A Critical Evaluation of the Factual Accuracy and Scholarly Foundations of The Witch-Hunt Narrative
Abstract
We comment on The Witch-Hunt Narrative (TWHN) by Cheit. As its first hypothesis, TWHN argues that most of the famous ritual child abuse cases of the 1980s and 1990s were not really witch-hunts at all. In response, we criticize the TWHN definition of a witch-hunt as overly narrow and idiosyncratic. Based on the scholarly literature, we propose 10 criteria for identifying a witch-hunt. We rate four well-known ritual child abuse cases with these criteria and show they were classic witch-hunts. As its second hypothesis, TWHN argues that most defendants in child ritual abuse cases were guilty or probably guilty. In response, we point out many instances in which TWHN has omitted or mischaracterized important facts or ignored relevant scientific information running contrary to its hypotheses. We conclude that TWHN is often factually inaccurate and tends to make strong assertions without integrating relevant scholarly and scientific information. Scholars should approach the book with caution.
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Biographies
James M. Wood is Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at El Paso. He has published several empirical articles on child interviewing and child suggestibility in the child ritual abuse cases of the 1980s and 1990s.
Debbie Nathan is an investigative reporter living in New York City. She and Michael Snedeker published Satan’s Silence in 1996, a noted critical book on the ritual child abuse cases. She received the Free Press Association’s H.L. Mencken journalism award and Northwestern University’s John Bartlow Martin award for her reporting on such cases in The Village Voice.
Richard Beck is an editor at n + 1 magazine and writer on historical and cultural topics. His book on the ritual child abuse panic of the 1980s, We Believe the Children, is scheduled for publication by Public Affairs in August, 2015.
Keith Hampton is a veteran criminal defense attorney in Austin, Texas. He recently won the release of Dan and Fran Keller, defendants in a ritual child abuse case who had been imprisoned for 22 years. He also helped to obtain the release of four women, known as the San Antonio Four, who were wrongfully imprisoned for over a decade under similar suspicion of satanic abuse.
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Article first published online: March 1, 2017
Issue published: March 2017
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PubMed: 30145966
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