This chapter contains references to sexual abuse of minors that readers may find upsetting or disturbing.

Islands have been a wonderful stage for political satire and Mark Twain was quick to see the potential of Pitcairn Island, which had become a mythological place a century after mutineers had founded it. Pitcairn Island is Britain's smallest colony (1 mile long and 2 miles wide) and is also the last British territory in the Pacific. It is ideal for our purposes in this chapter, in the sense that its isolation and size, measured in geography and population, render it a stereotype of an island. Pitcairn has also been described as a ‘site of textual overload’ (Fletcher, 2011, p 58), which situates it well in terms of place. In addition to Twain's contribution, its story inspired a novel by Jules Verne and a myriad of Hollywood movies.

Social integration as much produces crime as it prevents it, just as crime may also facilitate social integration. This is hardly a new insight, having been famously proposed by the French sociologist, Emile Durkheim. In a similar vein, the ‘social glue’ of Pitcairn has been a source of both idyllization and horror. As we discussed in Chapter 2, a key aspect of the island-idyll is the notion that islands embody ‘communitarian’ qualities. Communities are seen as collections of people sharing certain interests, sentiments, behaviours, and objects by virtue of their membership of a social group (Amoamo, 2012, p 427).