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Essential reading

The books you need, reviewed by experts

Innocence Betrayed: Paedophilia, the media and society Silverman, S and Wilson, D. Polity Press, 2002, £17.99

It is difficult to try and imagine a figure in society more reviled that the paedophile, and the moral panic over paedophilia limits our ability to put the issue into perspective. Wilson and Silverman open their book with a fascinating and illuminating 'history' of sex offending, comparing concerns over paedophilia with the garroting 'panic' of 1860s London.

A large proportion of the book has developed from extensive research and interviews with offenders and victims, and with therapists, prison governors and other professionals working with paedophiles.

The interviews provide some of the most interesting parts of this book. A group of mothers from the Paulsgrove estate in Portsmouth - scene of the biggest paedophile riots in 2000 - talk at length about their experiences both as victims but also as concerned parents. Former sex offenders talk candidly about their offending and what 'made' them, or 'led' them to offend. The book includes an interview with the managing editor of the News of the World, the detail of which is reason enough to read this book. The book also gives a glimpse into the world of government dealing with the media, and examines in detail the pitfalls in calls for 'community notification' and 'naming and shaming'.

Perhaps the most important chapter of this book is the penultimate one, in which the authors detail 'Circles of Support', a community based programme designed to safely aid the paedophile's resettlement into the community after release from prison; a programme somewhat reliant on community awareness but also community tolerance. The chapter provides a clue as to the direction in which we should be heading, rather than continuing on the destructive course currently being mapped out.

Reviewed by Steve Taylor, a trustee of the Howard League.

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