Wood James M, Nathan Debbie, Beck Richard, Hampton Keith
1 University of Texas at El Paso, TX, USA.
2 Investigative Journalist, New York City, NY, USA.
J Interpers Violence. 2017 Mar;32(6):897-925. doi: 10.1177/0886260516657351.
We comment on The Witch-Hunt Narrative ( TWHN) by Cheit. As its first hypothesis, TWHN argues that most of the famous ritual child abuse cases of the 1980s and 1990s were not really witch-hunts at all. In response, we criticize the TWHN definition of a witch-hunt as overly narrow and idiosyncratic. Based on the scholarly literature, we propose 10 criteria for identifying a witch-hunt. We rate four well-known ritual child abuse cases with these criteria and show they were classic witch-hunts. As its second hypothesis, TWHN argues that most defendants in child ritual abuse cases were guilty or probably guilty. In response, we point out many instances in which TWHN has omitted or mischaracterized important facts or ignored relevant scientific information running contrary to its hypotheses. We conclude that TWHN is often factually inaccurate and tends to make strong assertions without integrating relevant scholarly and scientific information. Scholars should approach the book with caution.
我们对蔡特（Cheit）的《猎巫叙事》（The Witch-Hunt Narrative，简称TWHN）进行评论。作为其第一个假设，TWHN认为20世纪80年代和90年代大多数著名的仪式性虐待儿童案件根本算不上真正的猎巫行动。对此，我们批评TWHN对猎巫行动的定义过于狭隘且独特。基于学术文献，我们提出了10条识别猎巫行动的标准。我们用这些标准对4起著名的仪式性虐待儿童案件进行评估，结果表明它们属于典型的猎巫行动。作为其第二个假设，TWHN认为儿童仪式性虐待案件中的大多数被告有罪或很可能有罪。对此，我们指出TWHN在很多情况下遗漏或错误描述了重要事实，或者忽视了与其假设相悖的相关科学信息。我们的结论是，TWHN在事实方面往往不准确，并且倾向于在不整合相关学术和科学信息的情况下做出强硬断言。学者们在阅读这本书时应谨慎对待。
