Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance, 2nd Edition

"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