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 (Cited in our Chronological Archive).[1]Bruce Rind is known to have cited a shorter publication - Best's article titled Victimization and the Victim Industry (1997).[2] 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 of interest
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).