EP95: Identifying Moral Panic

Michael H. Eversman, PhD, MSW, is the author of "Identifying Moral Panic: The Discourse of Fear in Social Policy" from NASW Press. 

Dr. Eversman is associate professor in the Department of Social Work at Rutgers University–Newark. His research interests include substance abuse, illicit drug policies, alternatives to the War on Drugs, and social work education.

Our host for this episode is NASW member Elisabeth Joy LaMotte, LICSW, founder of the DC Counseling and Psychotherapy Center and author of "Overcoming Your Parents’ Divorce." She serves on the Board of Overseers of her graduate school, the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice, the Trustees' Council of Penn Women, and the board of NASW’s Private Practice Section Committee.

Posted December 13, 2022

Read a transcript of episode 95

You can also watch this conversation on YouTube.

From NASW Press

Identifying Moral Panic: The Discourse of Fear in Social Policy

By Michael H. Eversman, PhD, MSW

Using the sociological framework of moral panic — periods of exaggerated public fear triggered by high-profile incidents linked to feared social groups — this book illuminates historic and contemporary moral panic episodes to show how political discourse and stereotyping lead to policy-making and enforcement that maintain social inequalities.

Eversman emphasizes the social justice mission of professional social work and the need to stay vigilant amid structural inequalities rooted in labeling and otherism, allowing readers to recognize the patterns of moral panic discourse in our culture.

Buy your copy of "Identifying Moral Panic" at NASW Press