Central to these prosecutions were several concepts; 1) Young children do not lie, 2) Repressed memories can be factually retrieved and 3) Children must be protected from being questioned in court. Almost certainly not all of the defendants in these many cases were innocent BUT equally certain was the fact that innocent people ended in prison in these cases. In hindsight each of the above prosecutorial concepts has been disproven or modified but it took a long time for the victims (adults AND children) to recover.
An interesting footnote to this spate of prosecutions exists in our even more recent history. President Clinton's search for a FEMALE Attorney General yielded 2 duds, Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood, before finding a successful candidate in Janet Reno from Miami Florida. Part of her claim to fame was her efforts in prosecuting such a case for "Grant Snowden / Satanic ritual abuse" that apparently brought her name to the Clinton's attention.
“Whenever I read about these cases I am reminded that hysteria and mob psychology are an ever present danger in all of us. This same beast that was almost certainly behind the Salem Witch Trials and other such ‘old history’...”
Don’t cha just hate witch hunts? I know of another group that does as well:
WELCOME! The North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) was formed in 1978. It was inspired by the success of a campaign based in Boston’s gay community to defend against a local witchhunt.
Nambla.org