ABSTRACT
Sexually abusive behaviours towards children have always existed in any human group, so they cannot be considered as historical incidents, yet they have to be inscribed and interpreted within social and cultural relationships, with different meanings depending on the historical period considered and on the predominant culture. This chapter focuses on three historical periods, the Classical Age, the Middle Ages, and the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to see how, although the attitude towards children and their world varies, sexual abuse has never gained the full, convinced and unequivocal approval of society, even when it has been subject to norms or informally accepted. Some have thought of defining paedophilia not as a form of perversion but as 'social corruption', as it is considered a perversion only in certain societies or historical periods, whereas in others it is an absolutely natural behaviour.
