In the UK, the discourse of innocence currently prevails as a major way of understanding children. This article argues that the strength of this discourse lies in its prevalence, its resistance to challenges and the ways in which it connects ideas of innocence and vulnerability. The moral quality of the discourse of innocence works in conjunction with the sacred status of the child, to produce childhood as a moral rhetoric. Children and childhood function to explain and legitimize any practice or opinion as right while removing the necessity to provide reasons: children are the reason. The article also considers how issues around childhood and morality are implicated in the generation of social concern with risks affecting children.
Ariès, P. (1962) Centuries of Childhood. London: Jonathan Cape.
2.
Benedict, H. (1992) Virgin or Vamp: How the Press Covers Sex Crimes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
3.
Bloor, M., J. Frankland, M. Thomas and K. Robson (2001) Focus Groups in Social Research. London: Sage.
4.
Christensen, P.H. (2000) ‘Childhood and the Cultural Construction of Vulnerable Bodies’, in A. Prout (ed.) The Body, Childhood and Society, pp. 38–59. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
5.
Cobley, C. (2000) Sex Offenders: Law, Policy and Practice. Bristol: Jordans.
6.
Crompton, R. (1998) Class and Stratification: An Introduction to Current Debates. Cambridge: Polity Press.
7.
Davis, J.E. (2005) Accounts of Innocence: Sexual Abuse, Trauma, and the Self. London: The University of Chicago Press.
8.
Fairclough, N. (2003) Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London: Routledge.
9.
Foucault, M. (1978) The History of Sexuality: An Introduction, Vol. 1. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
10.
Greer, C. (2003) Sex Crime and the Media: Sex Offending and the Press in a Divided Society. Cullompton: Willan.
11.
Hobbs, S. and J. McKechnie (1997) Child Employment in Britain: A Social and Psychological Perspective. Edinburgh: The Stationery Office.
12.
Holloway, S. and G. Valentine (2003) Cyberkids: Children in the Information Age. London: Routledge.
13.
Jackson, S. (1982) Childhood and Sexuality. Oxford: Blackwell.
14.
Jackson, S. and S. Scott (1999) ‘Risk Anxiety and the Social Construction of Childhood’, in D. Lupton (ed.) Risk and Sociocultural Theory: New Directions and Perspectives, pp. 86–107. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
15.
James, A., C. Jenks and A. Prout (1998) Theorizing Childhood. Cambridge: Polity Press.
16.
Jenks, C. (1996) Childhood. London: Sage.
17.
Kincaid, J.R. (1998) Erotic Innocence: The Culture of Child Molesting. London: Duke University Press.
18.
Kitzinger, J. (1994) ‘The Methodology of Focus Groups: The Importance of Interaction Between Research Participants’, Sociology of Health and Illness16(1): 103–121.
19.
Kitzinger, J. (1997) ‘Who Are You Kidding? Children, Power and the Struggle Against Sexual Abuse’, in A. James and A. Prout (eds) Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood: Contemporary Issues in the Sociological Study of Childhood, pp. 165–189. London: Falmer Press.
20.
Lansdown, G. (1994) ‘Children's Rights’, in B. Mayall (ed.) Children's Childhoods: Observed and Experienced, pp. 33–44. London: Falmer Press.
21.
Lavalette, M(2005) ‘ “In Defence of Childhood”: Against the Neo-Liberal Assault on Social Life’, in J. Qvortrup (ed.) Studies in Modern Childhood: Society, Agency, Culture, pp. 147–166. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
22.
Lawler, S. (2000) Mothering the Self: Mothers, Daughters, Subjects. London: Routledge.
23.
MORI (2000) ‘Naming and Shaming’, opinion poll commissioned by The News of the World, 20 August, London.
24.
MORI (2001) ‘Crimes against Children’, opinion poll commissioned by The News of the World, 16 December, London.
25.
MORI (2002) ‘The Repercussions of Soham Murders’, opinion poll commissioned by the NSPCC, 19 September, London.
26.
Morrison, B. (1997) As If. London: Granta.
27.
Mort, F. (1996) Cultures of Consumption: Masculinities and Social Space in Late Twentieth- Century Britain. London: Routledge.
28.
Oakley, A. (1972) Sex, Gender and Society. London: Maurice Temple Smith.
29.
Qvortrup, J. (2005) ‘Varieties of Childhood’, in J. Qvortrup (ed.) Studies in Modern Childhood: Society, Agency, Culture, pp. 1–20. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
30.
Renold, E. (2005) Girls, Boys and Junior Sexualities: Exploring Children's Gender and Sexual Relations in the Primary School. London: Routledge Falmer.
31.
Thompson, K. (1998) Moral Panics. London: Routledge.
32.
Travis, A. (2003) ‘Blunkett to Bypass Judges on Life Sentences’, The Guardian8May: 6-6.
33.
Tunstall, J. (1996) Newspaper Power: The New National Press in Britain. Oxford: Clarendon.
34.
Valentine, G. (1996) ‘Angels and Devils: Moral Landscapes of Childhood’, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space14: 581–599.
35.
Zelizer, V. (1985) Pricing the Priceless Child. New York: Basic Books.
