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Perpetual Panic

View the entire PDF article here MICHAEL M. O?HEAR Associate Dean for Research & Professor of Law, Marquette University Law School Editor, Federal Sentencing Reporter In his 1998 book Moral Panic: Changing Concepts of the Child Molester in Modern America, historian Philip Jenkins described three distinct twentieth-century panics over child sex abuse. In Jenkins? view, what marks a ?panic? is not only widespread public fear, but ?fear that is wildly exaggerated and wrongly directed.? During a panic, ?concern over sexual abuse provides a basis for extravagant claims making by professionals, the media, and assorted interest groups, who argue that the problem is quantitatively and qualitatively far more severe than anyone could reasonably suppose...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sex Offender Issues on March 11, 2009 (boomark / email).