Blaming Children

Youth Crime, Moral Panics and the Politics of Hate

Bernard Schissel

This book argues that we are on the verge of an acute “moral panic” in this country that, if allowed to continue, willresult in the indictment of all adolescents, but especially those that are disadvantaged. Schissel explains the role of the media in this panic–its affiliation with information/political systems, with its readers/viewers, and with corporate Canada. The reality of youth crime is presented in stark contrast to the collective perception that youth crime is expanding at an alarming rate. Schissel discusses the larger structural forces that construct, communicate and perpetuate a belief system that benefits those who have access to power and indicts those who live on the margins of political, social and economic society.

Contents

• The Study of the Hatred of Children 
• Actors in the Theatre of Crime 
• Media:Representation and Power 
• The Socio-Fiction of Young Folk Devils 
• The Reality of Youth Crime and Misconduct
• Understanding Child Hating
• A Kinder World for Youth

About the Author

Bernard Schissel is a professor of sociology at theUniversity of Saskatchewan. He is co-editor of the first edition of Marginality and Condemnation. His research focuses on the marginal position that children and youth occupy in western democracies and how such institutions as law, education, medicine, the political economy and the military exploit children and youth in very subtle, politically acceptable and publicly endorsed ways. His most recent books are Still Blaming Children and The Legacy of School for Aboriginal People (with Terry Wotherspoon) and Marginality and Condemnation: An Introduction to Critical Criminology (with Carolyn Brooks).

He works and writes extensively in the areas of youth crime and justice, the sociology of children and youth.