Moral Panics in the Contemporary World represents the best current theoretical and empirical work on the topic, taken from the international conference on moral panics held at Brunel University. The range of contributors, from established scholars to emerging ones in the field, and from a working journalist as well, helps to cover a wide range of moral panics, both old and new, and extend the geographical scope of moral panic analysis to previously underrepresented areas. Designed from the outset to comprise a coherent and integrated set of viewpoints which share a common engagement with critically exploring moral panics in the contemporary world, it contains case studies instantly recognisable and familiar to a student readership (drugs, alcohol, sexual abuse and racism). The collection brings a fresh approach to analysis and argument by testing and extending the concept of moral panic and analyzing a range of topics and geographical contexts, accurately reflecting the state-of-the-art moral panics research today.

List of illustrations Acknowledgements Contributors 1.Moral Panics in the Contemporary World: Enduring Controversies and Future DirectionsAmanda Rohloff, Julian Petley, Jason Hughes, and Chas Critcher Part 1: Rethinking Moral Panics 2.The Cautionary Tale: A New Paradigm for Studying Media Coverage of CrimeSarah E.H. Moore 3.The Journalist, Folk DevilPaul Lashmar 4.'Are We Insane?' The 'Video Nasty' Moral PanicJulian Petley Part 2: Lifestyle, Risk and Health 5.Theorising Alcohol in Public Discourse: Moral Panics or Moral Regulation?Henry Yeomans 6.Moral Panics, Governmentality and the Media: A Comparative Approach to the Analysis of Illegal Drug Use in the NewsJeremy Collins 7.'He Who Buries the Little Girl Wins!' Moral Panics as Double Jeopardy: The Case of Rule of RoseElisabeth Staksrud and Jørgen Kirksæther Part 3: Crime and Deviance 8.From Media Hypes to Moral Panics: Theoretical and Methodological ToolsMarcello Maneri 9.Moral Panic and Paedophilia: Where's the Risk? Morena Tartari 10.Creating a Folk Devil: The Moral Panic over 'Chavs'Elias le Grand Part 4: Immigration, War and Terror 11.Moral Panic around the Burqa in France: An Eliasian PerspectiveAurélie Lacassagne 12.Elite Power and the Manufacture of a Moral Panic: The Case of the Dirty War in ArgentinaJohn Oplinger, Richard Talbot and Yasin Aktay Index