A report on a series of five studies published by Goodman, Qin, Bottoms and Shaver.

In the first study, they concluded that 31% of the combined sample of psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers had seen at least one case of ritual or religion-related abuse. There were 387 child ritual abuse cases, 674 adult ritual abuse survivor cases, 171 child religion-related cases, and 234 adult survivor of religion-related cases reported.

Of the adult ritual abuse cases 33% reported cannibalism and 28% baby breeding for purposes of ritual sacrifice.

They also found that child cases were “far more likely to be disclosed to authorities or professionals, to family members or neighbors and to be linked to corroborative evidence, but were less likely to be disclosed in therapy than adult cases” (p. 4).

The authors concluded that the psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers who responded to their survey “overwhelmingly believed both the allegations of abuse and the allegations of ritual or religious elements of the abuse” (p. 6).

Their second study of district attorneys, social services and law enforcement agencies revealed that 23% had identified at least one case of ritual or religion-related abuse. “In general, the ritual cases with the most convincing evidence were unlike the satanic ritual abuse stereotype” (p. 6).

The authors expressed surprise that “the conviction rate in ritual cases was almost as high as in religion-related cases” (p. 7).

The fourth study of children’s knowledge of ritual abuse showed that “children have relatively little knowledge of satanic child abuse” (p. 10).

Their fifth study considered 271 cases of religion-related abuse. They found that in 94% of the clergy abuse, 48% of the evil ridding cases, and 23% of medical neglect included allegations of sexual abuse. They found that MPD and other dissociative disorders were diagnosed in over 20% of the evil ridding and medical neglect cases.

Goodman.G.S., Qin,J., Bottoms, B.L.,and Shaver, P.R.(1994).Characteristics and sources of allegations of ritualistic child abuse: Final report to the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/Abstract.aspx?id=154415

A survey of the membership of the International Society for the Study of Multiple Personality and Dissociation concluded that 88% of 1185 “respondents reported belief in ritual abuse, involving mind control and programming”

(Perry, N.E. (1992) Therapists’ experiences of the effects of working with dissociative patients.)

In their study of preschool ritualistic and non-ritualistic sexual abuse, Waterman, Kelly, Olivieri, and McCord demonstrated that PTSD criteria were met for 80% of their sample of ritualistically sexually abused children as compared with 35.7% of the non-ritualistically sexually abused children.

Recantations occurred in 25% of the RSA and 23% of the SA children. This was the case even though the perpetrator in the SA group had given a detailed confession. However, 88% of the RSA group that recanted, later redisclosed abuse. The children alleging RSA had more severe symptoms than SA children with significantly more PTSD, depression, and aggressive behaviors. The RSA group showed less improvement over time in comparison with the SA group.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robert_Kelly17/publications

Waterman, J., Kelly, R.J., Olivieri, M.K., McCord, J.(1993).Beyond the playground walls: Sexual abuse in preschools

Snow and Sorenson saw 39 children who described abuse in five neighbor-based cults in Utah. In four of the five cults there were alleged incidents of intrafamilial incest, perpetration by adolescents, and features of an adult sex ring. No adolescent perpetration was found in the fifth group. Also reported was forced sexual behavior, threats of violence, and multiple perpetrators and victims. At least two-thirds of the children described multiple locations of abuse, pornography, ingestion or other use of excrement, the espousal of Satanic beliefs, magical spells and use of occult paraphernalia, animal mutilation or killing, and the use of drugs. The abusers were generally viewed as respected members of the community and many were religious leaders. Two of the accused adult perpetrators were convicted and two adolescents pled guilty

https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ421828

How Children Tell: The Process of Disclosure in Child Sexual Abuse. Sorensen, Teena; Snow, Barbara Child Welfare, v70 n1 p3-15 Jan-Feb 1990