The ritual abuse of children: A critical perspective

The first section of this paper explores the ‘discovery’ of organised ritual abuse and reviews the literature with particular attention to the developing knowledge base, the question of credibility, the silencing of debate, and the ongoing research.

The second section considers the central research issues. The question of definition is discussed and the adoption of ‘organised ritual abuse’ as a working definition is proposed. The four aspects of organised ritual abuse, which analysis of the literature suggests are its key defining features, are then discussed. Finally, consideration is given to the importance of values in this field of research.