Nelsons daughter and son-in-law accused of sex abuse

[_Mary]

Okay found a really interesting British article on the issue of ritual abuse and why it is met with extreme skepticism, at least in British society.

The author argues that we (the UK) are a secular society. Religion and supernatural beliefs are not taken seriously, so anything that invokes the supernatural is dismissed.

The author also argues that the British court system did take seriously the ritual abuse and death of children originating from the African continent where magical thinking can still be a strong element of the culture. At least two children were murdered with apparent ritualistic motives.

The author also points out that those who debunk ritual sexual abuse, do so because they argue it is fundamentally different to other forms of sexual abuse of minors. She refutes this, arguing that there is often overlap. I'll copy paste the relevant sections.

Here's the abstract

"When allegations of ritual abuse first came to light in the UK, they were met primarily with a ‘discourse of disbelief’ that left little room for the possibility accounts could be based in genuine experience. Despite convictions, recent criminological, sociological and psychological literature appears fixed on debunking ritual abuse’s existence through highly debated concepts such as ‘false memory’.

This paper proposes three broad ‘reasons’ for the creation and maintenance of disbelief around ritual abuse, highlighting the importance of key cases in shaping press coverage of the issue during the 1980s and 1990s, and the role survivor advocates have played in distancing ritual abuse from established knowledge within both psychology and child protection. I argue that the tangibility of death and abject horror within survivor accounts, as well as the perceived religious motivations of perpetrators, make ritual abuse both experientially and conceptually alien to most members of late‐modern societies."

"Within press coverage, corroborative evidence–and, indeed, convictions of accused parents–was overshadowed by pieces that focused on contesting the truth of allegations(Campbell and Jones 1999). Although a small but resilient community of advocates, child protection professionals and health workers endeavoured to provide care for survivors, they did so against a back drop of extreme criticism and professional isolation (Sinason 2011). By the mid‐1990s, considerable academic and popular comment, including the Department of Health’s own investigation into ritual abuse, framed the emergence of cases as a ‘moral panic’, driven by the influence of evangelical Christians and the malpractice of social workers and psychotherapists (LaFontaine1994; Loftus and Ketchum 1994; Victor 1993)."

[Schreech]

She continues..after describing some findings..

"These findings are especially important to highlight, given the fact that many advocates have painted ritual abuse as fundamentally different from other forms of abuse, as this article will illustrate. On the contrary, qualitative research with survivors, though in its infancy, indicates that ritual abuse may be best framed using existing models for understanding child abuse and exploitation and violence against women, which emphasise the role of gendered power relations in encouraging, sustaining and legitimising perpetration.

[Schreech]

Cont'd

"The debate around ritual abuse is often characterised as being fought between ‘believers’ and ‘sceptics’, the former taking an almost naïve position on the reality of events, and the latter an aggressively dismissal one. This description has always failed to encompass the complexities of arguments around ritual abuse. Despite the existence of campaigners early on who appeared to push a simple ‘Believe the Children’ agenda (Clapton 1993), there is also a wealth of material written by child protection professionals and researchers which has taken a far more nuanced, analytical approach to assessing claims (for example,Clapton himself 1993; Goodwin 1994; Scott 2001). To label these people simply ‘believers’ is to insinuate an absence of the critical thought and the extensive research that many have undertaken."

[_Mary]

The whole article is worth a read.

http://www.crimejusticejournal.com IJCJ&SD20154(2): 77‐93

Dissecting Disbelief: Possible Reasons for the Denial of the Existence of Ritual Abuse in the United Kingdom

Kate Richardson:Researcher in Child Abuse and Exploitation, United Kingdom

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

I feel like I just read something out of an episode of Ancient Aliens from the History Channel. If you ever have the displeasure of sitting through a season because your spouse suddenly becomes obsessed with the show, be prepared to have plenty of enthusiastic presenters tell you, in a smooth British accents no less, that aliens screwed monkeys to create a servant class.

Look. They said it. So it must be true.

- Doc

[_Mary]

Doc, please be specific? Are you referring to the article I posted? If you don't like that, read the Lanning Report. It also offers a nuanced view without coming down on the side of *naïve believer* or *aggressive skeptic*.

[_Mary]

Some snippets.. I've included it in the timeline. From the 90s, so retrospectively looking back on the 80s.

"Why are victims alleging things that do not seem to be true?" Many possible answers were considered.

The first possible answer is obvious: clever offenders. The allegations may not seem to be true but they are true. The criminal justice system lacks the knowledge, skill, and motivation to get to the bottom of this crime conspiracy. The perpetrators of this crime conspiracy are clever, cunning individuals using sophisticated mind control and brainwashing techniques to control their victims. Law enforcement does not know how to investigate these cases.

"Even if only part of an allegation is not true, what then is the answer to the question, "Why are victims alleging things that do not seem to be true?" After consulting with psychiatrists, psychologists, anthropologists, therapists, social workers, child sexual abuse experts, and law enforcement investigators for more than eight years, I can find no single, simple answer. The answer to the question seems to be a complex set of dynamics that can be different in each case. In spite of the fact that some skeptics keep looking for it, there does not appear to be one answer to the question that fits every case. Each case is different, and each case may involve a different combination of answers."

Planning then outlines possible reasons under the following headings

1. Pathological Distortion
2. Traumatic Memory
3. Normal Childhood Fears and Fantasy
4. Misperception, Confusion, and Trickery
5. Overzealous Intervenors
6. Urban Legends
7. Combination

He concludes..

"There is a middle ground. It is the job of the professional investigator to listen to all the victims and conduct appropriate investigation in an effort to find out what happened, considering all possibilities. Not all childhood trauma is abuse. Not all child abuse is a crime. The great frustration of these cases is the fact that you are often convinced that something traumatic happened to the victim, but do not know with any degree of certainty exactly what happened, when it happened, or who did it."

https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Invest ... /Chapter_6

[_Mary]

The whole guide is available online. From 1992

https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Invest ... hild_abuse

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

I think at this point if you believe ritual Satanic abuse occurred or occurs you're basically at the same level of believing aliens are really demons trying to possess our bodies because *reasons*.

A pair in Texas spent something like 20 years in prison because a dumb jury was convinced they did among other things:

- drowning and dismembering babies in front of the children

- killing dogs and cats in front of the children

- transporting the children to Mexico to be sexually abused by soldiers in the Mexican army

- dressing as pumpkins and shooting children in the arms and legs

- putting the children into a pool with sharks that ate babies

- putting blood in the children’s Kool-Aid

- cutting the arm or a finger off a gorilla at a local park

- and exhuming bodies at a cemetery, forcing children to carry the bones

This couple was going to SPEND THE REST OF THEIR LIVES IN PRISON, but recently some non-idiots figured out the trial was BS and the couple was freed.

Mary, what you and Rosebud are doing right now is the equivalent of Ancient Alien presenters. You're attempting to tell us that a possibility exists that the pyramids were created by extraterrestrials.

- Doc

[Schreech]

You know, we are all accusing Barbara Snow of basically having the power to brainwash and convince her clients young and old, of experiencing abuse that didn't happen.

If you accept Barbara Snow has this Svengali like power over individuals, then it would be the height of hypocrisy to reject the proposal that abusers and criminals don't also have this power. You can't reasonably (imho) have it both ways.