That blurred, foggy frame of the security video has become engraved on the public conscience. We can never know the whole truth of what followed, but a critical re-focussing on the Bulger case is essential if we are to challenge the paralysing horror of the event.

We all felt appalling pain at James Bulger's death, yet we are part of a culture which pressures boys to be ever more aggressively manly, to be harder, stronger, more commanding and powerful. It is this pressure, David Jackson argues, which may have contributed to the murder, as the two boys acted out fantasies of masculinity and power.