Synthetic Panics

Synthetic Panics PDF Author: Philip Jenkins
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479829358
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
America has a long history of drug panics in which countless social problems have been blamed on the devastating effects of some harmful substance. In the last forty years, such panics have often focused on synthetic or designer drugs, like methamphetamine, PCP, Ecstasy, methcathinone, and rave drugs like ketamine, and GHB. Fear of these substances has provided critical justification for the continuing "war on drugs." Synthetic Panics traces the history of these anti-drug movements, demonstrating that designer chemicals inspire so much fear not because they are uniquely dangerous, but because they bring into focus deeply rooted public concerns about social and cultural upheaval. Jenkins highlights the role of the mass media in spreading anti-drug hysteria and shows how proponents of the war on drugs use synthetic panics to scapegoat society's "others" and exacerbate racial, class, and intergenerational conflict.

Synthetic Panics

Synthetic Panics PDF Author: Philip Jenkins
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479829358
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Get Book Here

Book Description
America has a long history of drug panics in which countless social problems have been blamed on the devastating effects of some harmful substance. In the last forty years, such panics have often focused on synthetic or designer drugs, like methamphetamine, PCP, Ecstasy, methcathinone, and rave drugs like ketamine, and GHB. Fear of these substances has provided critical justification for the continuing "war on drugs." Synthetic Panics traces the history of these anti-drug movements, demonstrating that designer chemicals inspire so much fear not because they are uniquely dangerous, but because they bring into focus deeply rooted public concerns about social and cultural upheaval. Jenkins highlights the role of the mass media in spreading anti-drug hysteria and shows how proponents of the war on drugs use synthetic panics to scapegoat society's "others" and exacerbate racial, class, and intergenerational conflict.

Crime and the Media

Crime and the Media PDF Author: Sarah E.H. Moore
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1137400544
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
From video games that allow us to participate in Mafia-style violence, to newspaper reports about the latest terrorist atrocity, from detective novels that fill our bedside cabinets, to Hollywood's beloved legal dramas – the mass media is saturated with stories about crime, justice and disorder. Together they create a cultural landscape of crime that is distinctly at odds with reality, as criminologists are apt to complain. Crime and the Media attempts to make sense of this cultural landscape and its relationship with broader social trends and public attitudes. Through focussed, critical discussions about crime in the media - taking on crime news and fictional representations of cops, courts, and corrections - the text equips students with an understanding of the key theoretical concepts and methodological tools that are required to undertake media analysis. With questions for discussion, exercises and workshop sessions, as well as techniques for analysing crime in a range of media formats, the book makes an invaluable contribution to crime and media courses, and to the social sciences in general.

Understanding Deviance

Understanding Deviance PDF Author: Tammy L. Anderson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134756372
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 945

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Book Description
In this collection of 48 reprinted and completely original articles, Tammy Anderson gives her fellow instructors of undergraduate deviance a refreshing way to energize and revitalize their courses. [36 are reprints; 12 are original to this text/anthology] First, in 12 separate sections, she presents a wide range of deviant behaviors, traits, and conditions including: underage drinking and drunk driving, doping in elite sports, gang behavior, community crime, juvenile delinquency, hate crime, prison violence and transgendered prisoners, mental illness, drug-using women and domestic violence, obesity, tattooing, sexual fetishes, prostitution, drug epidemics, viral pandemics, crime control strategies and racial inequality, gay neighborhoods, HIV and bugchasers, and (lastly) youth, multicultural identity and music scenes. Second, her pairing of "classic" and "contemporary" viewpoints about deviance and social control not only "connects" important literatures of the past to today’s (student) readers, her "connections framework" also helps all of us see social life and social processes more clearly when alternative meanings are accorded to similar forms of deviant behavior. We also learn how to appreciate and interact with those who see things differently from ourselves. This may better equip us to reach common goals in an increasingly diverse and ever-changing world. Third, a major teaching goal of Anderson’s anthology is to sharpen students’ critical thinking skills by forcing them to look at how a deviant behavior, trait or condition, can be viewed from opposing or alternative perspectives. By learning to see deviance from multiple perspectives, students will better understand their own and other’s behavior and experiences and be able to anticipate future trends. Balancing multiple perspectives may also assist students in their practical work in social service, criminal justice and other agencies and institutions that deal with populations considered "deviant" in one way or another.

Moral Panic and the Politics of Anxiety

Moral Panic and the Politics of Anxiety PDF Author: SEAN HIER
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113519811X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
Moral Panic and the Politics of Anxiety is a collection of original essays written by some of the world’s leading social scientists. It seeks to provide unique insight into the importance of moral panic as a routine feature of everyday life, whilst also developing an integrated framework for moral panic research by widening the scope of scholarship in the area. Many of the key twenty-first century contributions to moral panic theory have moved beyond the parameters of the sociology of deviance to consider the importance of moral panic for identity formation, national security, industrial risk, and character formation. Reflecting this growth, the book brings together recognized moral panic researchers with prominent scholars in moral regulation, social problems, cultural fear, and health risks, allowing for a more careful and critical discussion around the cultural and political significance of moral panic to emerge. This book will prove valuable reading for both undergraduate and postgraduate students on courses such as politics and the media, regulatory policy, the body and identity, theory and political sociology, and sociology of culture.

The Suburban Crisis

The Suburban Crisis PDF Author: Matthew D. Lassiter
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691177287
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 680

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Book Description
"Most accounts of post-1950s political history tell the story of of the war on drugs as part of a racial system of social control of urban minority populations, an extension of the federal war on black street crime and the foundation for the "new Jim Crow" of mass incarceration as key characteristics of the U.S. in this period. But as the Nixon White House understood, and as the Carter and Reagan administrations also learned, there were not nearly enough urban heroin addicts in America to sustain a national war on drugs. This book argues that the long war on drugs has reflected both the bipartisan mandate for urban crime control and the balancing act required to resolve an impossible public policy: the criminalization of the social practices and consumer choices of tens of millions of white middle-class Americans constantly categorized as "otherwise law-abiding citizens."" That is, the white middle class was just as much a target as minority populations. The criminalization of marijuana - the white middleclass drug problem - moved to the epicenter of the national war on drugs during the Nixon era. White middle-class youth by the millions were both the primary victims of the organized drug trade and excessive drug war enforcement, but policymakers also remained committed to deterring their illegal drug use, controlling their subculture, and coercing them into rehabilitation through criminal law. Only with the emergence of crack cocaine epidemic of the mid-1980s did this use of state power move out of suburbs and remgaged more dramatically in urban and minority areas. This book tells a history of how state institutions, mass media, and grassroots political movements long constructed the wars on drugs, crime, and delinquency through the lens of suburban crisis while repeatedly launching bipartisan/nonpartisan crusades to protect white middle-class victims from perceived and actual threats, both internal and external. The book works on a national, regional, and local level, with deep case studies of major areas like San Francisco, LA, Washington, and New York. This history uses the lens of the suburban drug war to examine the consequences when affluent white suburban families serve as the nation's heroes and victims all at the same time, in politics, policy, and popular culture"--

Body/Embodiment

Body/Embodiment PDF Author: Phillip Vannini
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317173430
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
The body and experiences of embodiment have generated a rich and diverse sociological literature. This volume articulates and illustrates one major approach to the sociology of the body: symbolic interactionism, an increasingly prevalent theoretical base of contemporary sociology derived from the pragmatism of writers such as John Dewey, William James, Charles Peirce, Charles Cooley and George Herbert Mead. The authors argue that, from an interactionist perspective, the body is much more than a tangible, corporeal object - it is a vessel of great significance to the individual and society. From this perspective, body, self and social interaction are intimately interrelated and constantly reconfigured. The collection constitutes a unique anthology of empirical research on the body, from health and illness to sexuality, from beauty and imagery to bodily performance in sport and art, and from mediated communication to plastic surgery. The contributions are informed by innovative interactionist theory, offering fresh insights into one of the fastest growing sub-disciplines of sociology and cultural studies.

The New Anti-Catholicism

The New Anti-Catholicism PDF Author: Philip Jenkins
Publisher:
ISBN: 0195176049
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
And the recent pedophile priest scandal, he shows, has revived many ancient anti-Catholic stereotypes."--BOOK JACKET.

Every Molecule Tells a Story

Every Molecule Tells a Story PDF Author: Simon Cotton
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1439807736
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
From cooking to medicine, from engineering to art, chemistry—the science of molecules—is everywhere. A celebration of the molecules of chemistry, Every Molecule Tells a Story celebrates the molecules responsible for the experiences of everyday life: the air we breathe; the water we drink; the chemicals that fuel our living; the steroids that give us sex; the colours of the seasons; the drugs that heal us; and the scented molecules that enrich our diet and our encounters with each other. You can’t see them, but you know that they are there. Unveiling the structures of poisonous "natural" substances and beneficial man-made molecules, this book brushes away any preconceived notions about chemistry to demonstrate why and how molecules matter.

Communication Yearbook 36

Communication Yearbook 36 PDF Author: Charles T. Salmon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415525489
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 554

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Book Description
This volume offers state-of-the-art communication research, representing media, interpersonal, intercultural and other areas of communication. It is an important reference on current research for scholars and students in the social sciences.

Addiction Is a Choice

Addiction Is a Choice PDF Author: Jeffrey A. Schaler
Publisher: Open Court
ISBN: 0812697685
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
Politicians and the media tell us that people who take drugs, including alcohol or nicotine, cannot help themselves. They are supposedly victims of the disease of 'addiciton', and they need 'treatment'. The same goes for sex addicts, shopping addicts, food addicts, gambling addicts, or even addicts to abusive relationships. This theory, which grew out of the Temperance movement and was developed and disseminated by the religious cult known as Alcoholics Anonymous, has not been confirmed by any factual research. Numerous scientific studies show that 'addicts' are in control of their behavior. Contrary to the shrill, mindless propaganda of the 'war on drugs', very few of the people who use alcohol, marijuana, heroin, or cocaine will ever become 'addicted', and of those who do become heavy drug users, most will matrue out of it in time, without treatment. Research indicates that 'treatment' is completely ineffective, an absolute waste of time and money. Instead of looking at drub addiction as a disease, Dr. Schaler proposes that we view it as willful commitment or dedication, akin to joining a religion or pursuing a romantic involvement. While heavy consumption of drugs is often foolish and self-destructive, it is a matter of personal choice.