Moral Panics

Definition

Jewkes wrote [1] that it is “difficult to explain why criminology-and its related fields-continue to place the moral panic thesis at the heart of studies of deviance and disorder when both sociology and media studies have more or less ignored it for decades.”

The concept of moral panic offered by the Online Dictionary of the Social Sciences (produced by Canada’s Open University) is [2]:

“Suggests a panic or overreaction to forms of deviance or wrong doing believed to be threats to the moral order. Moral panics are usually framed by the media and led by community leaders or groups intent on changing laws or practices. Sociologists are less interested in the validity of the claims made during moral panics than they are in the dynamics of social change and the organizational strategies of moral entrepreneurs. Moral panics gather converts because they touch on people’s fears and because they also use specific events or problems as symbols of what many feel to represent “all that is wrong with the nation” . (Drislane & Parkinson)

A review on moral panic observes the difficulties in “establishing the comparison between the scale of the problem and the scale of response to it … Conceptually the notion of a moral panic lacks any criteria of proportionality without which it is impossible to determine whether concern about any … problem is justified or not.” (Waddington, P. A. J. (1986). Mugging as a moral panic: A question of proportion. British Journal of Sociology, 37(2), page 246)

Cohen’s Work

Stan Cohen, in his book “Moral Panics” (1973), said that [3]:

“Societies appear to be subject, every now and then, to periods of moral panic. A condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops, politicians and other right-thinking people; socially accredited experts pronounce their diagnoses and solutions; ways of coping are evolved or (more often) resorted to; the condition then disappears, submerges or deteriorates and becomes more visible. Sometimes the object of the panic is quite novel and at other times it is something which has been in existence long enough, but suddenly appears in the limelight. Sometimes the panic passes over and is forgotten, except in folk-lore and collective memory; at other times it has more serious and long-lasting repercussions and might produce such changes as those in legal and social policy or even in the way the society conceives itself.” (page 9)

Goode and Ben-Yehuda’s Work

In 1994 (and in a 2009’s second edition), Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda, in their book “Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance,” developed a theory called “social constructionism.”

Some Citations about the Issue

• Outdatedness: “The proliferation and fragmentation of mass, niche and micro-media and the multiplicity of voices, which compete and contest the meaning of the issues subject to “moral panic,” suggest that both the original and revised models are outdated insofar as they could not possibly take account of the labyrinthine web of determining relations which now exist between social groups and the media, “reality” and representation.” (McRobbie & Thornton, 1995, p. 561) (See more details in further reading below)
• Middle range theory: ” Middle range theory is principally used in sociology to guide empirical inquiry. It is intermediate to general theories of social system which are too remote from particular classes of social behaviour, organization and change to account for what is observed and to those detailed orderly descriptions of particulars that are not generalized at all. Middle-range theory involves, abstractions, of course, but they are close enough to observed data to be incorporated in propositions that permit empirical testing. Middle-range theories deal with delimited aspects of social phenomena, as is indicated by their labels. (Robert Merton (1967, p. 39))(See more details in further reading below)
• Risk: [T]he contemporary obsession with the concept of risk has its roots in the changes inherent in the transformation of societies from pre-modern to modern and then to late modern. (…) (1) risk has become an increasingly pervasive concept of human existence in Western societies; (2) risk is a central aspect of human subjectivity; (3) risk is seen as something that can be managed through human intervention; and (4) risk is associated with notions of choice, responsibility and blame. (Lupton, 2013, p. 37)(See more details in further reading below)
• Culture of Fear: [T]he pervasive communication, symbolic awareness, and expectation that danger and risk are central features of the effective environment or the physical and symbolic environment as people define and experience it in everyday life. Altheide (2002, p. 2)(See more details in further reading below)
• Politics of Emotion: empirically investigating what emotions do, how emotions align certain communities against others, and how emotions move people towards certain (sometimes violent) actions against others whose actions pose alleged harms. (Walby and Spencer (2011)) (See more details in further reading below)

Resources

Notes

1. Jewkes, Y. (2015). Media and crime. London and Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE
2. Drislane, R., & Parkinson, G. (2016). Moral panic. Online dictionary of the social sciences. Open University of Canada.
3. Cohen, S. (2002). Folk devils and moral panics. London: Routledge

Further Reading

• Alexandrescu, L. (2014). Mephedrone, assassin of youth: The rhetoric of fear in contemporary drug scares. Crime Media Culture, 10(1), 23-37.
• Altheide, D. L. (2002). Creating fear: News and the construction of crisis. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
• Barker, M., & Petley, J. (Eds.). (1997) Ill effects: The media/violence debate. Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge.
• Bauman, Z. (2007). Liquid times: Living in an age of uncertainty. Cambridge, U.K.: Polity.
• Best, J. (1990). Threatened children: Rhetoric and concern about child victims. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Best, J. (2013). The problems with moral panic: The concept’s limitations. In C. Krinsky (Ed.), The Ashgate research companion to moral panics (pp. 67-80). Farnham, U.K.: Ashgate Publishing.
• Best, J., & Furedi, F. (2001). How claims spread: Cross-national diffusion of social problems. New York: Aldine.
• Butler, I., & Drakeford, M. (2005) Scandal, social policy, and social welfare. Bristol, U.K.: Policy Press.
• Carrabine, E. (2008) Crime, culture, and the media. Cambridge, U.K.: Polity.
• Chambliss, W. J. (1995) Crime, control, and ethnic minorities: Legitimizing racial oppression by creating moral panic. In D. F. Hawkins (Ed.), Ethnicity, race, and crime: Perspectives across time and space (pp. 235-258). New York: State University of New York Press.
• Clarke, L., & Chess, C. (2008) Elites and panic: More to fear than fear itself. Social Forces, 87(2), 993-1014.
• Cohen, S. (1973). Folk devils and moral panics. London: Paladin.
• Cohen, S. (2002). Folk devils and moral panics. London: Routledge.
• Collins, J. (2013). Moral panics, governmentality, and the media: A comparative approach to the analysis of illegal drug use in the news. In C. Critcher, J. Hughes, J. Petley, & A. Rohloff (Eds.), Moral panics in the contemporary world (pp. 125-144). New York: Bloomsbury.
• Cornwell, B., & Linders, A. (2002). The myth of “moral panic” : An alternative account of LSD prohibition. Deviant Behavior, 23(July-August), 307-330.
• Cree V., Clapton G., & M Smith. (2012). The presentation of child trafficking in the UK: an old and new moral panic? British Journal of Social Work, 44(2), 418-433.
• Cree, V. E. (2008). Confronting sex-trafficking: lessons from history. International Social Work, 51(6), 763-776.
• Critcher, C. (2003). Moral panics and the media. Milton Keynes, U.K.: Open University Press.
• Critcher, C. (2006). Critical readings: Moral panics and the media. Milton Keynes, U.K.: Open University Press.
• Critcher, C. (2009). Widening the focus: moral panics as moral regulation. British Journal of Criminology, 49(1), 17-34.
• David, M., Rohloff, A., Petley, J., & Hughes J. (2011) The idea of moral panic-ten dimensions of dispute. Crime Media Culture, 7(3), 215-228.
• Draper, N. R. A. (2012). Is your teen at risk? Discourses of adolescent texting in United States television news. Journal of Children and Media, 6(2), 221-236.
• Drislane, R., & Parkinson, G. (2016). Moral panic. Online dictionary of the social sciences. Open University of Canada.
• Erikson, K. T. (1966) Wayward Puritans: A study in the sociology of deviance. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
• Ericson, R. V., & Haggerty, K. D. (1997) Policing the risk society. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Forsyth, A. M. (2012) Virtually a drug scare: Mephedrone and the impact of the Internet on drug news transmission. International Journal on Drug Policy, 23, 198-209.
• Furedi, F. (1997). The culture of fear revisited. London: Continuum.
• Garland, D. (2008). On the concept of moral panic. Crime Media Culture, 4(9), 9-30.
• Gelsthorpe, L. (2005). Folk devils and moral panics: A feminist perspective. Crime Media Culture, 1(1), 112-116.
• Glassner, B. (1999/2009). The culture of fear: Why Americans are afraid of the wrong things: Crime, drugs, minorities, teen moms, killer kids, mutant microbes, plane crashes, road rage, and so much more. New York: Basic Books.
• Goode, E., & Ben-Yehuda, N. (1994). Moral panic: The social construction of deviance. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
• Goode, E., & Ben-Yehuda, N. (2009). Moral panic: The social construction of deviance. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Goode, E., & Ben-Yehuda, N. (2011). Grounding and defending the sociology of moral panic. In S. Hier (Ed.), Moral panic and the politics of anxiety (pp. 20-36). Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge.
• Hall, S., Critcher, C., Jefferson, T., Clarke, J., & Roberts, B. (1978/2013). Policing the crisis: Mugging, the state, and law and order. London: Macmillan.
• Hier, S. (2002). Conceptualizing moral panic through a moral economy of harm. Critical Sociology, 28, 311-334.
• Hier, S. (2008). Thinking beyond moral panic: Risk, responsibility, and the politics of moralization. Theoretical Criminology, 12(2), 171-188.
• Hier, S. (2011a). Introduction. In S. Hier (Ed.), Moral panic and the politics of anxiety (pp. 1-16). Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge.
• Hier, S. (2011b). Moral panic and the politics of anxiety. Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge.
• Hier, S. (2011c). Tightening the focus: Moral panic, moral regulation, and liberal government. British Journal of Sociology, 62(3), 523-541.
• Hughes, J., Rohloff, A., David, M., & Petley J. (2011). Foreword: Moral panics in the contemporary world. Crime Media Culture, 7(3), 211-214.
• Hunt, A. (1999). Governing morals: A social history of moral regulation. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
• Hunt, A. (2011). Fractious rivals? Moral panic and moral regulation. In S. Hier (Ed.), Moral panic and the politics of anxiety (pp. 53-70). Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge.
• Innes, M. (2003). “Signal crimes” : Detective work, mass media, and constructing collective memory. In P. Mason (Ed.), Criminal visions: Media representations of crime and justice (pp. 51-67). Cullompton, U.K.: Willan.
• Jenkins, P. (1992). Intimate enemies: Moral panics in contemporary Great Britain. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
• Jenkins, P. (1999). Synthetic panic: The symbolic politics of designer drugs. New York: New York University Press.
• Jenkins, P. (2009). Failure to launch: Why do some issues fail to detonate moral panics? British Journal of Criminology, 49(1), 35-47.
• Kepplinger, H. M., & Habermeier, J. H. (1995). The impact of key events upon the presentation of reality. European Journal of Communication, 10(3), 371-390.
• Kitzinger, J. (2004). Framing abuse. London: Pluto Press.
• Klocke, B. V., & Muschert G. W. (2010) A hybrid model of moral panics: synthesizing the theory and practice of moral panic research. Sociology Compass, 4(5), 295-309.
• Krinsky, C. (Ed.). (2008). Moral panics over contemporary children and youth. Farnham, U.K.: Ashgate.
• Krinsky, C. (Ed.). (2013a). The Ashgate research companion to moral panics. Farnham, U.K.: Ashgate Publishing.
• Krinsky, C. (2013b). Introduction. In C. Krinsky (Ed.), The Ashgate research companion to moral panics (pp. 1-16). Farnham, U.K.: Ashgate Publishing.
• Kubrin, C. E., Zatz, M. S., & Martinez, R. (Eds.). (2012). Punishing immigrants: Policy, politics, and injustice. New York: New York University Press.
• Lemmings, D., & Walker, C. (Eds.). (2009). Moral panics, the media, and the law in early modern England. Basingstoke, U.K.: Palgrave.
• Levi, M. (2009). Suite revenge? The shaping of folk devils and moral panics about white collar crimes. British Journal of Criminology, 49(1), 48-67.
• Linneman, T. (2010). Mad men, meth moms, moral panic: Gendering meth crimes in the Midwest. Critical Criminology, 18, 95-110.
• Livingstone, S. (2002). Young people and new media. London and Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Lupton, D. (2013). Risk. 2d ed. Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge.
• McRobbie, A., & Thornton, S. L. (1995). Re-thinking “moral panic” for multi-mediated social worlds. British Journal of Sociology, 46, 559-574.
• Merton, R. (1967). On theoretical sociology. New York: Free Press.
• Miller, B. L., Stogner, J. M., Agnich, L. E., Sanders, A., Bacot, J., & Felix, S. (2015). Marketing a panic: Media coverage of novel psychoactive drugs (NPDS) and its relationship with legal changes. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 40, 523-541.
• Miller, D., & Kitzinger, J. (1988). AIDS, the policy process, and moral panics. In D. Miller, J. Kitzinger, K. Williams, & P. Beharrell (Eds.), The circuit of mass communication: Media strategies, representation, and audience reception in the AIDS crisis (pp. 213-222). London: SAGE.
• Milosevic, T. (2015). Cyber bullying in US mainstream media. Journal of Children and Media, 9(4), 492-509.
• Morgan, G., & Poynting, S. (Eds.). (2012). Global Islamophobia: Muslims and moral panic in the West. Farnham, U.K.: Ashgate Publishing.
• Omori, M. K. (2013). Moral panics and morality policy: The impact of media, political ideology, drug use, and manufacturing on methamphetamine legislation in the United States. Journal of Drug Issues, 4(4), 517-53.
• Pain, R. H. (2010). The new geopolitics of fear. Geography Compass, 4(3), 226-240.
• Parker, H., Aldridge, J., & Measham, F. (1998). Illegal leisure: The normalization of adolescent recreational drug use. Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge.
• Pearce, J. M., & Charman, E. (2011). A social psychological approach to understanding moral panic. Crime Media Culture, 7(3), 293-312.
• Philo, G., Briant, E., & Donald P. (2013). Bad news for refugees. London: Pluto Press.
• Rohloff, A., Hughes, J., Petley, J., & Critcher, C. (2013). Moral panics in the contemporary world: enduring controversies and future directions. In C. Critcher, J. Hughes, J. Petley, & A. Rohloff (Eds.), Moral panics in the contemporary world (pp. 1-22). London: Bloomsbury.
• Rothe, D., & Muzzatti, S. L. (2004). Enemies everywhere: Terrorism, moral panic, and US civil society. Critical Criminology, 12(3), 327-350.
• Shafir, G., & Scairer, C. E. (2013). The war on terror as political moral panic. In G. Shafir, E. Meade, & W. J. Aceves (Eds.), Lessons and legacies of the war on terror (pp. 9-46). Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge.
• Thompson, K. (1998). Moral panics. London: Routledge.
• Toivonen, T. (2013). Moral panic versus youth problem debates: Three conceptual insights from the study of Japanese youth. In C. Krinsky (Ed.), The Ashgate research companion to moral panics (pp. 265-284). Farnham, U.K.: Ashgate Publishing.
• Ungar, S. (2001). Moral panic versus risk society: The implications of the changing sites of social anxiety. British Journal of Sociology, 52(2), 271-291.
• Waddington, P. A. J. (1986). Mugging as a moral panic: A question of proportion. British Journal of Sociology, 37(2), 245-259.
• Walby, K., & Spencer, D. (2011). How emotions matter to moral panics. In S. Hier (Ed.), Moral panic and the politics of anxiety (104-117). Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge.
• Walsh, J. (2016). Moral panics by design: The case of terrorism. Current Sociology, 1-20.
• Warner, J. (2015). The emotional politics of social work and child protection. Bristol, U.K.: Policy Press.
• Watney S. (1998). AIDS, ‘moral panic theory’ and homophobia. In P. Aggleton & H. Homans (Eds.), Social Aspects of AIDS. London: Falmer Press.
• Weitzer, R (2007). The social construction of sex trafficking; Ideology and institutionalization of a moral crusade. Politics and Society, 35(3), 447-475.
• Welch, M. (2002). Detained: Immigration laws and the expanding INS complex. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
• Young, J. (2009). Moral panic: Its origins in resistance, ressentiment, and the translation of fantasy into reality. British Journal of Criminology, 49(1), 4-16.
• Young, J. (2011). Moral panics and the transgressive other. Crime Media Culture, 7(3), 245-258.