Smooth Criminals: Mystified Desires and Their Pursuits in Leaving Neverland

ABSTRACT The documentary Leaving Neverland details Michael Jackson’s alleged sexual activity with two young boys during the 1990s. While prior scholarship on early sexual trauma focuses on the immediate dyad, this article examines the role of the larger interpersonal field and the centrality of mystification among the protagonists in the film. It addresses how they mystified one another about what was wanted, who wanted it, and at whose expense, in the prelude to, onset of, and chronicity of the sexual relationships. In so doing, an expanded conception is offered of mystification as an emergent and ongoing quality of an interpersonal field, rather than a singular act performed by one person on another. Such a conception allows for a more nuanced and contextualized understanding of how child sexual trauma begins, continues, and remains secret for so long