Satanic ritual abuse (
SRA, sometimes known as
ritual abuse,
ritualistic abuse,
organised abuse,
sadistic ritual abuse and other variants) was the subject of a
moral panic that originated in the
United States in the 1980s, spreading throughout the country and eventually to many parts of the world, before mostly diminishing in the late 1990s. Allegations of SRA involved reports of
physical and
sexual abuse of people in the context of
occult or
Satanic rituals. In its most extreme form, SRA involved a supposed worldwide conspiracy involving the wealthy and powerful of the world elite in which children were abducted or bred for sacrifices,
pornography and
prostitution.