Moral Panics (Key Ideas) - Hardcover

Thompson, Kenneth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0415119766 ISBN 13: 9780415119764

Publisher: Routledge, 1998

Synopsis

It is widely acknowledged that this is the age of moral panics. From the Bulger case to mad cow disease, newspaper headlines continually warn of some new danger and television programmes echo the theme with sensational docmenturies.
This concise survey will help student trace the development of ideas of moral panic and to analyse how changing public perceptions are shaped and reflected through the media over time. Using examples drawn from:
* club culture and raves
* mugging
* sex and AIDS
* children, violence and the family.

About this title

Review:

" Moral Panics is sure to become a classic in the literature of deviance and criminology. It reviews in a critical and informative manner the core concepts of the discipline, taking an international focus. It returns the study of criminology and deviance back to its sociological roots by highlighting the social reaction and construction of crime and deviance. Its readability makes it ideal for use by both undergraduate and graduate students." Simon Singer, University of Buffalo

"Moral Panics is remarkable in its scope and accomplishments. It develops a distinctively sociological account of the rise, demise and institutionalization of moral panics and is especially important for the insight it provides into recurring American panics about drugs." John Hagan, University of Toronto

Synopsis:

It is widely acknowledged that this is the age of the moral panic. Newspaper headlines continually warn of some new danger resulting from moral laxity, and television programmes echo the theme with sensational documentaries. This concise guide presents and compares the various different approaches that have been adopted in studies of moral panics and integrates concepts such as 'risk' which have been developed in related fields. With the increasing number of moral panics in recent years triggered by incidents such as the Bulger case and the spread of AIDS, this book examines their wider significance particularly in terms of the functioning of the mass media. In this book, Kenneth Thompson traces the developments in moral panic studies and also re-introduces some of the initial broader relevance of this field by treating moral panics not simply as separate episodes but in relation to systems of representation and regulation, and as symptoms of wider social and cultural tensions.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0415119766
• ISBN 13: 9780415119764
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176