Satanic Panic

The wave of allegations, criminal prosecutions, and prime-time television coverage in the United States and Canada between roughly 1980 and 1995, claiming the existence of a national network of Satan-worshipping abusers operating from day-care centres, families, and small communities. The wave produced hundreds of criminal cases — the McMartin preschool trial the longest and most prominent — and was formally rejected by the FBI in the 1992 Lanning Report. The phrase is now the standard scholarly and journalistic label for the phenomenon.