Social Panics & Phantom Attackers

A Study of Imaginary Assailants

Robert E. Bartholomew, Paul Weatherhead (Autoren)

Buch | Softcover

350 Seiten

2024 | 2024 ed.
Palgrave Macmillan (Verlag)
978-981-97-4271-4 (ISBN)

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This book provides an accessible overview of one particular type of social panic: that of the phantom attacker. Such panics are characterised by outbreaks of sensational claims of attacks by mysterious figures that seem to emerge from nowhere, attack their innocent human and animal victims, only to vanish without a trace. Taking the recent wave of needle-spiking reports in Europe as a starting point, this book does more than just catalogue such outbreaks historically and geographically. It also ties the phenomenon of phantom assailants to the moral panics literature.

Meticulously investigating archival sources, the authors examine the social construction of social panics and unearth the parallels between contemporary episodes and historical antecedents in Europe, North America, Asia and Africa. Focusing on the sociohistorical and -cultural context, they uncover the role of mass media in creating and perpetuating these panics, which respond to anxieties pervading societies at particular points in history.

Written in a lively style, this book is not only of interest for scholars and students of sociology, criminology, social psychology, media studies and history but also appeals to a lay audience interested in urban legends and true crime.

Robert E. Bartholomew is Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. A sociologist and Fellow for the Center for Skeptical Inquiry, Robert critically investigates pseudoscience, collective behavior, and popular myths. Paul Weatherhead teaches research and critical thinking skills to international students in Manchester, UK. The author of Weird Calderdale, Paul has also written for Psychology Today and The Skeptic.

The Bogeyman: An Introduction to Phantom Assailants.- The British Needle-Spiking Panic: A Crime in Search of Criminals.- ‘Welcome to the World of AIDS’: HIV Needle Panics.- The London Monster: An Eighteenth Century Spiking Scare.- Phantom Slashers: From Out of the Shadows.- Mad Gassers and Ethereal Terrorists.- Serial Pet Killer Panics: From the Yorkshire Dog Poisoner to the Croydon Cat Killer.- The Annoyers: Mysterious Sprayers, Pitters, Biters & Crackers.- Beyond Belief: Of Monkey Men and Genital Thieves.

Erscheinungsdatum	25.09.2024
Zusatzinfo	1 Illustrations, black and white; XX, 350 p. 1 illus.
Verlagsort	Singapore
Sprache	englisch
Maße	148 x 210 mm
Themenwelt	Recht / Steuern ► Strafrecht ► Kriminologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Kommunikationswissenschaft
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Medienwissenschaft
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Spezielle Soziologien
Schlagworte	collective behaviour • Collective Beliefs • collective delusions • mass delusions • mass hysteria • media hoax • monsters • moral panics • Public Sociology • scary animals • skepticism • skeptics • Social Delusions • social issues • Social Problems • Social Psychiatry • Social Psychology • social scares • True Crime • Urban Legends
ISBN-10	981-97-4271-4 / 9819742714
ISBN-13	978-981-97-4271-4 / 9789819742714
Zustand	Neuware