ABSTRACT
M edia reports on the James Bulger case produced conflicting and often confused ideas about childhood. On one level this can be explained by the extreme nature of the case, which involved the abduction and murder of a 2-yearold boy by two 11-year-old boys. Child crime of this nature is rare, and where there are precedents, there are not many. On this level it was difficult to know what to think about children who could do something so shocking.
