Beginning in the early 1980s, the United States and other countries experienced a moral panic over allegations of satanic ritual abuse, in which cults were accused of kidnapping, abusing, and murdering children in secret ceremonies. The panic, fueled by sensationalist media coverage and dubious recovered-memory therapy, led to numerous false accusations, ruined lives, and the destruction of reputations, before subsiding in the late 1990s as the evidence for the conspiracy evaporated.

The Satanic Panic has been a rich subject for poets, novelists, and memoirists, who have explored the themes of mass delusion, the power of suggestion, and the vulnerability of communities to irrational fear. The panic has inspired works that critique the media's role in spreading misinformation and the dangers of pseudoscience, and it has been used as a cautionary tale about the fragility of justice. The event continues to resonate in literature that examines the intersection of belief, trauma, and social panic.