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A moral panic can be defined as "the intensity of feeling expressed by a large number of people about a specific group of people who appear to threaten the social order at a given time."^[1] Stanley Cohen, author of the seminal Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1973), says moral panic occurs when "[a] condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests."^[2] Those who start the panic when they fear a threat to prevailing social or cultural values are known by researchers as "moral entrepreneurs", while the people who supposedly threaten the social order are known as "folk devils." Moral panics are by-products of controversies that produce arguments and social tension, or aren't easily discussed as some of these moral panics are taboo to many people.^[3] The media have long operated as agents of moral indignation, even if they are not self-consciously engaged in crusading or muckraking. Simply reporting the facts can be enough to generate concern, anxiety or panic.^[4]

Contents 1 Origins and use of the term 2 Characteristics 3 Examples of use of the term 3.1 Satanic ritual abuse 3.2 Pogroms, purges and witch-hunts 3.3 War on Drugs 3.4 Rainbow parties 4 Criticism 5 See also 6 References 7 Further Reading 8 External links

[edit] Origins and use of the term

While many believe the term was coined by Stanley Cohen to describe press reporting and the reaction of the establishment to the behaviour of mods and rockers, it was actually first used by his colleague Jock Young in reference to the reaction to drug takers in Notting Hill.^[1]

Many sociologists have pointed out the differences between definitions of a moral panic for American and British sociologists. Kenneth Thompson has said that American sociologists tend to emphasize psychological factors whereas the British portray moral panics as crises of capitalism.^[5]

In Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order (1978), Stuart Hall and his colleagues studied the reaction to the importation of the previously American phenomenon of mugging into the UK. Employing Cohen's definition of moral panic, Hall et al. theorized that the "rising crime rate equation" performs an ideological function relating to social control. Crime statistics, in Hall's view, are often manipulated for political and economic purposes. Moral panics (e.g. over mugging) could thereby be ignited in order to create public support for the need to "police the crisis." The media play a central role in the "social production of news" in order to reap the rewards of lurid crime stories.^[6]

[edit] Characteristics

Moral Panics have several distinct features. The process by which these are created is best explained with Cohen's Deviancy Amplification Spiral:

• Concern - There must be awareness that the behaviour of the group or category in question is likely to have a negative impact on society.
• Hostility - Hostility towards the group in question increases, and they become "folk devils". A clear division forms between "them" and "us".
• Consensus - Though concern does not have to be nationwide, there must be widespread acceptance that the group in question poses a very real threat to society. It is important at this stage that the "moral entrepreneurs" are vocal and the "folk devils" appear weak and disorganised.
• Disproportionality - The action taken is disproportionate to the actual threat posed by the accused group.
• Volatility - Moral panics are highly volatile and tend to disappear as quickly as they appeared due to a wane in public interest or news reports changing to another topic.^[1]

[edit] Examples of use of the term

[edit] Satanic ritual abuse

Satanic ritual abuse is regarded by the majority of scholars as a series of moral panics originating in the U.S and spreading to other English-speaking countries in the 1980s and 1990s.^{[7][8][9][10]} Jewkes states that the reactions to pedophilia in the Western world have been cited as "the most significant moral panic of the last two decades."^[11]

[edit] Pogroms, purges and witch-hunts

Persecutions of individuals or groups have been cited as moral panics, such as anti-Semitic pogroms, Stalinist purges, the witch-hunts of Renaissance Europe, the McCarthyist public interrogations and blacklisting of Communists in the US during the 1950s.^[7] Various actions in Western countries following the September 11 attacks affecting Arabs, Muslims, or those mistaken for them have been referred to as "moral panics."^[12][13]

[edit] War on Drugs

Some critics have pointed to moral panic as an explanation for the War on Drugs. For example a Royal Society of Arts commission concluded that "the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, ... is driven more by 'moral panic' than by a practical desire to reduce harm."^[14] Similarly, support for video game and media regulation has been linked to moral panic.^[15]

[edit] Rainbow parties

A 2003 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show claimed that there was a widespread fashion among teenage girls to take part in elaborate sex orgies named rainbow parties. Although fantastic from the outset, and despite the fact that it was never substantiated that even a single "rainbow party" had taken place before, nor even that a corresponding "urban myth" had been circulating among teenagers, the claim caused popular reverberations that have been described as "moral panic."^[16]

[edit] Criticism

In Folk Devils and Moral Panics, Cohen outlines some of the criticisms that have arisen in response to moral panic theory. One of these is of the term "panic" itself, as it has connotations of irrationality and a lack of control. Cohen maintains that "panic" is a suitable term when used as an extended metaphor. Another criticism is that of disproportionality. The problem with this argument is that there is no way to measure what a proportionate reaction should be to a specific action.^[17] Others have criticized Cohen's work stating that not all the folk devils expressed in his work are vulnerable or unfairly maligned. Jewkes has also raised issue with the term 'morality' and how it is accepted unproblematically in 'moral panics'.^[11]

[edit] See also

• Deviancy amplification spiral
• Culture of fear
• Folk devil
• For the children (politics)
• Mass hysteria
• Missing white woman syndrome
• Scapegoat
• Witch-hunt

[edit] References

[edit] Further Reading

• Erich Goode, Nachman Ben-Yehuda. Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance. Blackwell Publishing, 1994

(ISBN 063118905X, 9780631189053)

[edit] External links

• Section 3.4: "Interpreting the crime problem" from Free OpenLearn LearningSpace Unit DD100_1 Online Open Education Resource Creative Commons by-nc-sa Licensed (originally written for the Open University Course, DD100, 2000)