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In the Netherlands satanic ritual abuse was discussed briefly during two occasions: the publication of the research into the reliability and validity of dissociative identity disorder of Nel Draijer and Suzette Boon and the publication of the report of the Werkgroep Ritueel Misbruik.

Multiple personality disorder in the Netherlands

From 1984 to 1985 psychiatrists Bennett Braun, Roberta Sachs and Richard Kluft held workshops in the Netherlands about dissociative identity disorder (DID) and presented their clinical experiences with cult survivors. A small group of Dutch psychotherapists began diagnosing many of their patients with as suffering from DID and alleging that some of these patients had developed this mental disorder due to childhood satanic ritual abuse.

Oude Pekela

A few years later the idea of satanic ritual abuse had found its way to the conservative religious community in the Netherlands. In 1989 some parents alleged in newsmagazine Tijdsein published by the religious broadcasting company Evangelische Omroep that their children had witnessed satanic ritual abuse in school and that children were ritually abused in Oude Pekela in 1987. In that case only non-ritual abuse was reported then to the authorities, who were not able to find any proof of the allegations. According to Tijdsein, the parents, as well as psychiatrist Gerrit Mik, who examined 25 of the 70 allegedly abused children in Oude Pekela, told the investigating officers about the ritual slaughter of children and adults, but the authorities in Oude Pekela have denied that. Several of the children had been diagnosed by Oude Pekela general practitioners Fred Jonker and Ietje Jonker-Bakker, who stated the children had been sexually abused by unknown men. Jonker and Jonker-Bakker gave a lecture at the Institute of Education of London University alleging that the children in Oude Pekela were both sexually and ritually abused, and published their allegations in several articles. but their findings were heavily criticised by American and Dutch scholars.

Reports of satanic ritual abuse

In 1991 both the Youth Protection and Probation Branch from the Justice Department and the Chief Inspectorate for the public health service of the Netherlands were for the first time officially informed about satanic ritual abuse by a child custody agency. On 17 September 1992 the Youth Protection Inspectorate wrote to the minister of Public Health and the state secretary of Justice that until August 1992 youth protection agencies in the provinces Noord-Holland and Utrecht had reported the satanic ritual abuse of eleven juveniles. Although the authorities now officially knew about satanic ritual abuse, no further steps were taken. Only when secular media reported that satanic ritual abuse is prevalent in the Netherlands on account of the findings of the psychotherapists Suzette Boon and Nel Draijer, did the state secretary of Justice appoint the multidisciplinary Workgroup Ritual Abuse.

Werkgroep Ritueel Misbruik

On 21 April 1994 the Werkgroup Ritual Abuse concluded that satanic ritual abuse probably does not take place in the way it is described in the stories and it is unlikely that these stories are wholly true. The workgroup suggest that the stories could be a replacement for other traumatic occasions. The victim would use the story then as a defence mechanism to process other, less extreme traumatic experiences. According to the Werkgroup Ritual Abuse it is also possible that some patients through suggestive questions of their mpd therapist wrongly got the idea that they were a victim of satanic ritual abuse. Finally, the workgroup thinks it is possible that these stories are contemporary legends, which disperse as an epidemic through a network of mpd therapists and victims.

Discussion about satanic ritual abuse

The publication of the report of the Workgroup Ritual Abuse caused a short discussion in the media and in scientific literature. In this discussion, critics and sceptics had a dominant role. Only in a few scientific magazines mpd therapists gave their opinion on multiple personality disorder and satanic ritual abuse. Thanks to the scant role of the mpd movement in the Netherlands and the strong counter movement of critics and sceptics, satanic ritual abuse has never been seen by the authorities, the media, legal practice and the public as a big social problem. Because of that relatively few books and articles on the phenomenon of satanic ritual abuse have been published in the Netherlands. So far Hervonden herinneringen en andere misverstanden by Hans Crombag and Harald Merckelbach, which contains a chapter on satanic ritual abuse, has been the most influential book on the subject.

While the debate about satanic ritual abuse has caused both a moral panic and a modern witch hunt in the United States, in the Netherlands the issue of satanic ritual abuse was hardly more than a tempest in a teapot. According to criminologist Tjalling Beetstra, the similarities and differences in the social, religious and political structure of the United States and the Netherlands seems to a certain extent to have been decisive for the way in which these societies have responded to satanic ritual abuse and other moral issues.

References

1. ^ Boon, Suzette and Nel Draijer, Multiple Personality Disorder in the Netherlands: A Study on Reliability and Validity of the Diagnosis, Amsterdam/Lisse, Swets en Zeitlinger, 1993.
2. Werkgroep Ritueel Misbruik, Rapport van de Werkgroep Ritueel Misbruik, Den Haag, Ministerie van Justitie, Directie Staats- en Strafrecht, April 1994.
3. Boon, S (1988). "Dissociëren als overlevingsstrategie bij fysiek en seksueel geweld: Trauma en dissociatie 1". Maandblad Geestelijke volksgezondheid. 43 (11): 1197–1207. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
4. ^ Beetstra, T A (2004). "Massahysterie in de Verenigde Staten en Nederland: De affaire rond de McMartin Pre-School en het ontuchtschandaal in Oude Pekela". Mediahypes en moderne sagen: Sterke verhalen in het nieuws. Leiden, Stichting Neerlandistiek Leiden. pp. 53–69. {{cite book}}: |format= requires |url= (help); External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
5. Jonker, F. (1991). "Experiences with ritualist child sexual abuse: a case study from the Netherlands". Child Abuse and Neglect. 15: 191–196. doi:10.1016/0145-2134(91)90064-K. PMID 2043971. Retrieved 2007-10-20. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
6. Jonker F & Jonker-Bakker I (1994). "Onderzoek in Oude Pekela". Maandblad Geestelijke volksgezondheid. 49 (3): 251–276.
7. Merckelbach HLGJ, HFM (1996). Hervonden herinneringen en andere misverstanden. Contact, Amsterdam/Antwerpen Contact. pp. 183–186.
8. Putnam, F.W. (1991). "The Satanic Ritual Abuse Controversy". Child Abuse and Neglect: The International Journal. 15 (3): 175–79. doi:10.1016/0145-2134(91)90062-I. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
9. Wessel, I (1994). "Onderzoek in Oude Pekela (2)". Maandblad Geestelijke volksgezondheid. 49 (5): 554–6. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
10. Fauwe, Loes de, Ritueel misbruik van kinderen voor satan, in: Het Parool, 12 June 1993.
11. Aanh. Hand. II, 1992-1993, Nr. 770.
12. Boon, Suzette and Nel Draijer, Multiple Personality Disorder in the Netherlands: A Study on Reliability and Validity of the Diagnosis, Amsterdam/Lisse, Swets en Zeitlinger, 1993; Fauwe, Loes de, Ritueel misbruik van kinderen voor satan, in: Het Parool, 12 June 1993; Nova (NOS/VARA), 28-29 June 1993.
13. Werkgroep Ritueel Misbruik, Rapport van de Werkgroep Ritueel Misbruik, Den Haag, Ministerie van Justitie, Directie Staats- en Strafrecht, April 1994, p. 65-66.
14. Werkgroep Ritueel Misbruik, Rapport van de Werkgroep Ritueel Misbruik, Den Haag, Ministerie van Justitie, Directie Staats- en Strafrecht, April 1994, p. 53-54.
15. Werkgroep Ritueel Misbruik, Rapport van de Werkgroep Ritueel Misbruik, Den Haag, Ministerie van Justitie, Directie Staats- en Strafrecht, April 1994, p. 32-36.
16. Crombag, Hans F.M. and Harald L.G.J. Merckelbach, Hervonden herinneringen en andere misverstanden, Amsterdam/Antwerpen, Contact, 1996, p. 153-194.
17. Cohen, Stanley, Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers (1972), London, Routledge, 2002, p. XV; Goode, Erich and Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance, Cambridge, Mass., Blackwell, 1994, p. 57-63; Nathan, Debbie and Michael Snedeker, Satan's Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt, New York, NY, Basic Books, 1995; Victor, Jeffrey S., Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend, Chicago/La Salle, IL, Open Court, 1993.
18. www.tjallingbeetstra.eu

• Dutch society