(The good), the bad and the ugly: The visual construction of female child sex offenders

Abstract

This paper explores the visual construction and representation of female sex offenders. It utilises the case study of Vanessa George, a nursery worker who was involved in the exchange of indecent imagery of children via an online paedophile ring. The first part of the paper considers the emergence of the sub-discipline, visual criminology and examines what is known about the visual representation of female offenders. The second part presents the findings of an empirical investigation, which involved engaging in a critical, reflexive visual analysis of a selection photographs and the police mugshot of Vanessa George. The paper considers the ways in which George‟s physical appearance and her suggested ability to deceive were used to visually represent her as “other”, thus reinforcing the existing simplistic motifs of female sex offending.