ABSTRACT
Few issues arouse as much fear, anxiety and loathing in late-modern societies as paedophilia, the sexual attraction of adults for children. The ‘paedophile’ has become a potent embodiment of evil, a synonym not only for the child sex abuser but also in many cases for child abductor and even murderer, and a powerful generator of Moral panic. The especial horror invoked by the abuse of innocence, by the imposition of adult desires on the vulnerable, powerless child, suggests a culture that is profoundly anxious about the boundaries and differences between adults and children, and has become increasingly concerned with protecting the young as long as possible. Yet this has not always been the case.
