After this commit: 53a2c0b
(in rails 3-0-stable branch and present in rails 3.0.8)
javascript_escape connected with rendering template is not working correctly.

<%= escape_javascript(render("partial")) %>

Partial content:

<span> Topics </span>

Results:
rails 3.0.8:

"<span> Topics span>"

rails 3.0.7:

"<span> Topics <\\/span>\\n"

You can play with this bug using sample app: https://github.com/morgoth/escape_javascript_bug