Ritual Abuse in America

2075 Words5 Pages

Ritual abuse is an extreme, sadistic form of abuse of children and non-consenting adults. The abusers of innocent children hold no mercy as they psychologically, physically, and emotionally torture their victims to do their bidding. When the victims are finally set free, they are forbidden to talk about what happens to them in fear that they, or their family, will be killed. Ritual abuse occurs within every region of our country, (MacDonald & Sarson, 2002); this paper will present concrete statistics to substantiate this statement. This paper will also explain what ritual abuse is and provide background information, explain why it happens, and the effects it has on victims.

According to Harvey Wallace’s book, in reference to the Los Angeles County Commission for Women in 1989, the most widely used definition of ritual abuse is as follows:

“A brutal form of abuse of children consisting of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, and involving the use of rituals. Ritual does not mean satanic. However, most survivors state that they were ritually abused as part of satanic worship for the purpose of indoctrinating them into satanic beliefs and practices. Ritual abuse rarely consists of a single episode. It usually involves repeated abuse over an extended period of time (Wallace, 2008).”

This is just one of the many definitions given to describe ritual abuse, as there are different forms of it that occur within communities. These forms of abuse are as follows: Ritual child abuse is the repeated abuse of children by their caretakers through such acts as cruelty to animals, and threats or harm to either the child, an animal, or other persons; Cult ritual child abuse is the repeated abuse of children by a religious group and/o...

... middle of paper ...

...y be the only way to help them cope with life (Suite 101.com, 2001).

At the end of the day, ritual abuse is something that is not talked enough about, let alone taken seriously enough. To know that children are being tortured, molested, and abused in more ways than one should be enough for anyone to take an initiative to learn more about ritual abuse to help put an end to it if possible. There is actual documentation of cases involving ritual abuse in which no one should have to endure. Not only is going through the rituals hard enough, but the after effects that the victims are left with are just as crippling socially and mentally than going through the abuse a second time. Children, and animals should not have to endure ritual abuse, it’s about time the public become more educated on this subject to know that it is happening, and it needs to be stopped.

Open Document