Intimate Enemies : Moral Panics in Contemporary Great Britain Book

Intimate Enemies describes the creation of a journalistically induced panic in Great Britain during the the 1980s - a decade of intense concern about a closely related set of perceived problems: sexual abuse of children, child pornography, satanic rituals, and serial murder. It was widely alleged that such practices became more common during the decade, and the notoriety attracted major attention from the mass media, as well as from agencies in law enforcement, social welfare, and mental health. Jenkins' book traces how such problems were reformulated in the course of the decade, and how they came to be seen as major menaces to society. It discusses the motivations of those who knowingly or otherwise disseminated misleading and exaggerated claims, and seeks to explain why these claims gained such widespread credence. Jenkins suggests that these newly defined "problems" aroused concern because they focussed upon broadly-held fears about changes in British society and national identity. In addition, the alleged threats to children provided a weapon for various political groups in their campaigns: for conservatives opposed to perceived moral "permissiveness," and also for radical feminists seeking to promote an ideological agenda of their own.