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In many Western countries, numerous instances of cases of historical and present-day sexual abuse of children (Child Sexual Abuse, CSA) have made the headlines across the entire range of media. These cases are discussed variously as paedophilia and child sexual abuse. In the heat of the debate, concepts and related terminology tend to become at best vague, and there is much in the way of sheer sensationalism. Altogether, a hazy cloud of facts and fiction has been created around paedophilia in its relation to CSA.This book adds to the very urgently needed enhanced level of understanding by analysing the nature of paedophilia and its relation to CSA as they have been depicted and dealt with in contemporary British and American drama and theatre. Drawing on the plays and their reviews allows it to illustrate the ambiguity of paedophilia and child sex abuse, and to ask questions that are not often uttered and not easily answered.

Based on ethnographic work performed in Chengdu, China, this article presents a decolonial analysis of Chinese Lolita dressing, criticising the unjustified accusations of catering to paedophilia and escapism. Lolita dressing is a clothing style originating from the Gothic clothing style of rebellious rock music singers in 1990s Japan. Some fashion studies and the mass media tend to place Lolita dressing in the context of a counter-public subculture narrative. However, such a framework is biased due to its Eurocentrism. Eurocentrism appears as origin-centrism in forming two unjustified accusations. The accusation of catering to paedophilia is formed based on its Euro-American etymological origin. The word ‘Lolita’ is inextricably associated with paedophilia in Western culture, which leads the general public, and mass media in particular, immediately to the discussion of Lolita dressing as being an abnormality. The accusation of escapism is based on its Japanese subcultural origin. Japanese Lolita dressing is an intentional refusal of the mainstream expectation of being an adult woman. This directs the discussion of Lolita dressing to youthful escapism from a disappointing reality. These two presumptions are problematic in Chinese Lolita dressing practices. Chinese Lolita dressing practitioners tend to integrate Lolita dresses into their ordinary life instead of using Lolita dresses as a medium to build an imagined identity. For Chinese Lolita dressing practitioners, Lolita dresses are neither abnormal nor counter-public. In short, Chinese Lolita dressing should be positioned as a fashionable clothing category among diverse clothing practices instead of as a subculture or an example of a counter-public rebellion.

This volume sheds light on one of the most explosive episodes of censure of academic scholarship in recent decades. Bruce Rind, a former psychology professor at Temple University, investigated sexual relations between male adults and adolescents through history and across cultures, from highly institutionalized relationships in Ancient Greece and Rome, to 33 contemporary cultures including the USA, and among various species. His conclusions that these relations, when consensual, are not always negative was radical, but based in his research findings. Even before publication of an invited article on the topic, he was subjected to intensive attacks, censured, and censored. This book presents a substantially extended version of Rind's original, unpublished article, plus 12 scholarly responses to his work that argue for or against Rind's conclusions or offer useful context on his work. For anyone interested in sex research and the academic freedom issues surrounding it, whether supportive of or vehemently opposed to Rind's ideas, this book is a must-read.

After an evening of sex, the women use their newfound power over Reeves'-due to their threat to expose his sexual activity-to manipulate him and cause havoc in his life. The film explores what it is to be male; family pictures show a protector, or suggest a dominant husband or father, while others show Reeves engaging in play. [...]the laughter of the audience shows how uncomfortable we are with male victims of sexual assault and violence.

This article investigates the Lewis Carroll Society of Great Britain, suggesting parallels between popular media fandom and the “high cultural” literary society: the need for community, the obsession with close reading, the pleasures of pilgrimage, and the importance of defending the chosen text from criticism. However, the Lewis Carroll Society diverges from popular fandom in its comparatively greater cultural power, its potential to guide meanings in broader social discourse, and its blurring of the lines between amateur and academic publishing. Through these points of sameness and difference, it offers new insight into practices common to both popular and high cultural fandom.

Crime and social control present important issues that move and affect large segments of society. Whether we consider the impact of criminal events in terms of victimization, the construction of deviance into criminalized acts, or the many socially relevant aspects related to criminal justice policies and other social control activities, crime and justice are matters that deserve our most serious attention. It is largely for this reason that scholars develop astute theoretical models and sophisticated methodologies to study crime and social control in their many significant components. Yet, the world of popular culture, which we tend to associate with playfulness and fun, has also embraced themes related to crime and its control. It is perhaps a sign of the very earnestness associated with crime and social control that these themes are also dealt with in the social institutions of entertainment. The study of such portrayals of crime and criminal justice in popular culture is the focus of the present volume.