Customer Reviews

The Politics And Experience Of Ritual Abuse

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Most sociologists who have written about ritual abuse (RA) has tried to analyze what they see as a "mass hysteria" or a "moral panic". They usually dismiss all evidence for the existence of RA and instead tries to analyze those who believe in it..
But Sara Scott is not among them. On the contrary she analyzes the inner logic of the backlash movement against survivors and above all she analyzes the sociology of the ritually abusive groups. I have never before seen such a convincing analysis ot the belief systems and the power structures in these groups.
Sara Scott had done a lot for RA survivors and those who support them by writing this book!

I prefer books that, regardless of the author's personal experience, are written objectively, with the aim of revealing the truth. If this was one of Ms. Scott's goals, she appears to have succeeded. I suspect that this book will be used as a legitimate resource for many years by college and university classes. News accounts do verify the existence of these heinous crimes against humanity - if one wants to find them. Our biggest ongoing problem is that we don't want to know they exist. Those victimized the most by our denial are the children and adults who are tortured, raped, and even murdered while we pretend it isn't happening. We must muster our courage and emotional strength to accept that yes, such crimes do occur and yes, some people - and groups of people - are this bestial and sociopathic. (The torture and sexual assault of prisoners at Abu Ghraib is such an example.) Acceptance of such truths will ultimately change our lives - painfully at first, but ultimately for the better.

I sympathize with Ms. Scott, as it seems she believed she was doing the right thing when she wrote this book. But I have seen such overwhelming evidence to support the fact that almost all "ritual abuse" cases WERE indeed caused by mass hysteria and community pressure. So many individuals in these communities were forced not to appear "weak," and jumped on the neighborhood bandwagon to accuse, accuse, accuse.

Nothing is more horrifying than the thought of our children being in peril...but that fear sadly caused a lot of irreversible damage to many innocent people's lives in these cases.

From the Salem Witch trials to the Senator McCarthy insanity to this mess, it seems that every so often the civilized world goes mad. We can learn from it...but not by reading this wrongheaded book.