ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how child sexual abuse has been located within the remit of modern governance in liberal societies. It aims to throw into relief our contemporary evaluations of child sexual abuse and its governance, in order that we might be able to examine critically the conceptual frameworks that dominate our understanding of this issue and look afresh at this problem. The chapter provides a preliminary specification of the issue of child sexual abuse as a problem of governance. It introduces a set of co-ordinates for delineating contemporary calls of crisis with respect to child abuse, and provides a preliminary account of the cases of Cleveland and Orkney. The chapter provides some perspective on these concerns by examining the historical emergence of contemporary conceptions of childhood and of child abuse. It takes a brief look at the manner in which the figure of the child has become a site of concern within social and political theory and social policy.
