ABSTRACT
Offences committed against children and young persons are portrayed frequently as producing considerable feelings of repugnance and anger in the minds of reasonable people. These feelings are exacerbated when the offences in question are of a sexual nature. Whilst all sexual offences (or at least those where the absence of consent is an element) are viewed with revulsion, that revulsion is heightened where the victim is a child. Indeed, the last decade has witnessed a number of high profile child abuse scandals (in Rochdale, Cleveland, South Wales and Orkney, for example), to such an extent that a moral panic about the incidence of paedophile activities seems to have seized the general population. Whilst it is undoubtedly true that such moral panics are not unique to the late 20th century, it is also clear that the incidence of sexual offences, including those committed against children, is on the increase. If it is accepted, also, that the number of reported crimes is often considerably lower than the actual number of offences committed, then the phenomenon does become of huge social and legal significance.1
