Monsters, Law, Crime reminds us in a graphic way how different societies have taken their fears of the out-of-the ordinary and portrayed and treated those deemed to be "other". They range from victims of misogyny in Israel and Jihadists through the mentally ill in Victorian Britain to modern day medical serial killers. There is much more besides. How the media over the years have responded to a variety of challenges to social norms is the subject of this collection. This happens in crime narratives, newspapers, television and film. These essays provide a fascinating kaleidoscope of how the various media have adopted the monster form as a way of showing these challenges. This is an absorbing collection of essays which shifts the focus away from the mundanity of the deviance encountered on a daily basis in the justice process. It shows how Stan Cohen's “Folk Devils” have both a rich tradition across cultures and a likely long-term future. The contexts of the moral panics change but the resort to the demonisation of the other is a recurrent feature which this collection effectively illustrates.
