In the early 1980s incest was ceasing to be a taboo subject. In Britain there was much conjecture but little knowledge about it, although some estimates suggested that as many as one child in ten would experience some form of sexual abuse within the family. Originally published in 1982, Jean Renvoize had travelled around the USA, where considerable attention had been paid to incest in the previous few years, meeting professionals ranging through paediatricians, policemen, university researchers, social workers, lawyers, and – more important – victims and abusers themselves.

This knowledge, added to the sparser British research, opened up a hitherto closed subject, bringing a wide range of controversial information to an audience composed of the general public as well as professionals involved in this field at the time. The author’s clear and easy style, which characterised her earlier books on related subjects – Children in Danger and Web of Violence – makes this a work of general as well as specialist interest.