ABSTRACT
It is difficult to consider the wider issue of the management and treatment of sex offenders without some appreciation of the influence of the media. This is said to have a powerful (and overwhelmingly negative) impact upon the public’s view of sex offending and sex offenders, particularly with regard to offences against children. The media are said (e.g. Thomas 2005: 23) to claim to speak on behalf of the public in wanting punitive and ‘risk averse’ responses to such offences, and to hold themselves up as moral guardians and crusaders ‘protecting our children’. At the same time, there are those who would accuse the media of being part of the problem of sex offending by dint of the way in which they report sexual matters in general by creating moral panics (Cohen 1972) on the one hand while also being implicated in the sexualisation of children and the normalisation of more laissez-faire attitudes to sex and sexuality on the other.
