Moral panic
A moral panic, as defined by Stanley Cohen, is a sporadic episode which, as it occurs, subjects society to bouts of moral panic, or in other terms, worry about the values and principles which society upholds which may be in jeopardy. He describes its characteristics as "a condition, episode, person or group of persons [who] become defined as a threat to societal values and interests.[1] In the third edition of his book, he identifies clusters around which moral panics form:[2]
- Young, working-class, violent males; youth culture and juvenile delinquency
- School violence
- Bad drugs; Wrong drugs, used by wrong people at wrong times
- Child abuse: sexual and Satanic
- Sex, violence and blaming the media
- Welfare cheats and single mothers
- Pornography
- Refugees and asylum seekers
Certainly, some of these clusters have elements that are real and hazardous. Moral panics ensue, however, when they are sensationalized, and the society feeds on the sensationalization, creating regenerative feedback and a failure of control.
While Cohen's work focused on the "Punks and Rockers" of the 1960s, moral panics, and the creation of an enemy that threatens one's civilization is not new. The Holocaust was, perhaps, the extreme of the moral panic, in which Nazi ideology blamed Jews as the source of all ills.
References
- ↑ Hayley Burns, What are 'moral panics'?
- ↑ Stanley Cohen (1987), Folk Devils and Moral Panics, Rutledge