Flag Burning: Moral Panic and the Criminalization of Protest

Michael Welch (Ph. D.)

Transaction Publishers - Social Science - 220 pages

Responses to flag burning as a particular form of street protest tend to polarize into two camps: one holding the view that action of this sort is constitutionally protected protest; the other, that it is subversive and criminal activity. In this well-researched and richly documented volume, Welch examines the collision of these ideologies, and shows the relevance of sociological concepts to a deeper understanding of such forms of protest.

In exploring social control of political protest in the United States, this volume embarks on an in-depth examination of flag desecration and efforts to criminalize that particular form of dissent. It seeks to examine the sociological process facilitating the criminalization of protest by attending to moral enterprises, civil religion, authoritarian aesthetics, and the ironic nature of social control. Flag burning is a potent symbolic gesture conveying sharp criticism of the state. Many American believe that flag desecration emerged initially during the Vietnam War era, but the history of this caustic form of protest can be traced to the period leading up to the Civil War.

The act of torching Old Glory differs qualitatively from other forms of defiance. With this distinction in mind, attempts to penalize and deter flag desecration transcend the utilitarian function of regulating public protest. Despite popular claims that American society is built on genuine consensus, the flag-burning controversy brings to light the contentious nature of U.S. democracy and its ambivalence toward free expression. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is often viewed as one of the more unpopular additions to the Bill of Rights. One constitutional commentator underscores this point by noting that the First Amendment gives citizens the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

Flag Burning is a well-written, informative volume suitable for courses in deviance, social problems, social movements, mass communication, criminology, and political science, as well as in sociology of law and legal studies.

Contents

• Protest Social Control and the Semiotics of Flag Desecration: 3
• The Roots of Flag Desecration in American History: 17
• Civil Religion and the Flag as a Venerated Object: 31
• THE AUTHORITARIAN AESTHETIC AND ITS RESISTANCE: 45
• Questioning Authority in the Age of Protest: 47
• Flag Burning as Political Iconoclasm in the 1980s: 61
• Patriotism and Dissent in the PostEichman Era: 79
• MORAL PANIC OVER FLAG DESECRATION: 100
• Moral Panic and the Social Construction of Flag Desecration: 101
• Moral Entrepreneurs and the Criminalization of Protest: 127
• The Media and Its Contradictions in the Flag Panic: 153
• Resisting the Criminalization of Protest: 177
• References: 189
• Cases Cited: 212
• Name Index: 214
• Subject Index: 219

Bibliographic information

• Title: Flag Burning: Moral Panic and the Criminalization of Protest; Social Problems and Social Issues
• Author: Michael Welch (Ph. D.)
• Publisher: Transaction Publishers
• ISBN: 020236612X, 9780202366128
• Length: 220 pages
• Subjects: Political Science / General; Reference / Genealogy & Heraldry; Social Science / Sociology / General