The concept of moral panic has received considerable scholarly attention, but as yet little attention has been accorded to panics over children and youth. This is the first book to examine this important and controversial social issue by employing a rigorous intellectual framework to explore the cultural construction of youth, through the dissemination of moral panics. It is accessible in manner and makes use of the latest contemporary research by addressing some of the pressing recent concerns relating to children and youth, including cyber-related panics, child abuse and pornography, education and crime. A truly international collection, this volume features new global research focusing on the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, South Africa, and France as well as the United States. Genuinely multidisciplinary in approach, it will appeal to researchers and students across the social sciences and humanities - from sociology and social theory, to media, education, anthropology, criminology, geography and history.

The Ashgate Research Companion to Moral Panics offers a comprehensive assemblage of cutting-edge critical and theoretical perspectives on the concept of moral panic. All chapters represent original research by many of the most influential theorists and researchers now working in the area of moral panic, including Nachman Ben-Yehuda and Erich Goode, Joel Best, Chas Critcher, Mary deYoung, Alan Hunt, Toby Miller, Willem Schinkel, Kenneth Thompson, Sheldon Ungar, and Grazyna Zajdow. Chapters come from a range of disciplines, including media studies, literary studies, history, legal studies, and sociology, with significant new elaborations on the concept of moral panic (and its future), informed and powerful critiques, and detailed empirical studies from several continents. A clear and comprehensive survey of a concept that is increasingly influential in a number of disciplines as well as in popular culture, this collection of the latest research in the field addresses themes including the evolution of the moral panic concept, sex panics, media panics, moral panics over children and youth, and the future of the moral panic concept.

We live in a world that is increasingly characterized as risky, dangerous, and threatening. Every day, a new social issue emerges to assail our sensibilities and consciences, seemingly designed to provoke a shared sense of panic. Drawing on the popular UK Economic Social and Research Council seminar series, this book uses the concept of moral panic to examine these social issues and anxieties and the solutions to them. With an introduction by Chas Critcher—coeditor ofMoral Panics in the Contemporary World—and contributions from both well-known and up-and-coming researchers and practitioners, this book offers a stimulating and innovative overview of moral panic ideas for students and practitioners and an accessible introduction to the concept for a wider general public.

The Ashgate Research Companion to Moral Panics offers a comprehensive assemblage of cutting-edge critical and theoretical perspectives on the concept of moral panic. All chapters represent original research by many of the most influential theorists and researchers now working in the area of moral panic, including Nachman Ben-Yehuda and Erich Goode, Joel Best, Chas Critcher, Mary deYoung, Alan Hunt, Toby Miller, Willem Schinkel, Kenneth Thompson, Sheldon Ungar, and Grazyna Zajdow. Chapters come from a range of disciplines, including media studies, literary studies, history, legal studies, and sociology, with significant new elaborations on the concept of moral panic (and its future), informed and powerful critiques, and detailed empirical studies from several continents. A clear and comprehensive survey of a concept that is increasingly influential in a number of disciplines as well as in popular culture, this collection of the latest research in the field addresses themes including the evolution of the moral panic concept, sex panics, media panics, moral panics over children and youth, and the future of the moral panic concept.

Today, it is commonly acknowledged that sexual abuse of children is a grave and pervasive problem. Yet 20 years ago many experts believed that child molestation was a rare offense. This book traces shifting social responses to child molestation.

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.

This book revolves around neoliberal notions governing children and youth – a trend that permeates and dominates contemporary perceptions of "the young." In fact, given how the disciplinary power of neoliberalism swiftly becomes a common conceptual currency across national and cultural borders, discussing the way in which neoliberal self-governance permeates the cultures of childhood and youth is even more pertinent. This is followed by research on media discourses of children and their cultural practices in Norway, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Serbia, Greece, and the US.