Seduction of the Innocent is a book by German-American psychiatrist
Fredric Wertham, published in 1954, that warned that
comic books were a negative form of popular
literature and a serious cause of
juvenile delinquency. The book was taken seriously at the time, and was a minor bestseller that created alarm in parents and galvanized them to campaign for
censorship. At the same time, a
U.S. Congressional inquiry was launched into the comic book industry. Subsequent to the publication of
Seduction of the Innocent, the
Comics Code Authority was voluntarily established by publishers to self-censor their titles.