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Debbie Nathan (born 1950) is an American feminist journalist and writer, with a focus on cultural and criminal justice issues concerning abuse of children, particularly accusations of satanic ritual abuse in schools and child care institutions. She also writes about immigration, focusing on women and on dynamics between immigration and sexuality. Nathan's writing has won a number of awards. John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism , Medill School of Journalism (retrieved February 12, 2012). (Nathan won 1st prize in 1991 for work for The Village Voice.) 2000 AltWeekly Awards, Association of Alternative Newsmedia (retrieved February 12, 2012). (Nathan won 1st place Arts Feature award for an article for the San Antonio Current.) 1998 AltWeekly Awards, Social Reporting, Association of Alternative Newsmedia (retrieved February 12, 2012). (Nathan won 1st place Social Reporting award for an article for The Texas Observer.) "Winners and Judges of the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards" (retrieved February 12, 2012). (Nathan won a Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award in 1991.) She appears in the 2003 Oscar-nominated film Capturing the Friedmans.David Edelstein, "His Father's Son: The haunted men of Capturing the Friedmans." Slate, June 5, 2003. She has been affiliated with the National Center for Reason and Justice, which, among other things, provides support to persons who may have been wrongly accused of sexual abuse.David Folkenflik, "Seizures Hurt Memory, Ex-'Times' Reporter Says", All Things Considered (National Public Radio), October 19, 2007.
Nathan taught English as a second language at Brooklyn College, then moved to Chicago in 1980, where she began her journalism career at the Chicago Reader. She returned to El Paso in 1984 to work for the El Paso Times, then became a freelance journalist. In 1998, she took a job writing for the San Antonio Current, then moved to New York City in 2000.Richard Baron, "Profile: Debbie Nathan" , Newspaper Tree (El Paso), February 22, 2004. Nathan is a board member for the National Center for Reason and Justice, non-profit organization that aids people likely to have been falsely accused and/or convicted of harming children.
Paul Okami's review of the book in The Journal of Sex Research noted that the book "is not . . . a scientific work", and he had some criticisms of its organization and what Okami described as misapplication of certain social-science concepts and an over-reliance in some parts of the book on feminist and leftist economic theory. Nevertheless, Okami judged the book to be "essential reading . . . for its devastating journalistic portrait" and "for its more general analysis of proximate mechanisms by which our society can become vulnerable to patent collective madness."Paul Okami, "A Triumph of Skepticism: Nailing down the Coffin of 'Ritual Abuse'", The Journal of Sex Research vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 164–65 (pay site), also available here [12]
In addition to the book, Nathan published criticism of Janet Reno's Country Walk case prosecution.
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