Moral Panic: Cohen and Young's Studies

• Stanley Cohen is the theorist associated with 'moral panic.'

Jock Young's Study

• Jock Young (1971) studied drug use in inner-city London.
• Young explored how the media amplified the activities of young drug users.
• Media amplification created public fear and indignation.
• Young coined the term 'moral panic'.
• Young conducted participant observation, influenced by labeling theory, observing interactions and police treatment.
• He compared media portrayal of drug use with actual events, finding significant contradictions.
• The 1980s saw drug use framed as a choice.
• Fear fuels criminal justice system intervention, creating a 'fantasy crime wave' (Young, 2009: 6).
• Crime was constructed by official agents.
• An article by Hall discussed "mugging."

Stanley Cohen's Study

• Cohen studied groups of young people in Britain in the 1960s, specifically "Mods and Rockers."
• Cohen advanced the theoretical framework for 'moral panic.'
• Cohen's text is titled: Folk Devils and Moral Panic: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers.
• The creation refers to the media's role in constructing the Mods and Rockers.
• The study is based on clashes between youth groups in the 1960s.
• The media constructed the groups "Mods" and "Rockers," attributing characteristics and sensationalizing differences in clothing and hairstyle.
• The groups' actions and behaviors were perceived as a threat to traditional ways of life in the 1960s.
• Dress represents something beyond just appearance.
• These young people challenged traditional norms.

Moral Dimension

• Moral panic pinpoints the decline of moral fiber, ethical awareness, good behavior, and societal norms.
• Foundational values are seen as shaken by these individuals, a concept related to symbolic interactionism.
• They were constructed as "gang type."

Panic Defined

• Panic is defined as a sudden, excessive feeling of alarm or fear affecting a body of persons and leading to injudicious efforts to secure safety” (Garland, 2008, pp.10).

Moral Panic: Mods and Rockers

• Cohen (1973) established a paradigm for understanding the origin and nature of moral panic.
• Exaggerated media reports about clashes between rival youth groups created a moral panic regarding the rise in youth crime.
• Media reports portrayed the young people's style, modes of transportation, and hairstyles as symbolic of their deviant traits.
• The media predicted even more acts of deviance.
• Low-level delinquency among a diffuse group of young people was reconstructed as a major social problem (Cohen, 1972).

Definition of Moral Panic

• Cohen defines moral panic as a condition, episode, person, or group that "emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interest."
• The mass media presents its nature in a stylized and stereotypical fashion.
• Editors, bishops, politicians, and other "right-thinking people" man the moral barricades.
• Socially accredited experts offer 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 (Cohen 1972, 1).
• Cohen used the term to characterize the response of the media, public, and agents of social control.
• Distinguishable social types, folk devils are visible reminders of what we should not be.
• Folk devils are symbols of recent social change and act as scapegoats.
• Agents of social control amplify the crisis.
• Socialism is often paired with communism as an example.

Factors in Moral Panic

• Concern: a reported conduct or event sparks anxiety.
• Example: International students coming to Canada was linked to the shortage of housing, refugees vs immigrants.
• Hostility: Perpetrators are portrayed as "folk devils," the personified symbol of the supposed problem.
• Folk devils serve as cultural scapegoats whose conduct appalls onlookers.
• A scapegoat is a simplistic person or thing to blame.
• Consensus: a broad and unified negative social reaction.
• Public sensitization to the issue can lead to the fear that a cherished way of life is in jeopardy.
• Disproportionality: the extent of the conduct by deviants, or the threat it poses, is exaggerated, as are punitive social control responses.
• Example: Reaction from the Canadian government to the housing problem.
• Volatility: the media's reporting and the associated panic emerges, context gives a panic the power to influence law and social control (youth culture defying traditional norms).
• It strongly depends on the context and how the problem is being defined.
• 9/11 serves as an example where the context was very important, leading to the passage of anti-terrorism acts worldwide.
• Moral Entrepreneur: Individuals in positions of authority and power who frame the act/conduct of the group as a 'problem', 'threat', 'foe', 'concern', 'impurity', 'immorality', etc. to be eradicated, purged, eliminated, or prevented by resorting to legal and law enforcement measures (e.g., Joe Rogan, Donald Trump - Central Park 5).

Subculture and Moral Panic

• Four subculture targets:
  • Those who commit 'serious' criminal acts (e.g., sending body parts to federal institutions).
  • Those who stray from organizational procedures or conventional workplace codes of conduct.
  • Those who adopt styles of behavior or dress different from conventional society.
  • Miscellaneous groups who fail to conform to traditional conservative ideals and values.
• An ordinary event is presented as an extraordinary occurrence.
• Deviancy amplification spiral occurs.
• Moral discourse is established by journalists and experts.
• Causal demonization of wrongdoers.
• Moral panic clarifies societal moral boundaries, creating consensus and concern.
• Moral panics occur during periods of rapid social change and heighten wider social anxieties about risk.
• Usually, the young are targeted as a metaphor for the future.