Joel Best
Joel Best, in-full Joel Gordon Best (born August 21, 1946), is a professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware. He is a prolific author and specializes in topics such as social problems and deviance.
Among MAPs, AAMs and their allies, Best will most likely be known for his 1990 book Threatened children: rhetoric and concern about child-victims. Reviews ([1], [2]) available at Sci-Hub. (Cited in our Chronological Archive). Bruce Rind is known to have cited a shorter publication - Best's article titled Victimization and the Victim Industry (1997).[1] We strongly recommend this article.
Best's 2001 book How Claims Spread: Cross-national Diffusion of Social Problems, is cited in our MAP Movement article. Other publications which may be of interest include:
- Joel Best, (ed. with James T. Richardson and David G. Bromley) The Satanism Scare (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1991). [Editor: The 'Satanic Panic' is an important part of historical and moral panic discussion in relation to MAPs].
- Joel Best, Damned Lies and Statistics (University of California Press, 2001).
- Joel Best, Deviance: Career of a Concept (Wadsworth, 2004).
- Joel Best, The Stupidity Epidemic: Worrying about Students, Schools, and America's Future (Routledge, 2011).
- Joel Best and Kathleen A. Bogle. Kids Gone Wild: From Rainbow Parties to Sexting, Understanding the Hype Over Teen Sex (New York University Press, 2014).
References
- ↑ Best, J. Victimization and the victim industry. Society 34, 9–17 (1997). <https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02912204>