Editing Satanic panic (section)

===Early history===
[[File:Schedel'sche Weltchronik-Sacrifice-of-a-child CCLIII.jpg|thumb|[[blood libel against Jews|Blood libel]] accusations against [[Jews]] are considered historical precursors of the modern moral panic.{{sfn |Nathan |Snedeker |1995 |p=31}}]]

Allegations of horrific acts by outside groups, including [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]], child murder, [[torture]], and [[incest]]uous orgies can place minorities in the role of the "[[Other (philosophy)|Other]]", as well create a scapegoat for complex problems in times of social disruption.<ref name=Goode/>{{sfn |Nathan |Snedeker |1995 |p=31}}  The SRA panic repeated many of the features of historical moral panics and conspiracy theories,<ref name=Goode>{{cite book |author1=Goode, Erich |author2=Ben-Yahuda, Nachman |title=Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |location=Cambridge, MA |year=1994 |page= 57 |isbn=978-0-631-18905-3}}</ref> such as the [[blood libel]] against Jews by [[Apion]] in the 30s CE,{{sfn |Nathan |Snedeker |1995 |p=31}} the wild rumors that led to the [[Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire|persecutions of early Christians in the Roman Empire]], later allegations of Jewish rituals involving the [[Child cannibalism|cannibalism of Christian babies]] and [[host desecration|desecration]] of the [[Eucharist]], and the [[witch trials in Early Modern Europe|witch hunts]] of the 16th and 17th centuries.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rice |first=Joshua |date=2022-06-01 |title=Burn in Hell |journal=History Today |volume=72 |issue=6 |pages=16–18}}[https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/burn-hell]</ref>{{sfn |Victor |1993 |pp=[https://archive.org/details/satanicpaniccrea00vict/page/n226 207–08]}} [[Torture]] and imprisonment were used by authority figures in order to coerce confessions from alleged Satanists, confessions that were later used to justify their executions.{{sfn |Nathan |Snedeker |1995 |p=31}} Records of these older allegations were linked by contemporary proponents in an effort to demonstrate that contemporary Satanic cults were part of an ancient conspiracy of evil,{{sfn |Frankfurter |2006 |p=[https://archive.org/details/evilincarnaterum00fran/page/118 118]}} though ultimately no evidence of [[devil]]-worshiping cults existed in Europe at any time in its history.{{sfn |McNally |2003 |p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=88Axi0huzYwC&pg=PA242 242]}}

[[File:Onbekend Heksenverbranding (1878).jpg|thumb|In [[Early Modern Europe]] people accused of being [[witch]]es were stated to be working for Satan and [[burned at the stake]]]]
A more immediate precedent to the context of Satanic ritual abuse in the United States was [[McCarthyism]] in the 1950s.{{sfn |Victor |1993 |pp=[https://archive.org/details/satanicpaniccrea00vict/page/n226 207–08]}}{{sfn |Frankfurter |2006 |p=[https://archive.org/details/evilincarnaterum00fran/page/2 2]}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kent |first=Stephen |year=1993 |title=Deviant Scripturalism and Ritual Satanic Abuse Part One: Possible Judeo-Christian Influences |journal=Religion |issue=3 |pages=229–41 |doi=10.1006/reli.1993.1021 |volume=23}}</ref> The underpinnings for the contemporary moral panic were found in a rise of five factors in the years leading up to the 1980s: the establishment of [[Christian fundamentalism|fundamentalist Christianity]] and the founding and political activism of the religious organization which was named the [[Moral Majority]]; the rise of the [[anti-cult movement]] which accused abusive [[cult]]s of kidnapping and [[brainwashing]] children and teens; the appearance of the [[Church of Satan]] and other explicitly [[Satanism|Satanist]] groups which added a kernel of truth to the existence of Satanic cults; the development of the [[social work]] or child protection field, and its struggle to have [[child sexual abuse]] recognized as a social problem and a serious crime; and the popularization of [[posttraumatic stress disorder|post-traumatic stress disorder]], [[repressed memory]], and the corresponding survivor movement.{{sfn|Bromley|Richardson|Best|1991 |pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=yt1uw2QOmDQC&pg=PA5 5–10]}}