ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ways in which fear has been coupled with certain issues, particularly those involving children as both victims and victimizers in the modern discourse of fear. The discourse of fear and its relevance for children quickly solidified as a police chief in Maine was quoted as saying, "Violent street gangs of young men are symbolic of the crack plague." A subset of the topic of children's safety that most clearly illustrates the development of the fear frame over time is coverage of the physical or sexual abuse of children. Kristi Wimmer's study of the Arizona Republics coverage of a youth, Nicholas Contreraz, who died in custody of a "boot camp," illustrates how the fear frame dominates "juveniles" and "abused children." A discourse of fear offers a conceptual elaboration for a process through which numerous messages resonating with themes of fear can be circulated, recast, and institutionally promoted through public policies, media reports, popular culture, and cognitive frameworks.
