ABSTRACT
The idea of sex offending as we know it today has evolved slowly over the course of history. The definitive history of sex offending has probably still to be written, and this chapter attempts only an outline of developments to define and counter the sex offender, and the culture, mores and legal provisions put in place at the time. The chapter tries to highlight those provisions from the past that have a continuing resonance today; the perceived need to identify, label and regulate the ‘dangerous’ person, the competing definitions put forward by the popular crowd, the press and politicians and the later arrival of the medical and penal ‘experts’ and the move towards public protection. For more general histories of crime and the response to it, the reader is referred to Beattie (1986) and Radzinowicz and Hood (1990).
