The vigilant(e) parent and the paedophile

Abstract

The vigilant(e) parent and the paedophile The News of the World campaign 2000 and the contemporary governmentality of child sexual abuse Between 1821 and 1824, Theodore Gericault (1791-1824) attempted to capture on canvas the faces of various 'monomanias', including a portrait of a 'man with the "monomania" of child kidnapping' (1822-3) that was recently exhibited in London as part of the Spectacular Bodies exhibition (Hayward Gallery, 2000). The exhibition traced, inter alia, the development of the aestheticization of insanity through technologies of knowledge production. To the modern eye there is nothing especially significant or noteworthy about this monomaniac's appearance beyond looking rather miserable and forlorn, but the series of portraits, instigated by Dr Etienne-Jean Georget of the asylum at Ivry, were explicitly attempting to present certain typical features. In this instance, 'the haunted, sideways glance, asymmetrical sag of the mouth and hollow cheeks' were indicative of his type, the child abductor (Kemp and Wallace, 2000: 126). As the exhibition illustrated, photography soon took the place of painting, and the 19th century saw the development of this practice of depicting madness, with Jean-Martin Charcot famously building his career on the production of such representations, establishing his photographic unit at the hospital of the Salpatrière in Paris, and writing and lecturing on the 'visual iconography of the insane' (Rose, 1998). In Britain, Francis Galton studied photographic portraits of criminals from the Home Office and, arguing that 'natural classes' of individuals appeared, produced his composite photographs that purported to illustrate the typical face of each grouping-one of which was sexual offenders. In Italy, Cesaire Lombroso combined a reading of evolutionary theory with his studies of the human skull and his use of photographic portraits to present his notorious argument that criminals were atavistic, throwbacks from an earlier period, whose status as such was betrayed by their physiognomy. Presented in London for their historical curiosity, his photographic tables showing the faces of Italian and German criminals were initially presented in 1889 under the title 'The Anthropology of the Criminal', with the criminal's name printed underneath each of the 68 portraits. Readers of Michel Foucault's work are alert to the tensions between individualization and the creation of 'types' within disciplinary settings (see 83 T F

Maternal Risk Anxiety in Belfast: Claims, Evaluations, Responses

“…Indeed, the effort to protect children from potential harm often focuses on sexual risk, as indicated by the emergence 'stranger danger' education campaigns, as well as the politicisation of child sex abuse (Bell 2002;Lorentzen 2013). As Scott and colleagues argue, while risk of sexual harm to children is actually posed primarily by familiar people rather than strangers, parental anxiety about 'stranger danger', and more recently paedophilia, although disproportionate to the risk, nevertheless does have a social logic (1998: 693).…”

“…The worry that children could be abducted by strangers echoes parental anxiety in other contexts, generated by repeated moral panics (Bell 2002;Pain 2008). Carol's anxiety prompted her to exercise more physical surveillance of their activities than she feels is common in her neighbourhood:…”

Professionals’ understanding of government strategies for the management of child sexual abusers

“…The vast majority of participants disagreed with the introduction of the public disclosure of sex offender information suggesting that it is a negative, conservative, punitive and a potentially problematic approach to dealing with child sexual abuse (Bell, 2002;Silverman & Wilson, 2002;Fitch, 2006;Guest, 2007, April 15: Independent.co.uk). These professionals believed that it would be underutilised and not have a significant impact, which borne out by both the UK and American research, as well as lead to reactionary public disorder, which was found in the USA research but not in the UK research (Fitch, 2006;Kemshall et al, 2010).…”

Paedophiles in the community: Inter-agency conflict, news leaks and the local press

“…The paper argued that this was the result of it being in tune with the public mood. It also made a clear distinction between the paper's vigilance on this issue and regrettable public acts of vigilantism (Bell, 2002). However, the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders countered that unmanaged publicity -leaked information -was now a cause for concern for agencies working in penal policy.…”

“…In the case of paedophiles living incognito in the community, this has led to some newspapers mobilizing a 'rogue's gallery' (Bell, 2002) of identifiably 'risky characters' whose cultural coding as 'dangerous paedophiles' goes some way towards overcoming the disruption that they cause communities following their identification as dangerous/threatening. Once identified as such, the task of bringing the community together to eradicate the perceived threat can then begin.…”