Faculty of Humanities School of Human and Community Development 9505866y bowmab@unisa.ac.za / Through an analysis informed by the genealogical method as derived from Foucault (1980a), this study examines the discourses and material conditions that have produced the South African paedophile. Archival texts and contemporary discursive matter are critically analysed against the backdrop of the material conditions of political possibility with which they intersected to construct the paedophile of the South African present. The study traces constructions of the paedophile as a relatively innocuous nuisance in a selected sequence of past historical periods through to the recidivism, sexual malice and aggression that define its contemporary characterisations. In South Africa, practices such as surveillance and disciplines the likes of demography and psychology became integral to the effective management and regulation of a distinctly racialised population. It was precisely through these forms of apartheid governance and power that the conditions for the emergence of the paedophile in South Africa were produced. This early paedophilia threatened the future purity of South African whiteness and therefore the integrity of the apartheid state. The racialised constructions of sexuality of the time precluded the assimilation of blackness into the discursive matrix of paedophiliac desire. The impending collapse of apartheid signalled the reconstitution of black children. While apartheid constructed black children as posing a fundamental threat to white hegemony, discourses beginning in the mid 1980s repositioned them as vulnerable victims of apartheid itself. It was from within these discourses that child sexual abuse (CSA) as a public health concern began to crystallise. Paedophilia however, remained a powerful component of this burgeoning discourse. Locating blackness within the fields of discipline and desire, in turn produced the material conditions for an everexpanding net of paedophiliac suspicion. This new biopolitical dispensation affixes the paedophiliac crime to all in its scope, such that the symptomatic desire of the once peripherally pathological paedophile can now be insinuated into the fantasies and practices of all of the citizens of a recently “liberated” and democratic South Africa.

This study examines the ways in which men who relate sexually to children, identified in the press as paedophiles, are represented in four leading newspapers in the Republic of Ireland in the period from 2003-2005. Utilising a qualitative research methodology namely critical discourse analysis, a social constructionist approach and informed by post-structural perspectives, this research examines the ways in which the masculinities of the man represented as `the paedophile¿ are constructed. This research demonstrates how the normative is reinforced through the delegitimation of the masculinities of these men. The discursive regimes and cultural scenarios drawn upon in representations of `the paedophile¿ reflect degrees of deviation from hegemonic masculinity in an always already `deviant¿ group of men. Inactive heterosexuality and homosexuality are not hegemonic masculine practices, and the masculinity of supposedly, celibate clergymen and homosexual men is discursively subordinated. A consideration of the material dimensions of these discourses, illustrates how the media representation of men who relate sexually to children, confirms the normative contours of society and strategically excludes hegemonic masculinity and the wider society from association with adult male sexual interaction with children.

This study examines the ways in which men who relate sexually to children, identified in the press as paedophiles, are represented in four leading newspapers in the Republic of Ireland in the period from 2003-2005. Utilising a qualitative research methodology namely critical discourse analysis, a social constructionist approach and informed by post-structural perspectives, this research examines the ways in which the masculinities of the man represented as 'the paedophile' are constructed. This research demonstrates how the normative is reinforced through the delegitimation of the masculinities of these men. The discursive regimes and cultural scenarios drawn upon in representations of 'the paedophile' reflect degrees of deviation from hegemonic masculinity in an always already 'deviant' group of men. Inactive heterosexuality and homosexuality are not hegemonic masculine practices, and the masculinity of supposedly, celibate clergymen and homosexual men is discursively subordinated. A consideration of the material dimensions of these discourses, illustrates how the media representation of men who relate sexually to children, confirms the normative contours of society and strategically excludes hegemonic masculinity and the wider society from association with adult male sexual interaction with children.

Denna studie undersöker möjliga konsekvenser för barn som blivit utsatta för grooming som tardel av pedofiljägarnätverks publicerade innehåll från uthängningar av misstänkta förövare. Forskning kring pedofiljakt finns tillgänglig medan det finns en kunskapslucka kring barn som tardel av nätverkens publicerade innehåll. Studien är en fallstudie med syfte är att studera pedofiljakti förhållande till dessa barn och till socialtjänsten, som har ansvaret att hjälpa barn i utsatta situationer. Detta görs med hjälp av Goffmans teori om stigma, kompletterad av en traumagenisk dynamisk modell. Resultatet visar att den bild som pedofiljägarnätverken visar av barn som blivit utsatta förgrooming är ensidig och utelämnar den komplexitet som finns hos barnens upplevelser, både av groomingen och av relationen till och känslorna kring sin förövare. Det kan leda till att barnen får ännu svårare att berätta om sina upplevelser, men att ta del av innehåll där en vuxen person bekräftar att groomingen alltid är förövarens ansvar och att det som hänt alltid är förövarens fel, kan upplevas som en lättnad och vara underlättande för att barnen ska berätta om groomingen för sin omgivning. Eftersom att berätta för omgivningen är en förutsättning för att socialtjänstenska kunna ge barnen hjälp och stöd, påverkas socialtjänsten av den information som barnen tardel av. Barns förändrade attityder till sina erfarenheter kan både underlätta och försvåra socialtjänstens arbete med att ge stöd och skydd till barn som blivit utsatta för grooming.

La criminalité sexuelle constitue aujourd’hui l’un des enjeux politiques et sociaux de nos sociétés contemporaines. Les débats auxquels elle donne lieu sont généralement l’occasion de souligner le rôle central des criminels sexuels récidivistes et de certains types de personnalités particulièrement dangereuses, parfois désignés sous le terme de « prédateurs sexuels », les plus dangereux étant les tueurs en série en raison de leur violence sexuelle meurtrière et les pédophiles en raison d’une inclination qui non seulement repousserait les limites de la morale en les amenant à s’en prendre à des enfants mais qui, de plus, pourrait participer, selon les théoriciens de l’abuseur-abusé, à reproduire un contingent d’agresseurs sexuels toujours plus important. Dans un tel contexte cette recherche doctorale a tout d’abord eu pour objectifs de contribuer à une meilleure connaissance des catégories de tueur en série et de pédophile ; d’analyser ensuite comment un ensemble de pratiques et d'idées à-travers un processus de catégorisation sont amenées à être pensées comme relevant d'un problème plus large, en l’occurrence la criminalité sexuelle ; et, enfin, inspiré par l’approche de Ian Hacking des maladies mentales transitoires de mettre en évidence les effets de la catégorisation sur les individus ainsi catégorisés et l’action en retour de ces derniers sur les catégories. / Sex-related crime is currently one of the most concerning political and social issues of our day. The resulting debates usually highlight the central role of repeat sex offenders and a number of particularly dangerous types of personality, often referred to as “sexual predators”, the most dangerous of which are serial killers, who are responsible for sexual violence and death, and paedophiles. The latter display an inclination that far exceeds moral boundaries by targeting children as victims, and could also, according to the theorists of the abuser-abused relationship, reproduce a more significant contingent of sexual aggressors. Within this context, this doctoral research aims first to contribute towards a better understanding of serial killer and paedophile categories and, subsequently analyse how, through a long categorisation process, specific practices and ideas are considered relevant to the broader issues regarding sexual criminality. Finally, this research, inspired by Ian Hacking’s approach to transitory mental illness, seeks to underline the effects that categorisation has on the persons concerned, including the latter’s influence on the former.