# Imprisoned for Satanism? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 6, 2015, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imprisoned-for-satanism/721770 "2015-06-06T06:46:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imprisoned-for-satanism/721770/1 "2015-06-06T06:46:11Z")
In this [Something Positive](http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp06042015.shtml) (web comic), they talk about the Satanist scare of a number of years ago. Among the things said is that some people were imprisoned as a result. Also see the note at the bottom about how the artist reread old news to refresh his memory, so it’s not something he’s making up or misremembering. I don’t recall any imprisonings, but I largely ignored the whole thing at the time. It wasn’t a big deal in my part of the country and I didn’t see how any rational adult could take that stuff seriously. So I’m interested: How many were imprisoned and what for? Satanism is not, or at least should not, be a crime. So they must have drummed up some specious charges. What were they? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imprisoned-for-satanism/721770/2 "2015-06-06T06:57:56Z")
He might have been referring to the [Kern County child abuse scandal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kern_County_child_abuse_cases), where thirty six people were convicted and most of them imprisoned. A more famous case, although ultimately no one was convicted, was the [McMartin Preschool trial fiasco](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMartin_preschool_trial), because it became the longest and most expensive criminal trial in American history to date in 1990. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imprisoned-for-satanism/721770/3 "2015-06-06T07:11:26Z")
What they characterized as “Satanism” was not the atheist religion you are thinking about. It supposedly involved a lot of rituals that involved abuse and sacrifices. Child abuse, both sexual and otherwise, was supposedly a big part of this “Satanism.” ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imprisoned-for-satanism/721770/4 "2015-06-06T07:51:02Z")
No one has been and no one can be imprisoned in the U.S. purely for being a Satanist. What happened was that there was a moral panic in the U.S. from the early 1980’s to the early 1990’s in which it was claimed that Satanists were abusing children as part of their rituals (including supposedly killing large numbers of children, despite there being no evidence of any such deaths). Some people were tried for this. Some of them were convicted of this: > **[Satanic panic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic_ritual_abuse)** > > The Satanic panic is a moral panic consisting of over 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse (SRA, sometimes known as ritual abuse, ritualistic abuse, organized abuse, or sadistic ritual abuse) starting in the United States in the 1980s, spreading throughout many parts of the world by the late 1990s, and persisting today. The panic originated in 1980 with the publication of Michelle Remembers, a book co-written by Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder and his patient (and future wi... > **[Moral panic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_panic)** > > A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear, often an irrational one, that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society.\[page needed\] It is "the process of arousing social concern over an issue", usually perpetuated by moral entrepreneurs and mass media coverage, and exacerbated by politicians and lawmakers. Moral panic can give rise to new laws aimed at controlling the community. > Stanley Cohen, who developed the term, states that moral ... ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imprisoned-for-satanism/721770/5 "2015-06-06T07:59:23Z")
Could also be a reference to [the West Memphis Three](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Memphis_Three). A self-proclaimed “Satanism expert” testified at their trial and whatnot. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imprisoned-for-satanism/721770/6 "2015-06-06T09:20:56Z")
> [@Steken](#): > > Could also be a reference to [the West Memphis Three](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Memphis_Three). A self-proclaimed “Satanism expert” testified at their trial and whatnot. Unlikely. The comic in question is about the satanism panic and people being prosecuted for non-existent crime. Satanism being brought up in the prosecution of actual crimes is of course a consequence of the same scare, but not what this comic comment, which started with the current Charlie, Charlie nonsense, is about. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imprisoned-for-satanism/721770/7 "2015-06-06T10:52:41Z")
> [@naita](#): > > Unlikely. The comic in question is about the satanism panic and people being prosecuted for non-existent crime. Satanism being brought up in the prosecution of actual crimes is of course a consequence of the same scare, but not what this comic comment, which started with the current Charlie, Charlie nonsense, is about. Ah, I missed that. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imprisoned-for-satanism/721770/8 "2015-06-06T11:45:39Z")
Satan is always getting a bad rap. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imprisoned-for-satanism/721770/9 "2015-06-06T12:50:35Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > He might have been referring to the [Kern County child abuse scandal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kern_County_child_abuse_cases), where thirty six people were convicted and most of them imprisoned. A more famous case, although ultimately no one was convicted, was the [McMartin Preschool trial fiasco](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMartin_preschool_trial), because it became the longest and most expensive criminal trial in American history to date in 1990. Yes, when children are “interrogated” they can sense what the questioner (adult) wants to hear and tell them what they want to hear. Younger children (hopefully) know nothing about sexual behaviour and sexual urges, so when pressed to tell about bad and horrible things, they make up what they think of as horrible - babies being killed, cannibalism, dancing round fires in the dark, etc. instead of inappropriate touching or penetration. (Think of the horror scenes from Snow White or Sleeping Beauty - dragons and flames and screeching…) This is also a benefit of somewhat leading questions pretty much steering children to tell of terrible things. We saw a similar hysteria after Columbine where all things goth were signs of obvious moral decay and incipient mass murder tendencies, and the full weight of law and school discipline attacked anyone the least bit different. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imprisoned-for-satanism/721770/10 "2015-06-06T13:24:34Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > What they characterized as “Satanism” was not the atheist religion you are thinking about. Dude, you’re too intelligent to write that sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imprisoned-for-satanism/721770/11 "2015-06-06T18:04:09Z")
This was part of the “recovered memory syndrome” that peaked around 1990 and has been pretty thoroughly refuted. People did go to prison on extremely dubious testimony of child abuse and some on even more dubious testimony of child sacrifice. I believe there was a claim that 50,000 children were being sacrificed every year! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imprisoned-for-satanism/721770/12 "2015-06-06T18:09:08Z")
This whole song and dance occurred 300 years after the Salem Witch Trials. Suddenly there was a huge underground of organized Satanists sacrificing children, performing horrible acts, etc. etc. etc. And creating tons of people with repressed memories and multiple personalities. When the FBI was finally called in to investigate, after dozens of lives were ruined, they found ZERO evidence for such a ridiculous story. It was all total mass hysteria.