Moral Panic

Moral panic can be defined as a “condition, episode, person or persons emerge to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests” Stanley Cohen. Cohen’s book, Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972) is where the term came about. The moral panic in which he is referring to the moral panic of the Mods and Rockers in the 60’s which I have discussed in previous posts. So we can see that moral panic has been occurring over time relating to various issues such as youth disorder in this case and common issues like drugs, violence and sexual freedom are also common. Each issue considered a threat to society at a particular time and blown out of proportion by the media, creating fear and hysteria among society. Some fade away after a short while but some result in more severe consequences such as legislation changes. This can be seen in such example as the Criminal Justice act 1992, the National Sex Offenders Register late 90’s and illegisation of various drugs.

Heres a diagram i came across..