Statements by Professional Organizations

Royal College of Psychiatrists

• Reported Recovered Memories of Child Sexual Abuse: Recommendations for Good Practice and Implications For Training, Continuing Professional Development and Research
• The Royal College of Psychiatry in the U.K. will mail members of the media a free reprint of the recent article "Recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse: Implications for clinical practice" which was published in The British Journal of Psychiatry, April 1998, Vol. 172, pp. 296-307. The article is a comprehensive literature review which demonstrates the lack of evidence for massive repression of memory and highlights the dangers of and lack of scientific support for each technique which is advocated by so-called 'memory recovery therapists.' For press copies of the paper or further information contact:

Deborah Hart or Vanessa Harries
Tel: 00 44 171 235 2351 ext 127 or 154
E-mail: dhart@rcpsych.ac.uk or vharries@rcpsych.ac.uk
Fax: 00 44 171 245 1231

American Psychiatric Association

• The APA Board Statement On Memories Of Sexual Abuse

American Psychological Association

• Questions and Answers about Memories of Childhood Abuse
• Interim Report of the APA Working Group On Investigation of Memories of Childhood Abuse

American Medical Association

• Memories of childhood abuse. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. 1995;43:114-117. (April 1995)
• 1984 Board Statement on Hypnosis.

The Myth of Satanic Ritual Abuse

Report by FBI Special Agent Kenneth Lanning entitled "Child Sex Rings: A Behavioral Analysis for Criminal Justice Professionals Handling Cases of Child Sexual Exploitation."

There are three ways to get this report:

• read the full report online in HTML format at the http://www.religioustolerance.org/
• download the report in Microsoft Word for Windows format: Child Sex Rings: A Behavioral Analysis for Criminal Justice Professionals Handling Cases of Child Sexual Exploitation
• request a free hard copy by writing to The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Suite 550, 2101 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22201-3077

Anyone who believes the myth of satanic ritual abuse and any law enforcement professional investigating sexual abuse allegations should read this report. Writing from the law enforcement perspective, Lanning notes that in the more than 12,000 investigated cases involving allegations of satanic ritual abuse, no evidence to support the accusations has ever been found. He provides a clear definition of the four characteristics (or "dimensions") which are common to cases he defines as allegations of "multidimensional child sex rings," namely multiple young victims, multiple offenders, fear as the controlling tactic, and bizarre or ritualistic activity. He points out that the claims made by ritual abuse believers involve activities (human sacrifice of large numbers of people, breeding of babies for sacrifice, etc.) that would be impossible to keep secret if they actually occurred on the scale and in the frequency described by believers.

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