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PREVALENCE:
RESEARCH AND SURVEYS
Preamble: In this section of our web
site our objective is to collect and outline research and survey information,
to begin to weave the collective social and global reality about the
prevalence of ritual abuse-torture—of ritual abuse or satanic ritual
abuse (SRA), other terms frequently used interchangeably in the literature. We welcome input from others who may be able
to refer us to research and survey materials that we are unaware of.
A
CANADIAN PERSPECTIVE
The Canadian Panel
on Violence Against Women
The
process: In August 1991 the Minister
Responsible for the Status of Women announced the appointed members
of The Canadian Panel on Violence Against
Women. The Panel travelled to all parts of Canada,
consulted with 4,000 people, in 139 communities, of which eighty-four
per cent were women, 16 per cent were men.
Status and non-status Aboriginal women, Inuit, and Métis women
were also included.
Individuals
and organizations submitted nearly 700 personal testimonies, discussion
papers, research, and reports to the Panel.
The Panel partially funded a Toronto-based study, The Women’s
Safety Project, which involved 420 in-depth interviews about violence
against women, with women between the ages of 18 to 64.
Additionally, The Panel distributed a survey through members
of Parliament, for their constituents that provided another means
for Canadians to share their experiences of violence with The Panel
and offer opinions about solutions.
The
Panel’s process was to have an interactive dialogue with Canadians
about violence against women. Few of The Panel’s sessions were formal, no
court reporters were present, and The Panel functioned at arm’s length
from the federal government having its own Secretariat.
The
Panel’s Final Report, Changing the Landscape: Ending violence ~
Achieving equality, released in 1993, emphasized that violence
must be understood as a continuum that ranges from verbal abuse, to
torture, to murder. The realities
of physical, sexualized, emotional and psychological, financial, and
spiritual victimization were documented.
As were, ritual abuse, stalking/criminal harassment, pornography,
misuse of reproductive technologies, and abuse of trust, which The
Panel identified as under-acknowledged forms of violence.
The
prevalence: “The Panel … [heard] from many
women from all regions of Canada who named themselves
as survivors of ritual abuse. …
There are no statistics on ritual abuse in Canada.”
(p. 45).
Major themes of ritual abuse victimization identified
by the Panel’s Report are:
1.
Ritual abuse cults/groups were both intergenerational
and extra-familial
2.
Child victims are forced into a group bonding process
often with the co-operation of their family and forced to take vows
and oaths of secrecy
3.
Programming triggers are indoctrinated into survivors
when they are children,
4.
Victims are subjected to mind-control programming
using hypnosis, mind-altering drugging, and the implantation of trigger
messages to prevent them from disclosing their ritual abuse ordeals
5.
Torture—long-term and repeated—pain, deprivation, death threats, harassment,
and intimidation is used on young victims
6.
Victims are forced to violate others
7.
Survivors spoke of the profits ritual abuse torturers
earned from filming or videotaping the violence, from the forced prostitution
of victims, and from drug trafficking
8.
Active cult members continue to threaten and harm
adult survivors in a multitude of ways in order to force them to remain
silent, most are threatened with death should they disclose their
ritual abuse, and many have seen those who threaten them murder others
thus their fears are justified
9.
Perpetrators engage in organized efforts to discount
the survivors disclosure of their ritual abuse-torture ordeals
10.
All survivors told of extreme difficulties in finding any useful therapeutic
help
11.
Ignorance of medical staff often put some survivors at risk of Self
injury
12.
Helpers of survivors are also targets of organized efforts by perpetrators
needing to discount and discredit the helper’s work with survivors
of ritual abuse. Helpers must
also deal with discreditation, denial, and disbelief from peers and
the medical community, and may helpers reluctantly stop working with
survivors because of these acts of harassment and oppression, and/or
because of burnout and/or impossible practice conditions, and
13.
There is no specific recognition of ritual abuse crimes in Canada’s
Criminal Code.
FROM THE UNITED STATES
A sociological study by Margaret
Smith
In 1993, Margaret Smith wrote a book entitled, Ritual abuse what
it is why it happens how to help. Much of the information in her book was based
on a sociological study using a questionnaire.
The process and prevalence: Fifty-two people, 50 women and 2 men, responded
to announcements carried by five organizations and newsletters asking
for survivors of ritual abuse to volunteer to complete a questionnaire
on ritual abuse. Respondents,
with an average age of 36, came from forty-five different US states,
2% were from Canada and 2% from Japan. Respondents also stated they
had been victimized in Scotland,
England, Germany, Mexico, South America, and Canada.
Major themes of ritual abuse victimization identified
by respondents to Smith’s questionnaire were:
1
1. Perpetrators were intergenerational
and extra-familiar, had interconnections with other groups, and came
from all social classes, all occupations—professional and non-professional;
67% of respondents reported victimization by more than one cult/group
2
2. Many respondents,
abused by their families, stated their parents practiced mainstream
religion
3
3. Over one half of respondents
experienced satanic-based group activities
4
4. Victimizing tactics involved
mind-control, triggering, hypnosis, and drugging
5
5. Torture of all forms was experienced by 94%, 75% were forced to torture others
6
6. Respondents, as children,
were forced into prostitution, pornography, and rented out to other
groups/cults
7
7. As children, respondents
reported ordeals involving cruelty to animals:
pet and animal killings and sacrifices for example; as well,
they reported ritualistic ordeals, human sacrifices, and/or cannibalism,
and bestiality
8
8. 65% stated their ritual
abuse started before age three, and
9
9. Victimization ended for
the greatest number of respondents when they were between the ages
of 11-15 (29%); some were older, for example 36-40 (4%),
and two respondents (4%) stated the ritual abuse was ongoing.
Smith states, “many survivors have grown weary of being re-victimized
by mental health professionals and withdraw from therapy altogether”
(p. 21). Smith provides Self-help
solutions.
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