Perhaps on some instinctual level we are compelled to do so since so many mysteries of life like volcanoes, photosynthesis, and lightning have already been scientifically explained. As we are compelled to explain crime, so are we fickle about crime popularity. Ironically, the evolution of interest in crime types can be viewed as not only the product of a criminal's innovation or adaptation, but also our own preoccupation with the new and exciting. Similarly, in the culture of victimization, there is competition for status. The invention of new victim categories and campaigns for their recognition demonstrate the snowballing effects of public acceptance of one new form, group or syndrome after another.
Moral panics conjure up deviant conspiracies.
As an example, inner city gang activities have generated myths about bizarre initiation rites that call for random violence. Best argues that dichotomies are also created in the melodrama of claimsmaking so that good and evil, victim and offender are easier to understand but, ironically, further from the truth. Although many of the ideas in this book feel familiar, Best assembles them in a way that is extremely readable and well argued. Trends and evolutions can be used to demonstrate that what often appears new is simply a reformulated version of the same demons. As with the Kappeler et al.