Nachman Ben-Yehuda is Professor of Sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His publications include Deviance and Moral Boundaries (1985), The Politics and Morality of Deviance (1990), Political Assassinations by Jews: A Rhetorical Device for Justice (1993), The Masada Myth (1995), Betrayals and Treason (2001), and Selective Remembrances (edited with Philip Kohl and Mara Kozelsky, 2007).

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