Editing Satanic panic (section)

===Children's allegations===
The second group to make allegations of SRA were young children. During the "Satanic Panic" of the 1980s, the techniques used by investigators to gather evidence from witnesses, particularly young children, evolved to become very leading, coercive and suggestive, pressuring young children to provide testimony and refusing to accept denials while offering inducements that encouraged false disclosures.<ref name=Frankfurter2003/><ref name="Schreiber et al."/>{{sfn|Nathan|Snedeker|1995}} The interviewing techniques used were the factors believed to have led to the construction of the bizarre disclosures of SRA by the children{{sfn |LaFontaine |1998 |p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=JBxfvDeQdmoC&pg=PA5 5]}}{{sfn |Frankfurter |2006 |pp=[https://archive.org/details/evilincarnaterum00fran/page/56 56ff], [https://archive.org/details/evilincarnaterum00fran/page/61 61–65], [https://archive.org/details/evilincarnaterum00fran/page/n94 73f] & [https://archive.org/details/evilincarnaterum00fran/page/192 192–95]}} and changes to forensic and interviewing techniques since that time has resulted in a disappearance of the allegations.<ref name=Donner/> Analysis of the techniques used in two key cases (the McMartin Preschool and [[Wee Care Nursery School]] trials) concluded that the children were questioned in a highly suggestive manner. Compared with a set of interviews from [[Child Protective Services]], the interviews from the two trials were "significantly more likely to (a) introduce new suggestive information into the interview, (b) provide praise, promises, and positive reinforcement, (c) express disapproval, disbelief, or disagreement with children, (d) exert conformity pressure, and (e) invite children to pretend or speculate about supposed events."<ref name="Schreiber et al."/>

Specific allegations from the cases included:
* Seeing witches fly; travel in a hot air balloon; abuse and travel through tunnels;{{sfn |Eberle |Eberle |1993 |pp=172–73}} identifying actor [[Chuck Norris]] from a series of pictures as an abuser;<ref name=cl>{{cite news |first=Katherine |last=Ramsland |author-link=Katherine Ramsland |url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/psychology/mcmartin_daycare/5.html |title=McMartin Daycare Case |access-date=2007-08-26 |publisher=[[Crime Library]]}}</ref> orgies at car washes and airports, children being flushed down toilets to secret rooms where they would be abused, then cleaned up and presented back to their unsuspecting parents{{sfn |Eberle |Eberle |1993 |pp=172–73}}<ref name=longest>{{cite news |first=R |last=Reinhold |title=The Longest Trial – A Post-Mortem. Collapse of Child-Abuse Case: So Much Agony for So Little |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE5D9113BF937A15752C0A966958260 |work=[[New York Times]] |date=January 24, 1990 |access-date=2008-10-24}}</ref><ref name=NYT1>{{cite news |title=Los Angeles Presses Inquiry Into Sexual Abuse of Children |url=https://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F50E1EFC345D0C728CDDAD0894DC484D81 |work=[[Associated Press]] in [[New York Times]] |date=1984-04-01 |access-date=2007-07-29}}</ref> ([[McMartin preschool trial]], no forensic evidence was found to support these claims)
* Being raped with knives (including a 12-inch blade<ref name=Garcia/>), sticks, forks, and magic wands; assault by a clown in a magic room; being forced to [[drinking urine|drink urine]]; tied naked to a tree<ref>{{cite court |litigants=Commonwealth v. Amirault, Middlesex |vol=424 Mass. 618 |access-date=2007-12-09}}</ref> ([[Fells Acres day care sexual abuse trial]]; no forensic evidence was found to support these claims)
* [[Ritual murder]] of babies; children taken out on boats and thrown overboard; trips in [[hot air balloon]]s;<ref name=Mayfield>{{cite news |last=Mayfield |first=M |title=Man convicted in N.C. child sex abuse case |newspaper=USA Today |date=April 23, 1992 |url=http://www.lexisnexis.com/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?risb=21_T2751467195&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T2751468205&cisb=22_T2751468204&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=8213&docNo=23 |access-date=2007-12-22}}</ref> babies were thrown against walls; children were penetrated with knives and forks; the walls and floors of the center's music room were spread with urine and feces{{sfn |de Young |2004 |p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=_e8ZkJBtz0EC&pg=PA140 140]}} ([[Little Rascals day care sexual abuse trial]]; no forensic evidence was found to support these claims)
* Forced to act in [[child pornography]] and used for [[child prostitution]]; tortured; made to watch [[snuff film]]s<ref name=Garcia>{{cite book |last=Garcia |first=E |year=2007 |publisher=Global Media |title=Child Day Care Management |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=IKFyt628JScC&pg=PT22 22–24] |isbn=978-81-89940-39-3}}</ref> ([[Kern County child abuse cases]]; no child pornography was ever found to substantiate these accusations)
* The mentally disabled abuser with [[Noonan syndrome]] drank human [[blood]] in satanic rituals; abducted the children despite being unable to drive;<ref name=Frontline>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/innocence/etc/other.html |title=Frontline: innocence lost: Other Well-Known Cases |publisher=[[Frontline (U.S. TV series)|Frontline]] |year=1998 |access-date=2010-02-28}}</ref> forced the children to eat urine and feces; abducted the children to secret rooms; committed violent sexual assaults and beatings; killed a [[giraffe]], [[rabbit]] and [[elephant]] and drank their blood in front of the children.<ref name=Stoesz1996>{{cite book |last1=Stoesz |first1=David |last2=Costin |first2=Lela B. |last3=Karger |first3=Howard Jacob |title=The Politics of Child Abuse in America (Child Welfare) |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |year=1996 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=B70rt3SyhtkC&pg=PA14 14–15] |isbn=978-0-19-511668-7}}</ref> ([[Faith Chapel Church ritual abuse case]]; no forensic evidence was found to support these claims)

A variety of these allegations resulted in criminal convictions; in an analysis of these cases [[Mary de Young]] found that many had had their convictions overturned. Of 22 daycare employees and their sentences reviewed in 2007, three were still incarcerated, eleven had charges dismissed or overturned, and eight were released before serving their full sentences. Grounds included technical dismissals, constitutional challenges and prosecutorial misconduct.<ref name=deYoung2007/>