Rating: 
Summary: Research Material Only
Review: Co-author Snedeker has been a psychologist, a writer and an appellant's attorney since the mid-70s, so is remarkably well qualified to write on the subject. The book's dissection of the nonsense that prevailed in mid-80s "satanic, ritualistic, child abuse" witch hunts should be required reading for persons in the child protection field. Were it so, the fevered investigators' imaginations which created these travesties might have been cooled, and innocent people spared from allegations of perpetration. I am retired from that field, so am terribly familiar with the pervasive incompetence it harbors.
Rating: 
Summary: Must reading for child abuse investigators!
Review: Co-author Snedeker has been a psychologist, a writer and an appellant's attorney since the mid-70s, so is remarkably well qualified to write on the subject. The book's dissection of the nonsense that prevailed in mid-80s "satanic, ritualistic, child abuse" witch hunts should be required reading for persons in the child protection field. Were it so, the fevered investigators' imaginations which created these travesties might have been cooled, and innocent people spared from allegations of perpetration. I am retired from that field, so am terribly familiar with the pervasive incompetence it harbors.
Rating:
Summary: An important study in contemporary mob psychology.
Review: History has shown time and again that people who act rationally when alone may swerve wildy from logic's path when part of a group. _Satan's Silence_ chillingly reports this contemporary example of the dangers of groupthink at the mercy of an industry already prone to charlatanism, trendiness, incompetence, and self-referencial claims of authority. Against plain common sense we are shown shattered families, ruined reputations, and false imprisonments in the name of child protection. And we won't forget it.
Rating:
Summary: this book helped give me back my family
Review: I had cut off ties with my family due to "memories" of ritual abuse. This book helped me see that the "memories" were in my imagination. I have been depressed most of my life and was therefore attracted to dark and gory subjects, plus I was looking for someone to blame. After reading this book, I resumed contact with my family and we've been back in touch for a number of years. This book was a real help to me.
Rating: 
Summary: people do not understand
Review: I saw the movie of the mcmartin trial and have read books on the case, it's unbelivable to me that some peolple still belive the abuse happened, when there's no physical evidence, and the children on all the videotapes never start by saying there was abuse, they say there never was abuse, in fact some children who were coerced and manipulated said they were abused when ray buckey wasn't even working there, I love children, i love working with them. Anybody who works with children could be accused of this stuff, I'm not saying sexual abuse never happens but you can't accuse people solely based on testimony without any evidence, if that's the case how would the people who rated this book being bad like it if I said they abused me, just my word no evidence, boy they sure would be singing a different tune, they'd cry about wanting a fair trial, every situation needs to be looked at seperately. I don't know whether Ray buckey abused those kids or not, but there's no eveidence, and he spent five years in jail and he's gotten physically beaten up in public, everybody else has gotten off scott free, gone on to better things yes even the kids who can't keep thier story straight about the abuse, who's the real victim here?? The american justice system sometimes can be brutal, and the media sure knows how to publice the bad stuff, what about the good stuff? BRUTAL!
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Summary: TERRIFYING AND TRUE AND CONTINUING IN AMERICA
Review: If this book were not so true, I would put in on my shelf with "Frankenstein" and "Dracula." Unfortunately, this book describes real tragedies and destruction brought upon decent people by those who earn their living using voodoo and hypnosis to convince us that we are all "survivors" of abuse we don't remember.
Rating:
Summary: Research Material Only
Review: If you do not want to believe ritual abuse exists, then you will like this book. If you believe it exists, you won't like this book. Unfortunately, the book is not objective and laboriously strives to prove a pre-conceived conclusion. It should be noted that the the defendants in these cases were never proven innocent, although the book would lead you to believe that. As in all such cases, the children's testimony was found "tainted." That means that the children changed their stories over a prolonged period of time during which they were harassed constantly by one side or the other to do so. The most important conclusion to be made after reading this book is that it is probably impossible to successfully protect children from any abuse, real or imagined, because it is too easy to coerce a child's testimony. I appreciate the sentiment regarding people's lives being ruined by false accusations. But I wonder about the price, which is to ignore many more lives ruined by sexual and other childhood abuses because it is impossible to successfully prosecute on the basis of a child's testimony. The result being, that the victims are further intimidated and fearful about reporting these crimes.
Rating:
Summary: The Real Persecutors
Review: In the Margaret Kelly Michaels case, if you read the judicial evaluations carefully you can see clearly who the real perpetrators are: not Kelly at all, but the teams of prosecutors and "experts" who coerced the children into telling them exactly what they wanted to hear to whip up public hysteria. By the time the Superior and Supreme Court justices caught up with these misguided prosecuting "adults", Kelly's life as an actress and writer had been ruined, five years of her life had vanished into unjust imprisonment, and the lives of her students had been damaged for a very long time by those "adults" who forced them to dance to a prejudiced prosecution tune having nothing to do with the facts. These are the real tragedies, and they are far from over.
Rating:
Summary: The Real Persecutors
Review: In the Margaret Kelly Michaels case, if you read the judicial evaluations carefully you can see clearly who the real perpetrators are: not Kelly at all, but the teams of prosecutors and "experts" who coerced the children into telling them exactly what they wanted to hear to whip up public hysteria. By the time the Superior and Supreme Court justices caught up with these misguided prosecuting "adults", Kelly's life as an actress and writer had been ruined, five years of her life had vanished into unjust imprisonment, and the lives of her students had been damaged for a very long time by those "adults" who forced them to dance to a prejudiced prosecution tune having nothing to do with the facts. These are the real tragedies, and they are far from over.
Rating:
Summary: On Reviews of Skeptical Books
Review: In these days where evidence and reason are secondary concerns to the deliverence of justice, a book such as this shines through the lies. The bizarre accusations of ritual child abuse in the 1980's stood as one of the most amusing and tragic examples of bourgeoisie demagoguery. This book attempts to detail how such lies were perpetrated as thoroughly as possible. Unfortunately, the lack of detail found in the research is due to the simple reality that it is impossible to prove a negative. Because the accusations were not consistently proven to be false does not mean they were true.
Given this fundamental basis of logic, the evidence that is suppled by the author is consistent with the circumstances. I give this work four stars, as I believe it could have been more impartial and more directed towards the source of such accusations, the illogical nature of theists. It is no more difficult to believe in satanic child molesters than a supernatural being or santa clause for that matter. The psychologists employed to coerce the young witnesses were not atheists and certainly did not identify with Albert Ellis. Psychology and theistic belief is a dangerous combination, as evidenced by this book.
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