Erich Goode & Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Moral Panic: The Social Constructions of Deviance. 1994

Arnold Hunt, “‘Moral Panic’ and Moral Language in the Media,” British Journal of Sociology 48:4 (1997).

Bourke: thanks, already got it!

Cohen: yes, the theory is exactly what I’m interested in.

Dowding: indeed, and his interest in spiritualism predated his interest in UFOs. This is what his Wikipedia entry has on the subject:

In his retirement Dowding became actively interested in spiritualism, both as a writer and speaker. His first book on the subject, Many Mansions, was written in 1943, followed by Lychgate (1945), The Dark Star and God’s Magic. Rejecting conventional Christianity he joined the Theosophical Society which advocated belief in reincarnation. He insisted to his friend Lord Beaverbrook that he had been the leader of a Mongol tribe in a previous life. He also espoused the cause of animal welfare. An evangelist with a belief in life after death he wrote in Lychgate of meeting dead ‘RAF boys’ in his sleep — spirits who flew fighters from mountain-top runways made of light. One of his former pilots was to comment years later: “at that stage we thought Stuffy had gone a bit ga ga”.

Really, I can’t see why they would think that …

Cohen is important for theory. Most of the material in Folk Devils is too chronologically late for you, I would think.

ISTR that Dowding was a bit of a nutter when off duty – prone to extensive musings on spiritualism and what-not.