Packed 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.

Preface 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

From the Renaissance witch craze to the denunciation of horror comics and rock and roll in the 1950s and flag burning in the late twentieth and the early twenty-first century, institutions and groups of individuals have mobilized around issues where they feel threatened. This book introduces, describes, and analyzes the collective outbreaks of scares about threats or supposed threats from deviants or “folk devils,” a category of people who, some believe, engage in evil practices and are blamed for menacing the society’s culture, way of life, and central values. Examining what motivates fear- and concern-inspired collective behavior, the second edition of Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance comprehensively updates this popular and highly-respected text, bringing in a host of new examples, and new chapters on the media and criticisms of the moral panics concept.

"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)

"In a thoroughly updated new edition of their very valuable book, Goode and Ben-Yehuda demonstrate the wide gulf that so often separates the real menaces facing our society from the disproportionate waves of public fear and concern that regularly surface in the mass media. Their book - intelligently written, wide-ranging and provocative - shows us once again that knowing what a society fears is essential to understanding its core values, and its highest aspirations." –Philip Jenkins, Pennsylvania State University "Moral Panics is more than a classic text in social theory. In this newly updated and enlarged edition, it is an indispensable text for every twenty-first century scholar interested in the social construction and diffusion of fear." –Barry Glassner, author of The Culture of Fear "Moral panics remains one of the most hotly-debated sociological ideas to have entered the public sphere, so an up-dated version of Goode and Ben-Yehuda’s pathbreaking work on this subject is very welcome. The new version is even more enlightening than its predecessor." –Kenneth Thompson, Open University