Sex, Love and Abuse

Sharon Hayes is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Justice at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Her critical analyses of gender and crime are published in journals such as Sexualities and Critical Criminology, and in previous monographs including Sex, Crime and Morality (2012) and The Politics of Sex Trafficking (Palgrave, 2013).

"This is an unconventional monograph offering a fresh look at the relationship between culture, love and abuse. ... I enjoyed Hayes' engagement with popular culture, and generally enjoyed her reflective, imaginative approach to enquiry. ... This book is a provocation to think eclectically about the connections between sex, love, crime and culture, and deserves to be read." (Jennifer Fleetwood, The British Journal of Criminology, Vol. 56 (1), January, 2016) "The book is a sensitive and insightful critique of discourses of love, and 'seeks to destabilize essentialist understandings' of love, harm and intimacy ... . The book is engaging, stimulating, and difficult to put down, and would appeal to academics and non-academics alike due to its versatility and applicability to everyday representations of love and romance ... . I would highly recommend it ... ." (Jennifer Sloan, Crime Media Culture, Vol. 11 (3), 2015)

• Foreword; Kerry Carrington 1. Introduction 2. Enchantment and Romance 3. From Disney to Distortion 4. From Distortion to Abuse 5. Sexual Spaces 6. Sexism and Misogyny 7. Sexual Predation and Gendered Norms 8. Conclusion - A Geography of Abuse