Organized and ritual sexual abuse
In 2012,Salter published Organised Sexual Abuse,a book about an alleged typology of sexual abuse perpetrated by two or more people in settings including satanic child rape gangs,sexual abuse rituals and organized sexual murder groups,which Salter calls "organized sexual abuse". [2] [3] [4] Initially defined in the 1990s by Jean La Fontaine,the contentious typologies of organized sexual abuse has not been extensively studied in academia and empirical research on the topic is scarce. [6] [7] [8] The topic is also associated with conspiracy theories about ritual and satanic sexual abuse,such as QAnon. [8]
The book includes limited information about its methodology. [2] Most of the data analyzed in the study was drawn from face-to-face and telephone interviews with 21 participants. Transcriptions of the semi-structured conversations were then anonymized and common themes that Salter identified were catalogued into distinct categories,which Salter used to construct his conclusions based on psychoanalytical,sociological and criminological theories. [4] [2] [3]
Aside from the 21 participants,the book also discusses the history of Salter's teenhood friend "Sarah",who he said was a victim of organized sexual abuse during her childhood and adulthood. According to Salter,Sarah was persecuted by an organized sexual abuse group,who continued to track her movements even after she had moved to another city,and "neither the police nor any other agency intervened to protect Sarah despite repeatedly being notified of her plight". [4] [2] [3] The book does not include any perspective from third-party experts or any persons other than the alleged sexual abuse victims,for which reason it has been criticized. [2] A review on the Modern Law Review stated that Salter's personal experience with his teenhood friend,whose accounts of organized sexual abuse influenced him into choosing his field of research,made him a partial researcher,as opposed to an impartial one. [4]
According to Salter,ritualistic sexual abuse is a class of organized sexual abuse that involves supernatural and religious themes. [9] In his book,accounts from his research participants commonly allege instances of "mind control" by abusers who often see themselves as "kings" or "warlocks". [10] The book also discusses allegations of child murder by what Salter says are organized groups of child sexual abuse,as well as theories regarding masculinity and violence. [3] [2] [4] It also contains some critiques of the Australian justice system [4] and the false memory movement. [2]
Other academic publications
In 2023,Salter published a research which reported that 10% of men have sexual feelings for children,and that one in fifteen would engage in a sexual act with a child if they knew that no one would ever find out. The study drew its conclusion from a sample of 1900 Australian men who responded to the survey. It was funded by Westpac,and the survey was co-designed by Australian Federal Police and the Attorney-General's Department. [11]
In 2024,Salter co-authored an academic review that criticized the terminology often used by researchers of child sexual abuse prevention. An analysis of the review stated that it had misrepresented the academic field,misquoted its researchers and selectively omitted academic articles from the analysis. The evaluation stated that the review had employed "a form of unreliable circular referencing",one instance of which included a statement referenced to a Daily Dot article that linked to several personal tweets from one of the authors. It also criticized the review for heavily relying on non-academic sources such as The Daily Mail,Fox News and The Post Millennial,which it said was evidence of the authors' confirmation bias. [12] [13]
In his response,Salter stated that the context around the review's quotes did not alter its conclusions,and that some academic papers were omitted from the analysis due to the study's exclusion criteria,while others had been appended to the article. [14]
