Abstract
The events surrounding an act of great violence committed by an adolescent boy are discussed. Significance rests in the fact that both the victim and the offender were known to the author. It is suggested that in the genesis of this crime, three critical factors converged: an offender whose psychopathology was such that an impulsive act of sexual violence was possible, a victim whose helplessness, availability and symbolic appeal made him ripe for exploitation, and finally, a social network of significant others whose own preoccupations and losses led them to overlook the signals of impending violence. Here again as part of that network of significant others, the author is in a unique position to comment intimately on the nature of this environmental ‘failure’ and on its subsequent ramifications.