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((short description|Claim that people are posing as social workers to abduct children))
((refimprove|date=September 2012))
The term "'''phantom social workers'''" (also known as "'''bogus social workers'''") arose in the [[United Kingdom]] and [[United States]] following sporadic reports to police and media about people claiming to be [[social workers]] and attempting to [[Child abduction|abduct children]] from their parents. Police investigations into these reports failed to find any substantial evidence or locate any suspects.

The phenomenon was initially and most frequently reported in the early 1990s.

== Media coverage ==

In the early 1990s, reports emerged in the UK media concerning the purported conduct of persons claiming to be social workers. Most witnesses reported being visited by one or two women in their late twenties to early thirties who were dressed professionally.<ref name="Dash2000">((cite book|first=Mike|last=Dash|title=Borderlands: The Ultimate Exploration of the Unknown|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g8GGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA386|date=2000|publisher=Random House Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-440-61416-6|page=386))</ref> In some versions of the story, the visits included a woman accompanied by a man who seemed to be acting in a supervisory role. Visits consisted of an inspection of the children in the household, during which the "social workers" displayed strange behaviour. Claims about the nature of the "examinations" fed concerns that children were being sexually abused.<ref>((Cite news|url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12107117.monsters-let-loose-by-the-scaremongers/|title=Monsters let loose by the scaremongers|date=11 May 1995|work=The Herald|access-date=20 December 2019))</ref>

== Police investigation ==

Police in [[South Yorkshire]] launched a major investigation into the phantom social worker phenomenon in 1990, known as "Operation Childcare." The investigation became one of the largest in UK history, with 23 separate police forces participating.<ref>Dash 2000, p. 385.</ref> After a year of investigating, police had gathered 250 reports – of these, police believed only two cases were genuine and 18 deserved to be taken seriously. Criminologists speculated that even genuine cases may have involved self-appointed child abuse investigators, or individuals seeking to make false accusations, rather than child sexual abusers. No arrests were made and Operation Childcare has since been disbanded.<ref name="Independent">((cite news |last=Cooper |first=Glenda |date=August 16, 1995 |title=Huge sums wasted on bogus social worker hunt |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/huge-sums-wasted-on-bogus-social-worker-hunt-1596552.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/huge-sums-wasted-on-bogus-social-worker-hunt-1596552.html |archive-date=2022-05-26 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |newspaper=The Independent |access-date=July 26, 2016))</ref> 

[[Lothian and Borders Police]] set up a special unit to investigate the subject, but disbanded it in 1994 with no arrests.<ref name="Independent" />

== Speculated origins ==

It is thought that reports of unidentified "social workers" attempting to take children away from their parents were merely scare stories or urban legends fuelled by the story of [[Marietta Higgs]], a [[paediatrician]] from [[Cleveland, England]] who diagnosed 121 children as being victims of sexual abuse from their parents without any evidence or reason.<ref>((cite web |url=http://www.childrenuk.co.uk/choct2002/choct2002/pragnell%20cleveland%20abuse.html |work=Children Webmag |title=The Cleveland Child Sexual Abuse Scandal |first=Charles |last=Pragnell |year=2002 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130413010937/http://www.childrenuk.co.uk/choct2002/choct2002/pragnell+cleveland+abuse.html |archive-date=April 13, 2013 ))</ref><ref>((cite news |title=Abuse inquiry doctor under fire again |newspaper=[[The Northern Echo]] |date=January 22, 2001 |url=http://archive.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/2001/1/22/180941.html |accessdate=July 29, 2007))</ref> 

Police believe some of the visits were made by vigilante citizens conducting their own child abuse investigations.<ref>Dash 2000, p. 385–6.</ref> Other reported visits can be explained by the misidentification of [[door-to-door]] salesmen, canvassers, and religious missionaries.<ref name="Independent" />

== See also ==
*[[Satanic ritual abuse]]
*[[Khapper]]
*[[Men in black]]
*[[Black Volga]]
* [[Child abduction scare of 2002]]

==Footnotes==
((reflist))

((Urban legends))

[[Category:1990 controversies]]
[[Category:1990 establishments in England]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theories in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theories in the United States]]
[[Category:Child abduction in England]]
[[Category:Child abduction in the United States]]
[[Category:Urban legends]]
[[Category:Social workers]]

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