 Allegations of horrific acts by outsider groups—including cannibalism, child murder, torture and incestuous orgies—may have served as a form of othering for minority groups, as well scapegoat explanations for complex problems in times of social disruption.Torture and imprisonment were used by authority figures to coerce confessions from alleged Satanists, confessions that were later used to justify their execution.Records of these older allegations were linked by contemporary proponents in an effort to demonstrate the contemporary Satanic cults were part of an ancient conspiracy of evil, though ultimately there is no evidence for devil-worshipping cults in Europe at any time.