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But why do stories like these find such media traffic, exploiting parents’  worst fears? How do these rumors get started, and how do they travel around the  country and even across the globe?        In Kids Gone Wild,  best-selling authors Joel Best and Kathleen A. Bogle use these stories about  the fears of the growing sexualization of childhood to explore what we know  about contemporary legends and how both traditional media and the internet perpetuate  these rumors while, at times, debating their authenticity. Best and Bogle  describe the process by which such stories spread, trace how and to where they have moved, and track how  they can morph as they travel from one medium to another. 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A  surprising look at the truth behind the sensationalism in our culture, Kids Gone Wild is a much-needed wake-up  call for a society determined to believe the worst about its young people.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49584970891537,"sku":"GOR008713882","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50367943246097,"sku":"CIN0814760732G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51008366641425,"sku":"NIN9780814760734","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52354046787857,"sku":"NLS9780814760734","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0814760732.jpg?v=1761389567"},{"product_id":"making-sense-of-social-problems-book-joel-best-9781588268808","title":"Making Sense of Social Problems","description":"Internet addiction. 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Following on the heels of his highly acclaimed \"Damned Lies and Statistics\" and \"More Damned Lies and Statistics\", Joel Best now offers this practical field guide to help everyone identify questionable statistics.Entertaining, informative, and concise, \"Stat-Spotting\" is essential reading for people who want to be more savvy and critical consumers of news and information. \"Stat-Spotting\" features pertinent examples from today's news, including the number of deaths reported in Iraq, the threat of secondhand smoke, the increase in the number of overweight Americans, and many more, and a commonsense approach that doesn't require advanced math or statistics.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49641724739857,"sku":"GOR002758143","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50187475091729,"sku":"CIN0520257464G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52103868055825,"sku":"CIN0520257464VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0520257464.jpg?v=1751446188"},{"product_id":"is-that-true-book-joel-best-9780520381407","title":"Is That True?","description":"Across disciplines, critical thinking is praised, taught, and put into practice. 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While most researchers have focused on social problems involving adolescents, this volume offers instead original case studies of problems concerning preadolescent children.The papers that Best has gathered here represent different theoretical and methodological approaches. They report on social issues in Albania, Kenya, and Japan as well as in the United States. The range of social problems they address is a wide one, from broad societal crises to decision-making within families. Topics include the effects of economic and social crises in Africa and Eastern Europe; concerns about crack use and other forms of fetal endangerment; parental decisions about spanking, toy choices, and letting children listen to rock music; schooling in day care and elementary and junior high schools; and children's perceptions of environmental crises.Troubling Children adds a new dimension to courses in social problems. 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In American Nightmares, Best addresses the apprehension that we face every day as we are bombarded with threats that the social institutions we count on are imperiled. Our schools are failing to teach our kids. Healthcare may soon be harder to obtain. We can't bank on our retirement plans. And our homes-still the largest chunk of most people's net worth-may lose much of their value. Our very way of life is being threatened! Or is it? With a steady voice and keen focus, Best examines how a culture develops fears and fantasies and how these visions are created and recreated in every generation. By dismantling current ideas about the future, collective memory, and sociology's marginalization in the public square, Best sheds light on how social problems-and our anxiety about them-are socially constructed.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49804268830993,"sku":"CIN0520296354G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50523010007313,"sku":"CIN0520296354A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50557261676817,"sku":"CIN0520296354VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53521458037009,"sku":"NLS9780520296350","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0520296354.jpg?v=1750879575"},{"product_id":"stat-spotting-book-joel-best-9780520279988","title":"Stat-Spotting","description":"Does a young person commit suicide every thirteen minutes in the United States? 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Examining how we've arrived at and how we might extricate ourselves from this grave social problem, The Student Loan Mess is a must-read for everyone concerned about the future of American education. Hard facts about the student loan crisis: * Student loan debt is rising by more than $100 billion every year and is likely to reach $2 trillion by 2020. * Among recent college students who are supposed to be repaying their loans, more than a third are delinquent. * Because student loans cannot be discharged through bankruptcy, the federal government misleadingly treats student loan debt as a government asset. * Higher default rates, spiraling college costs, and proposals for more generous terms for student borrowers make it increasingly likely that student loan policies will eventually cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50226028871953,"sku":"CIN0520276450G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51697344086289,"sku":"GOR007724651","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0520276450.jpg?v=1751104052"},{"product_id":"satanism-scare-book-joel-best-9780202303789","title":"The Satanism Scare","description":"Although there is growing concern over Satanism as a threat to American life, the topic has received surprisingly little serious attention. 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In spite of their good intentions, Americans have allowed concerns about deadbeat students, crushing debt, exploitative for-profit colleges, and changing attitudes about the purpose of college education to blind them to a growing crisis. With college costs climbing faster than the cost of living, how can access to higher education remain a central part of the American dream? With more than half of college students carrying an average debt of $27,000 at graduation, what are the prospects for young adults in the current economy? Examining how we've arrived at and how we might extricate ourselves from this grave social problem, The Student Loan Mess is a must-read for everyone concerned about the future of American education. Hard facts about the student loan crisis: student loan debt is rising by more than $100 billion every year; among recent college students who are supposed to be repaying their loans, more than a third are delinquent; because student loans cannot be discharged through bankruptcy, the federal government misleadingly treats student loan debt as a government asset; and, higher default rates, spiraling college costs, and proposals for more generous terms for student borrowers make it increasingly likely that student loan policies will eventually cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50354373951761,"sku":"CIN0520287525VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51694878621969,"sku":"CIN0520287525G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0520287525.jpg?v=1751260944"},{"product_id":"controlling-vice-book-joel-best-9780814250075","title":"Controlling Vice","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor eighteen years following the Civil War, the police in St. Paul, Minnesota, informally regulated brothel prostitution. Each month, the madams who ran the brothels were charged with keeping houses of ill fame and fined in the city's municipal court. In effect, they were paying licensing fees in order to operate illegal enterprises. This arrangement was open; during this period, the city's newspapers published hundreds of articles about vice and its regulation.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eJoel Best claims that the sort of informal regulation in St. Paul was common in the late nineteenth century and was far more typical than the better known but brief experiment with legalization tried in St. Louis. With few exceptions, the usual approach to these issues of social control has been to treat informal regulation as a form of corruption, but Best's view is that St. Paul's arrangement exposes the assumption that the criminal justice system must seek to eradicate crime. He maintains that other policies are possible.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn a book that integrates history and sociology, the author has reconstructed the municipal court records for most of 1865-83, using newspaper articles, an arrest ledger kept by the St. Paul police, and municipal court dockets. He has been able to trace which madams operated brothels and the identities of many of the prostitutes who lived and worked in them.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50363984642321,"sku":"CIN0814250076G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52428190974225,"sku":"NLS9780814250075","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0814250076.jpg?v=1751170610"},{"product_id":"deviance-book-joel-best-9780534570019","title":"Deviance","description":"One of America's foremost experts on deviance, Joel Best, explores the history of the study of deviance in this short, highly accessible supplementary text. Joel Best covers the emergence of anomie theory in the 1950s, the rise of labeling theory in the 1960s, and the shifts in the field as it came under criticism from other theoretical perspectives.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50467996139793,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50467998335249,"sku":"CIN0534570011G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53460766359825,"sku":"CIN0534570011VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0534570011.jpg?v=1751104401"},{"product_id":"random-violence-book-joel-best-9780520215726","title":"Random Violence","description":"\"Random Violence\" is a deft and thought-provoking exploration of the ways we talk about - and why we worry about - new crimes and new forms of victimization. Focusing on so-called random crimes such as freeway shootings, gang violence, hate crimes, stalking, and wilding, Joel Best shows how new crime problems emerge and how some quickly fade from public attention while others spread and become enduring subjects of concern. Best's original and incisive argument illuminates the fact that while these crimes are in actuality neither new, nor epidemic, nor random, the language used to describe them nonetheless shapes both private fears and public policies. Best scrutinizes the melodramatic quality of the American public's attitudes toward crime, exposing the cultural context for the popularity of 'random violence' as a catch-all phrase to describe contemporary crime, and the fallacious belief that violence is steadily rising. He points out that the age, race, and sex of homicide victims reveal that violence is highly patterned. Best also details the contemporary ideology of victimization, as well as the social arrangements that create and support a victim industry that can label large numbers of victims. He demonstrates why it has become commonplace to 'declare war' on social problems, including drugs, crime, poverty, and cancer, and outlines the complementary influence of media, activists, officials, and experts in institutionalizing crime problems. Intrinsic to all these concerns is the way in which policy choices and outcomes are affected by the language used to describe social problems.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50731304157457,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50731304550673,"sku":"GOR008715674","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53521388798225,"sku":"NLS9780520215726","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0520215729.jpg?v=1751449184"},{"product_id":"stupidity-epidemic-book-joel-best-9780415892094","title":"The Stupidity Epidemic","description":"Critics often warn that American schools are failing, and that our students are ill-prepared for the challenges the future holds, and may even be \"the dumbest generation.\" We can think of these claims as warning about a Stupidity Epidemic. This essay begins by tracing the history of the idea of that American students, teachers, and schools are somehow getting worse; the record shows that critics have been issuing such warnings for more than 150 years. It then examines four sets of data that speak to whether educational deterioration is taking place. First, data on educational attainment show a clear trend: more students are getting more education. Second, standardized test scores suggest that American students are performing somewhat better; certainly most test scores do not indicate that students are getting worse. Third, measures of popular knowledge also show evidence of improvement. Fourth, there is clear evidence that IQ scores have been rising. In other words, the best available evidence fails to support claims about a Stupidity Epidemic. The essay then turns to exploring several reasons why belief in educational decline is so common, and concludes by suggesting some more useful ways to think about educational problems.  The goal of this new, unique Series is to offer readable, teachable \"thinking frames\" on today’s social problems and social issues by leading scholars, all in short 60 page or shorter formats, and available for view on http:\/\/routledge.customgateway.com\/routledge-social-issues.html   For instructors teaching a wide range of courses in the social sciences, the Routledge Social Issues Collection now offers the best of both worlds: originally written short texts that provide \"overviews\" to important social issues as well as teachable excerpts from larger works previously published by Routledge and other presses.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50827476271377,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50827478368529,"sku":"CIN0415892090G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0415892090.jpg?v=1751229062"},{"product_id":"social-problems-book-joel-best-9781324085874","title":"Social Problems","description":"Joel Best, author of the best-selling Damned Lies and Statistics, and new coauthor Brian Monahan offer a fresh approach to the social problems course. Rather than overloading students with details and data, the book focuses on how and why particular conditions come to be constructed as social problems. Each chapter explores a different stage of the construction process, ending with a rich case study that applies the concepts to a contemporary issue. In this way, the authors equip students with the tools needed to analyze any social problem they encounter in the media.   New to this edition:     Short, boxed features in every chapter tackle current issues such as the controversy over Drag Queen Story Hour, pharmaceutical pollution, and the concussion crisis in youth sports. All-new end-of-chapter case studies apply the topic of the chapter to hot-button issues like abortion policy after Dobbs v. Jackson and the rise of cancel cultures. A thoroughly updated Chapter 5 on the media includes a new discussion of news values and how these criteria have changed due to the shift to digital delivery. A new end-of-chapter case explores “The Blame Game,” or how the media not only distribute claims but can also become the target of claims.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50938984005905,"sku":"CIN1324085878G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51202084765969,"sku":"NGR9781324085874","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1324085878.jpg?v=1751082316"},{"product_id":"just-the-facts-book-joel-best-9780520421318","title":"Just the Facts","description":"Why can’t we seem to agree on facts? In this succinct volume, sociologist Joel Best turns his inimitable eye toward the social construction of what we think is true. He evaluates how facts emerge from our social worlds—including our beliefs, values, tastes, and norms—and how they align with those worlds’ standards. He argues that by developing a sociological perspective toward what we think we know, we can better parse the use of facts and untruths around us.   This book examines how facts are created and supported through science, government, law, and journalism, revealing that facts are actually claims. These claims are malleable and can change over time through fact-checking, revision, and sometimes rejection. Best guides us through these processes so that we can question our assumptions and understand why disputes happen in the first place. In a time of increasing social and political divide, Just the Facts urges us to resist defensiveness over our facts and approach disputes in critical new ways.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51596633768209,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51596634063121,"sku":"NGR9780520421318","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0520421310.jpg?v=1750697971"},{"product_id":"just-the-facts-book-joel-best-9780520421325","title":"Just the Facts","description":"Why can’t we seem to agree on facts? In this succinct volume, sociologist Joel Best turns his inimitable eye toward the social construction of what we think is true. He evaluates how facts emerge from our social worlds—including our beliefs, values, tastes, and norms—and how they align with those worlds’ standards. He argues that by developing a sociological perspective toward what we think we know, we can better parse the use of facts and untruths around us.   This book examines how facts are created and supported through science, government, law, and journalism, revealing that facts are actually claims. These claims are malleable and can change over time through fact-checking, revision, and sometimes rejection. Best guides us through these processes so that we can question our assumptions and understand why disputes happen in the first place. In a time of increasing social and political divide, Just the Facts urges us to resist defensiveness over our facts and approach disputes in critical new ways.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51596634292497,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51596634521873,"sku":"NGR9780520421325","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0520421329.jpg?v=1751072918"},{"product_id":"images-of-issues-book-joel-best-9780202305394","title":"Images of Issues","description":"Constructionist theory describes and analyzes social problems as emerging through the efforts of claimsmakers who bring issues to public attention. By typifying a problem and characterizing it as a particular sort, claimsmakers can shape policymaking and public response to the problem. Th is new edition of Images of Issues addresses claimsmaking in the 1990s, featuring such issues as fathers' rights, stalking, sexual abuse by the clergy, hate crimes, multicultural education, factory farming, and concluding with an expanded discussion of the theoretical debate over constructionism.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51694210089233,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51694211334417,"sku":"CIN0202305392VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52485967610129,"sku":"NLS9780202305394","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53124114448657,"sku":"GOR002463346","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0202305392.jpg?v=1751227225"},{"product_id":"everyone-s-a-winner-book-joel-best-9780520267169","title":"Everyone's a Winner","description":"Every kindergarten soccer player gets a trophy. 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It argues that status affluence fosters social worlds and, in the process, helps give meaning to life.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51822376517905,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51822376845585,"sku":"CIN0520267168G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":52470059761937,"sku":"CIN0520267168A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780520267169.jpg?v=1752631753"},{"product_id":"satanism-scare-book-joel-best-9780202303796","title":"The Satanism Scare","description":"Although there is growing concern over Satanism as a threat to American life, the topic has received surprisingly little serious attention. Recognizing this, the editors of this volume have selected papers from a wide variety of disciplines, broadly covering contemporary aspects of Satanism from the vantage points of studies in folklore, cults, religion, deviance, rock music, rumor, and the mass media.All contributors are skeptical of claims that a large, powerful satanic conspiracy can be substantiated. Their research focuses instead on claims about Satanism and on the question of whose interests are served by such claims. Several papers consider the impact of anti-Satanism campaigns on public opinion, law enforcement and civil litigation, child protection services, and other sectors of American society.The constructionist perspective adopted by the editors does not deny the existence of some activities by 'real' Satanists, and two papers describe the workins of satanic groups. 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While most of us still strive for the American Dream-to graduate from college, own a home, work toward early retirement-recent generations have been told that the next generation will not be able to achieve these goals, that things are getting-or are on the verge of getting-worse. In American Nightmares, Best addresses the apprehension that we face every day as we are bombarded with threats that the social institutions we count on are imperiled. Our schools are failing to teach our kids. Healthcare may soon be harder to obtain. We can't bank on our retirement plans. And our homes-still the largest chunk of most people's net worth-may lose much of their value. Our very way of life is being threatened! Or is it? With a steady voice and keen focus, Best examines how a culture develops fears and fantasies and how these visions are created and recreated in every generation. By dismantling current ideas about the future, collective memory, and sociology's marginalization in the public square, Best sheds light on how social problems-and our anxiety about them-are socially constructed.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52715466752273,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":52715467047185,"sku":"NGR9780520296343","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780520296343.jpg?v=1762864916"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-joel-best.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}