Ralph Underwager

Ralph Charles Underwager (28 July 1929 – 29 November 2003) was an American minister and psychologist who rose to prominence as a defense witness for adults accused of child sexual abuse in the 1980s and 1990s. Until his death in 2003, he was the director of the Institute for Psychological Therapies, which he founded in 1974. He was also a founder of Victims of Child Abuse Laws (VOCAL), a lobby group which represented the interests of parents whose children had been removed from their care by social services following abuse allegations. He was a founding member of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation. He was also accused of being a supporter of pedophilia because of controversial statements he made, including those in an interview to Paidika: The Journal of Paedophilia.

He was born on 28 July 1929. He earned a Master of Divinity from Concordia Seminary of St. Louis in 1951 and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1955. He was a pastor of Lutheran Churches in Iowa and Minnesota. He became the director of the Institute for Psychological Therapies in Northfield, Minnesota in 1974. He died on 29 November 2003.

Underwager first appeared in court as a defense witness for two of the accused in the 1984 Jordan, Minnesota case, one of the earliest attempts to prosecute alleged organized child sexual abuse in the United States. On the stand, Underwager argued that the children’s testimony of abuse was the result of brainwashing by social workers using Communist thought-reform techniques. The accused couple were acquitted, and they joined with Underwager to form VOCAL, a lobby group for people who had been accused of child abuse by social services.

Within a year of its establishment, VOCAL claimed 3000 members in 100 chapters across America. VOCAL members picketed hospitals, courts and social service departments who they characterized as staffed by “Gestapo-like” “fanatics”, “quacks and zealots” who remove children solely based on “rumours.” Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, VOCAL made several attempts to have legislation passed that would limit the powers of child protection services. Nationally, VOCAL campaigned to lift the burden of proof in child protection cases to a criminal standard. In Florida, VOCAL lobbied to restrict mandatory reporting requirements. VOCAL criticized child abuse prevention programs, claiming that they create sexually aware children who might misinterpret innocent touch from an adult.

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