The Devil's Children - A History Of Childhood And Murder

Icon Books Press Release: 20 January 2009
FULL UK SERIAL RIGHTS & AUTHOR INTERVIEW AVAILABLE

THE DEVIL'S CHILDREN - A HISTORY OF CHILDHOOD AND MURDER

LORETTA LOACH

PUBLICATION DATE 12 FEBRUARY 2009

£14.99 ● Hardback ● ISBN 978-1-84831-019-3

Most people's initial reaction to a history of children who have murdered other children is one of repugnance. But Loretta Loach's new book THE DEVIL'S CHILDREN, which is due to be published on the 16th anniversary of James Bulger's murder, offers an objective and well-researched exploration into the societies in which they lived and by which they are judged. Loach examines this sad subject with sensitivity and thoroughness, focusing more on society's relationship to childhood and underage law-breakers than the murders themselves and seeks to find answers about our society that will help us prevent similar cases in the future.

Like Kate Summerscale's bestselling hit of 2008, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, THE DEVIL'S CHILDREN is as much about society and the difficulties it faces regarding questions about responsibility, morality and innocence and experience whenever children have committed the most heinous of crimes. The book begins in the Middle Ages and ends with the tragic killing of Jamie Bulger. In between it explores the themes of execution, transportation, prison, reform, science and family crimes, among other things, through specific murders in the last 200 years. We learn how in modern history the child who kills is continually interpreted through the ideas of both Locke and Rousseau - reason and romanticism are the concepts that have governed the thinking on children's capacities, particularly when they have committed murder.

As well as asking what has changed in the treatment and punishment of these children, and in how they have been viewed by the Church, the courts and the medical profession, it also reveals how these unusual crimes were as pivotal then as they are now in wider deliberations about childhood. The intriguing story of these crimes is deftly woven together with the keen insights of social history and a groundbreaking depiction of how the legal and medical cultures used such cases to rethink human agency and responsibility.

LORETTA LOACH has an extensive background in television documentaries in history, politics and current affairs, as well as a PhD in History. She has most recently worked on the historical drama documentary, Queen Victoria's Empire for Channel Four. She has appeared on Radio 4's All In the Mind and has written for the Guardian, the Observer and the New Statesman.