Panic

For undergraduate-level courses in Special Topics in Criminal Justice, Juvenile Justice, and Juvenile Delinquency.

This text challenges many of the claims made by law enforcement and the media regarding the nature and extent of the gang problem in the United States. Employing a social constructionist approach to the study of social problems, the authors detail how law enforcement has figured prominently in the creation and promotion of stereotypes-marketing the gang threat via the news media to protect and increase organizational resources and power. This text focuses on the events, organizations, and processes that surrounded the gang panic during the late 1980s and early 1990s, a period during which gangs expanded greatly on American cities.