Andy Williams

Panic or Placebo? Enterprise in the Construction of Risk and Fear of the Child Sexual Offender

This chapter examines the issue of media and social constructions of sexual offending and how these constructions feed numerous discourses on crime, fear and risk. It will consider these themes through the lens of what has been labelled ‘cyber-activism’ (McCaughey and Ayers, Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice. New York: Routledge, 2003). It critically explores media and societal framing of sexual offending by providing a historical overview of the paedophile ‘panic’, including how the various representations of sexual offending have created public fear over these harmful crimes. Using cases such as the murder of Sarah Payne, the News of the World’s ‘For Sarah’ campaign and the Paulsgrove demonstrations, it shows how shaming practices within the media have influenced criminal justice policy regarding how offenders are punished and managed within local communities. Finally, the chapter examines new forms of media and shaming practices by looking at child sex offender online activist groups. In doing so, it explores the ways that social networking sites and the internet have changed shaming practices and placed the power to shame back in the hands of public.

The realities of legislating against and protecting the public from risky groups

In the world of public protection the application of sanctions to those assessed as posing a risk of harm takes a significant departure from how most offenders are dealt with. In essence, this distinction is simple to understand; it is based upon the harm people might pose in the future as much as on the harm they have already done. In other words they are to be dealt with for potential, future crimes or harmful behaviour. Indeed, in the most recent developments, discussed below, it is not even necessary for some individuals to have a previous history of criminal behaviour. They, like others, can be brought into the ‘system’ through the use of civil-law-based measures grounded upon a suspicion (or some might say prediction) that they might harm individuals in the future. Underpinning these measures and in essence forming their central rationale is the assessment of the risk of harm an individual may pose to the public. We will discuss risk assessment elsewhere in this chapter and it runs as a theme throughout the volume. Suffice it to say that there should be sufficient doubts about its effectiveness to at least pause the constant introduction of new criminal, civil and regulatory measures deployed against this group. However, any analysis of these measures over the past 2 decades might suggest that the only caution exercised has been the reluctance to be more discriminating in the use of the high-risk or dangerous label; indeed, public protection has become a very inclusive agenda.