Sex panics give rise to bloated imaginings of risk, inflated conceptions of harm, and loose definitions of sex. This book is about sex panics and their relation to other forms of institutionalized fear in the United States today. The logic of sex panic is essentially promiscuous; its forms disseminate throughout the body politic. Over time the same techniques that perpetually propagate these panics have been adapted to other causes and have become engines for the production of laws having nothing to do with sex. The history of modern sex panics is a closely sequenced one. The pernicious effect ... More

Sex panics give rise to bloated imaginings of risk, inflated conceptions of harm, and loose definitions of sex. This book is about sex panics and their relation to other forms of institutionalized fear in the United States today. The logic of sex panic is essentially promiscuous; its forms disseminate throughout the body politic. Over time the same techniques that perpetually propagate these panics have been adapted to other causes and have become engines for the production of laws having nothing to do with sex. The history of modern sex panics is a closely sequenced one. The pernicious effects of public panics have been amply noted, and not only by queer theorists and sex radicals. True stories of shocking victimization have played a role in the current state of affairs. But fakery also has played no small part in the production of panic as the steady state of serious public culture. Sex panics have a tendency to spread uncontrollably; they infuse other questions. Understanding the panic around sex provides a good starting point for comprehending what has gone wrong in U.S. society. This book claims that the never-ending parade of sex panics provides an important model for the pervasive politics of fear. Punitive governance represents a new political formation, one that increasingly subverts democracy, or at least its loftier ideals, while retaining its trappings. Historical research suggests that sex panics are especially likely to erupt during periods of economic stress or imperial crisis. At the core of this book is the stigma of homosexuality, which has been defined as crime.