Description
Book SynopsisPacked with new examples and material, this second edition provides a fully up-to-date exploration of the genesis, dynamics, and demise of moral panics and their impacts on the societies in which they take place.
- Packed with updated and recent examples including terrorism, the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Towers, school shootings, flag burning, and the early-2000s resurgence of the sex slave scare
- Includes a new chapter on the media, currently regarded as a major component of the moral panic
- Devotes a chapter to addressing criticisms of the first edition as well as the moral panics concept itself
- Written by long-established experts in the field
- Designed to fit both self-contained courses on moral panics and wider courses on deviance
Trade Review"This close reading of the facts behind a media story are the essence of Goode and Ben-Yehuda's work. They have taken the time and trouble to try and see what is a moral panic and what is true." (
Metapsychology, March 2010)
Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgements viii
Prologue 1
1 Enter the Moral Panic 20
2 The Moral Panic: An Introduction 34
3 Three Theories of the Moral Panic 51
4 The Moral Panic Meets Its Critics 73
5 The Media Ignite and Embody the Moral Panic 88
6 Deviance, Morality, and Criminal Law 109
7 Collective Behavior 129
8 Social Movements 141
9 Social Problems 150
10 The Renaissance Witch Craze 168
11 Drug Abuse Panics 197
12 The Feminist Anti-Pornography Crusade 218
Epilogue: The Demise and Institutionalization of the Moral Panic 245
References 251
Author Index 270
Subject Index 275
