Hamerton, Christopher (2022) Morality amid monstrosity: the London Monster panic, 1790. In, Devilry, Deviance, and Public Sphere: The Social Discovery of Moral Panic in Eighteenth Century London. 1st ed. London. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 197-234. (doi:10.1007/978-3-031-14883-5_7).
Abstract
This final case study chapter examines the case of a perennial folk devil, the predatory sex attacker, exemplified by the London Monster case in the last decade of the eighteenth century. This chapter contends that the effect of the Monster’s apparently random violent assaults was to draw parallels to earlier folk devils which suggests that they were by now established as cultural symbols of panic, watchwords for disruption for the people of London. In turn, the attacks were seized upon by moral entrepreneurs, public figures, and the media as an appropriate new focus for condemnation. This chapter re-examines the Monster case and researches it as an example of a media-led campaign to agitate, or at the very least stimulate moral panic amongst the populace of London. It is argued that the Monster case was more than a processual press-led panic, with its roots firmly grounded in morality and public activism.
This record has no associated files available for download.
More information
Identifiers
Catalogue record
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.