Hysteria of Salem witch trial in comparison to the 1980s day care case hysteria, - Term Paper Example

Peasants used witchcraft to invoke charms for agriculture and farming, which gradually transformed from white magic into dark magic with a growing association with evil spirits and demons. With an increasing association of superstitions with the devil, incidents of witchcraft persecutions also increased rapidly, causing panic that led to aggressive witch hunts (Adams 69). On the other hand, the daycare sex abuse hysteria of the 1980s was in the form of panic that featured claims of child abuse, specifically sexual abuse, and satanic ritual abuse against providers of daycare (Malloy, Lyon & Quas 164).

As more mothers ventured into employment and had to be away from home, a large number of daycare centers opened up to care for their children. However, an outstanding case in California’s Kern County started a wave of panic, lasting for nearly a decade. Characterized by incredible accusations of children being sexually molested, the panic spread out of the United States to New Zealand, Canada and some countries in Europe (Malloy, Lyon & Quas 164). The most prominent cases in the United States were Kern County child abuse cases; McMartin preschool trial; Fells Acre Day Care Center; Wee Care Nursery School; Cleveland child abuse scandal; and Little Rascals Day Care Center (Malloy, Lyon & Quas 165). . The two sets of trials originated from the behaviors of children and the statements they issued.

Driven by hysteria, parents and doctors interpreted the statements and behaviors in extremely portentous and threatening ways, rather than innocent and rational interpretations. It is the panic that led the people to believe the remotely conceivable accusations placed by children, ignoring all the inconsistencies as narrated by either scared, confused or preconditioned children. In both sets, literature analyses show that the prosecutors were asking leading questions. Repetitive questioning led to multiplication of the accusations and with the heightened spread of the hysteria, there were new targets of the accusations.

Most of them were those that defended the accused or showed cynicism about the charges. The hysteria and bias against the accused in both sets of trials led the prosecutors and investigators to find meaning in very unlikely places. For example, in the Salem trials, the investigators concluded that a mole on an accused person’s body was an entry or sucking point for evil spirits and demons. On the other hand, it was concluded that drawing hands by children on stick figures was evidence of them having been molested in the daycare cases.

Another unlikely conclusion in the daycare cases drawn was that the hatred of tuna fish by a child was caused by exposure to vaginal odor (Malloy, Lyon & Quas 162). The insistence and use of leading questions by the investigators rendered the investigations themselves as the roots of multiple problems. Effectively, the accused were faced with the burden of proving their own innocence in both sets of trials. For example, in the Salem trials, the