Culture of Fear: Risk Taking and the Morality of Low Expectation

Frank Furedi Cassell, £11.95, pp 184 ISBN 0 304 33751 X I am not allowed to examine a female patient alone for fear that I may molest her or that she may falsely claim molestation. My colleagues seem not to understand why I get annoyed by this regulation. I try to explain that I do not want to live in a world where doctors are assumed rapists and patients assumed liars. Invariably, a patronising smile and murmurings about “navet” dispatch my vain efforts. Late 20th century society has become so obsessed with depravity, danger, and destruction that it is now common sense to assume only the worst will happen. Culture of Fear documents the origins of this outlook and its corrosive impact on human relations. Fig 1 Radioisotope scan of parathyroid adenoma in the left …