Moral panic is a sociological term, coined by Stanley Cohen, meaning a reaction by a group of people based on the false or exaggerated perception that some cultural behavior or group, frequently a minority group or a subculture, is dangerously deviant and poses a menace to society. It has also been more broadly defined as an "episode, condition, person or group of persons" that has in recent times been "defined as a threat to societal values and interests."^[1] They are byproducts of controversies that produce arguments and social tension, or aren't easily discussed as some of these moral panics are taboo to many people.^[2] Characterization of the group reaction as a moral panic requires a presumption that the group's perceptions are unfounded or exaggerated. Sociology (from Latin: socius, companion; and the suffix -ology, the study of, from Greek λόγος, lógos, knowledge [1]) is the systematic and scientific study of society, including patterns of social relationships, social action, and culture[2]. Areas studied in sociology can range from the analysis of brief contacts between anonymous... Professor Stanley Cohen is the Martin White Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics. ... Group behaviour in sociology refers to the situations where large number of people in a given area behave simoultanesly in similar way and have a similar goal, but they individaully and without coordiantion. ... Cultural behavior is behavior exhibited by human beings (and, some would argue, by other species as well, though to a much lesser degree) that is extrasomatic or extragenetic, in other words, learned. ... The definition of a minority group can vary, depending on specific context, but generally refers to either a sociological sub-group that does not form either a majority or a plurality of the total population, or a group that, while not necessarily a numerical minority, is disadvantaged or otherwise has... In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a set of people with a set of behaviors and beliefs, culture, which could be distinct or hidden, that differentiate them from the larger culture to which they belong. ... For the scholarly journal, see Deviant Behavior (journal). ... For other uses, see Society (disambiguation). ... This article is about cultural prohibitions in general, for other uses, see Taboo (disambiguation). ...

These reactions are often fueled by media coverage or propaganda around a social issue, although semi-spontaneous moral panics do occur. Mass hysteria can be an element in these movements, but moral panic is different from mass hysteria in that a moral panic is specifically framed in terms of morality and is usually expressed as outrage rather than fear. Moral panics (as defined by Cohen) revolve around a perceived threat to a value or norm held by a society normally stimulated by glorification within the mass media or 'folk legend' within societies. Panics have a number of outcomes, with one being the certification to the players within the panic that what they are doing appears to warrant observation by mass media and therefore may push them further into the activities that led to the original feeling of moral panic. Mass hysteria, also called collective hysteria or collective obsessional behavior, is the sociopsychological phenomenon of the manifestation of the same or similar hysterical symptoms by more than one person. ... Morality (from the Latin manner, character, proper behaviour) has three principal meanings. ... For other uses, see Fear (disambiguation). ...

The influences and behaviors of young people are common themes in many moral panics.^{[citation needed]}

Origins and use of the term

The term was coined by Stanley Cohen in 1972 to describe media coverage of Mods and Rockers in the United Kingdom in the 1960s. A factor in moral panic is the deviancy amplification spiral, the phenomenon defined by media critics as an increasing cycle of reporting on a category of antisocial behavior or other undesirable events. Professor Stanley Cohen is the Martin White Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics. ... The Mods and Rockers were two conflicting British youth subcultures of the early-mid 1960s. ... Deviancy amplification spiral is a mass media phenomenon defined by media critics as an increasing cycle of reporting on a category of antisocial behavior or other undesirable events. ... Antisocial personality disorder (APD) is a psychiatric condition characterized by an individuals common disregard for social rules, norms, and cultural codes, as well as impulsive behavior, and indifference to the rights and feelings of others. ...

While the term moral panic is relatively recent, many social scientists point to the Middletown studies, first conducted in 1925, as containing the first in-depth study of this phenomenon.^{[citation needed]} In these studies, researchers found that community and religious leaders in an American town condemned then-new technology such as the radio and automobile for promoting immoral behavior. For example, a pastor interviewed in this study referred to the automobile as a "house of prostitution on wheels," and condemned this brand new invention for giving citizens a way of driving out of town when they should be attending church. The social sciences are groups of academic disciplines that study the human aspects of the world. ... The Middletown studies refer to a classic sociological case study of a city in Indiana, as contained in two books by Robert Staughton Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd: Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture, published in 1929. ... Year 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... “Car” and “Cars” redirect here. ... For the architectural structure, see Church (building). ...

In Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order (1978), Stuart Hall and his colleagues studied the reaction to the importation into the UK of the heretofore American phenomenon of mugging. Employing Cohen's definition of moral panic, Hall et al. theorized that the "rising crime rate equation" has 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.^[3] Stuart Hall (born 1932 in Kingston, Jamaica) is a cultural theorist from the United Kingdom. ... Look up mugging in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Social control refers to social mechanisms that regulate individual and group behavior, in terms of greater sanctions and rewards. ...

Examples of moral panics

A wide variety of real or imagined phenomena have inspired moral panics. Satanic ritual abuse is an example of a phenomenon that some sources believe gave rise to a series of moral panics which originated in the U.S., but spread to the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the Netherlands in the 1980s and 1990s.^[4][5] Moral panics often take the form of persecutions of particular groups. Anti-Semitic pogroms, Stalinist purges, the witch-hunts of Renaissance Europe, the demonization of Communists (see "McCarthyism")^[4] in the US during the 1950s, the panic-inciting rhetoric concerning international terrorist threats in recent years, and the treatment of Arabs and Muslims in Western Countries since 9/11 ^[6] have all been referred to as moral panics by various sources. Satanism Associated organizations The Church of Satan First Satanic Church Prominent figures Anton LaVey | Blanche Barton | Peter H. Gilmore | Peggy Nadramia | Karla LaVey Associated concepts Left-Hand Path | Pentagonal Revisionism | Suitheism | Might is Right Books and publications The Satanic Bible | The Satanic Rituals | The Satanic Witch | The Devils Notebook... Look up Persecution in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... The Russian word pogrom (погром) refers to a massive violent attack on people with simultaneous destruction of their environment (homes, businesses, religious centers). ... Stalinism is a brand of political theory, and the political and economic system implemented by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union. ... A witch-hunt is a search for suspected witches; it is a type of moral panic. ... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... A 1947 comic book published by the Catechetical Guild Educational Society warning of the dangers of a Communist takeover. ... This article is becoming very long. ...

A further example of moral panic is that which surrounds pedophilia. Fear of "molesters" makes for sensational news. An ongoing tabloid newspaper campaign in the UK resulted in the (incorrectly) reported^[7] assault and persecution of a pediatrician by an angry mob (which had confused the two words) in August 2000.^[8] In 2005 a man in Manchester, England was killed with a knife after being mistakenly accused of child molestation by a mentally disordered man in the neighbourhood.^[9] Also in 2005, a 68 year-old man from Portsmouth died in hospital after being attacked by a group who falsely accused him of being a pedophile.^[10] In 2007, an Indian TV station in Delhi falsely accused a female schoolteacher of forcing her students into prostitution, which led to an angry mob attacking the school at which she worked and beating her.^[11] Pedophilia or paedophilia (see spelling differences) is the primary or exclusive sexual attraction by adults to prepubescent youths. ... A tabloid is a newspaper — especially in the United Kingdom — that uses the tabloid format, which is roughly 23½ by 14¾ inches per spread. ... This article is about the branch of medicine. ... Year 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full 2000 Gregorian calendar). ... This article is about the City of Manchester in England. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... For other places with the same name, see Portsmouth (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Delhi (disambiguation). ...

See also

• Book burning
• Conspiracy theory
• Crowd psychology
• Culture of fear
• Folk devil
• For The Children (politics)
• Missing white woman syndrome
• Propaganda
• Scapegoat
• Witch hunts
• White Slavery

Book burning is the practice of ceremoniously destroying by fire one or more copies of a book or other written material. ... For other uses, see Conspiracy theory (disambiguation). ... Crowd psychology is a branch of social psychology. ... Culture of fear is a term proposed in a variety of sociological theses, which argue that feelings of fear and anxiety predominate in contemporary public discourse and relationships, changing how we relate to one another as individuals and as democratic agents. ... A folk devil is a person or group of people who are portrayed in folklore or the media as outsiders and deviant, and who are blamed for crimes or other sorts of social problems. ... The phrase for the children, or similar phrases such as think of the children, is an appeal to emotion and can be used to support an irrelevant conclusion (both logical fallacies) when used in an argument. ... Missing white woman syndrome (MWWS), also known as missing pretty girl syndrome, is a term used[1] to describe alleged disproportionate media coverage of white female victims. ... Soviet Propaganda Poster during World War II. The text reads Red Army Fighter, SAVE US! Chinese propaganda poster from the time of the Cultural Revolution. ... The Scapegoat by William Holman Hunt, 1854. ... A witch-hunt is a search for suspected witches; it is a type of moral panic. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

References

AlterNet, a project of the non-profit Independent Media Institute, is a progressive news website that was launched in 1998 and receives over 2 million visitors per month. ... BBC News is the department within the BBC responsible for the corporations news-gathering and production of news programmes on BBC television, radio and online. ... Salon. ... For other uses, see The Independent (disambiguation). ... BBC News is the department within the BBC responsible for the corporations news-gathering and production of news programmes on BBC television, radio and online. ... BBC News is the department within the BBC responsible for the corporations news-gathering and production of news programmes on BBC television, radio and online. ...

External links

• Moral Panics, MediaKnowAll (website)
• "Society's moral panic attacks - all grist for the media mill" by Russ Grayson, On Line Opinion, August 16, 2004.
• "Be afraid, be very afraid... no, don't" by Frank Furedi, Times Higher Education Supplement, September 16, 2005.
• "Moral panics, old and new" by Gilbert Herdt, American Sexuality. Accessed, March 15, 2007.
• "Moral Panics Over Youth Culture and Video Games" by Kenneth A. Gagne, bachelor's thesis, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, April 27, 2001.
• "Who's afraid of sexual minorities? Homosexuals, moral panic, and the exercise of social control" by Iwona Zielinska, Graduate School of Social Research Polish Academy of Sciences/ Centre for Criminological Research, Occasional Paper 1, 2005.
• "Abortion as Moral Panic: How reproductive rights became a divisive political issue" by Carole Joffe, American Sexuality. Accessed March 27, 2007.
• "The Social Construction of Sex Trafficking: Ideology and Institutionalization of a Moral Crusade" by Ronald Weitzer, Politics & Society 35(3):447–475, September 2007.
• "Moral Panic Marketing" by Chris Byrne, ukhh.com. Accessed September 25, 2007.
• 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)