1st Edition

The Myth of Moral Panics Sex, Snuff, and Satan

By Bill Thompson, Andy Williams Copyright 2014
    340 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    354 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This study provides a comprehensive critique - forensic, historical, and theoretical - of the moral panic paradigm, using empirically grounded ethnographic research to argue that the panic paradigm suffers from fundamental flaws that make it a myth rather than a viable academic perspective.

    Introduction: Moral Panic for Dummies  Part I: The Making of a Myth  1. Constructing Moral Panic  2. Sozzled Students, Drunken Debutantes and the Hidden History of Mods And Rockers  3. Mugging Reality  Part II: Progressive Panic  4. Witch Hunts and Moral Enterprise  5. A Very Nasty Business  6. Who Needs Satan?  Part III: The New Politics of Panic  7. Streets of Fire.  Conclusion: Carry on Panicking

    Biography

    Bill Thompson is a sociologist from the UK, where he was a Practicing Associate of the British Academy of Experts, and taught at Cambridge, Essex, and Reading Universities. In 2004, he relocated to the USA, where he has worked with the local Teamsters Union Chapter while teaching at SUNY and Hartwick Colleges.

    Andy Williams is Principal Lecturer & Course Leader in BSc (Hons) Criminology and Forensics at the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies at the University of Portsmouth.