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British Journal of Criminology Advance Access published online on May 15, 2008
British Journal of Criminology, doi:10.1093/bjc/azn027
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The British Journal of Criminology 0:azn027 (2008)
© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (ISTD). All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

LEGALIZING PROSTITUTION

Morality Politics in Western Australia

Ronald Weitzer*

* Department of Sociology, 409 Phillips Hall, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA; weitzer{at}gwu.edu.


  Abstract

There is now a sizeable literature examining moral panics and moral crusades in various societies, yet the literature is largely centred on the dynamics of panics and the social forces promoting them, while devoting almost no attention to the state. The state may play a key role in the process—either fanning or defusing popular alarm over a problem. In some panics, the state becomes an arena of struggle, or morality politics, between forces that promote and challenge claims regarding some social evil. The process of legislating morality provides a unique opportunity to examine the state as a dynamic actor in its own right. The article examines this in the context of the recent debate over legalizing prostitution in Western Australia.


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