993. That is the year that Jenkins (1996) called “the peak of media concern” about pedophile priests. Newsweek had a cover story in 1993 about the so-called “hysteria” about child sexual abuse (Shapiro, 1993). This study suggests that the hysteria narrative does not have comprehensive empirical support in the real world. Like an urban legend, this narrative is continually told and accepted without appropriate skepticism.
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Cult and ritual abuse: Its history, anthropology, and recent discovery in contemporary America, (rev.ed.). Noblitt, James Randall; Perskin, Pamela Sue Westport, CT, US: Praeger Publishers/Greenwood Publishing Group. (2000). xvii, 269 pp. Abstract A personal but also scholarly journey into the clandestine and confusing world of ritual abuse, this book provides unique insights into the catastrophic experiences of ritual abuse survivors and their efforts to find healing through psychological treatment. This revised edition provides contemporary revelations about cults in existence today and also new therapies developed since the first edition was published in 1995. The special legal dilemmas, survival problems and day-to-day life experiences of these survivors are examined in a scholarly but sensitive manner. The book presents the idea that ritual abuse is an age-old phenomenon found in many cultures throughout the world. That ritual abuse causes a variety of specific psychiatric symptoms is noted. Special attention is given to the diagnosis dissociative identity disorder that is frequently found among ritual abuse survivors. Suggestions are offered for effectively dealing with the various social and legal problems that result from this severe form of abuse. New diagnoses--cult and ritual trauma disorder--are proposed for this newly identified problem. http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&uid=2000-05295-000


Cult and Ritual Abuse: Sadism Not Sophism A review of Cult and Ritual Abuse: Its History, Anthropology, and Recent Discovery in Contemporary America (Rev. ed.) by James Randall Noblitt and Pamela Sue Perskin Westport, CT: Praeger/Greenwood, 2000. 269 pp. ISBN 0-275-96665-8. $24.95 paperback Reviewed by John Schmuttermaier The authors provide a comprehensive and well-documented account of the two forms of ritualized abused: ritual abuse and satanic ritual abuse.... At first, Noblitt was incredulous and did not take his patients seriously. What finally convinced him were the “comparable reports from other patients” (p. xiv) who were exhibiting the “same cluster of psychiatric symptoms” (p. xiv). Discussions with his colleagues revealed that they also had patients reporting similar stories of abuse (p. xiv). Collectively, these factors changed his mind.... The second theme concerns an attempt to validate the existence of ritualized abuse rather than simply satanic ritual abuse. To do this, the authors provide empirical evidence and explanation (Chapters 6-13). The evidence and explanation takes the form of a comprehensive review of the literature that supports the existence of ritual abuse.... This book provides the reader with a rigorous and interesting account of a contentious issue. http://psycnet.apa.org/critiques/46/6/615.html