Moral Panics

Question 1

Describe how the media may cause crime and deviance through labelling

Answer 1

• Moral entrepreneurs who disapprove of some behaviour (e.g. drug taking) may use the media to put pressure on the authorities to ‘do something’ about the alleged problem.
• If successful, their campaigning will result in the negative labelling of the behaviour and perhaps a change in the law (introduction of the Marijuana Tax Act in the USA)

Question 2

Describe the creation of a moral panic

Answer 2

• A moral panic is an exaggerated over-reaction by society to a perceived problem (usually driven by the media), where the reaction enlarges the problem out of all proportion to its real seriousness.
• In a moral panic the identify a group as a folk devil (threat to societal values), the media present the group in a negative, stereotypical, fashion and exaggerate the scale of the problem. Then moral entrepreneurs, police and other authorities condemn the group and its behaviour
• This leads to calls for a ‘crackdown’ on the group. But this may create a SFP that amplifies the very problem that caused the panic in the 1st place

Question 3

Describe the Folk Devils and Moral Panic study

Answer 3

• Cohen examines the media response to disturbances between 2 groups of largely WC teenagers, the mods and rockers, at English seaside resorts.
• Mods wore smart dress and rode scooters; the rockers wore leather jackets and rode motorbikes. The initial confrontations were a few scuffles, some stone breaking and windows being broken. While the disorder was relatively minor, the media over-reacted.
• The media exaggerates the numbers involved and the extent of violence with sensational headlines such as ‘Day of Terror By Scooter Gangs’. Also the symbols of the mods and rockers (clothes/bikes) were all negatively labelled and associated with deviance.

Question 4

Describe the deviance amplification spiral in the mods and rockers case

Answer 4

• Cohen argues that the media’s portrayal of events produced a deviance amplification spiral by making it seem as if the problem was spreading. This led to calls for an increased control response from the police, resulting in further marginalisation of the mods and rockers as deviants and this continued to spiral
• The media further amplified the deviance by defining the 2 groups and their subcultural styles. This led to more youths adopting these styles and drew in more people for future clashes. By emphasising their ‘differences’, the media encouraged a SFP of escalating conflict as youths acted out the roles

Question 5

Why is the media’s definition of the situation crucial in creating a moral panic?

Answer 5

• Cohen argues because in large-scale modern societies, most people have no direct experience of the events themselves and have to rely on the media for info about them
• In the case of the mods and rockers, this allowed the media to portray them as folk devils

Question 6

Describe how the moral panic has been applied to wider society

Answer 6

• In post-war society, there was newfound affluence and consumerism of the young appeared to challenge the values of an older generation who had lived through the war.
• Cohen argues that moral panics often occur at times of social change, reflecting the anxieties many feel when accepted value seem to be undermined. He argues that the moral panic was a result of boundary crisis, where there was uncertainty about the boundary between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour in a time of change. The folk devil created by the media symbolises and gives a focus to popular anxieties about social disorder

Question 7

Describe moral panics from a functionalist perspective

Answer 7

• Moral panics can be seen as ways of responding to the sense of anomie (normlessness) created by change
• By dramatising the threat to society in the form of a folk devil, the media raises the collective consciousness and reasserts social controls when central values

Question 8

Describe moral panics from a Neo-Marxist approach

Answer 8

• Hall et al locates the role of moral panics in the context of capitalism
• They argue the moral panic over ‘mugging’ in the British media in the 1970s served to distract attention from the crisis of capitalism, divide the WC on racial grounds and legitimate a more authoritarian style of rule

Question 9

Describe criticisms of the idea of moral panics

Answer 9

• Assumes that the societal reaction is disproportionate over-reaction, but who decides what’s an appropriate one? This relates the LR view that people’s fear of crime is in fact rational
• McRobbie and Thornton argue that moral panics are routine in late modernity. Also, there’s little consensus on what is deviant. Lifestyles that were condemned (single motherhood) are no longer universally seen as deviant so it’s harder for the media to create panic about them

Question 10

What is new media and it’s effects?

Answer 10

• The arrival of new types of media is often met with a moral panic, e.g. TV and videogames etc, have been accused of undermining public morality and corrupting the young.
• Also the arrival of the Internet has led to fears to cyber-crime (Thomas and Loader define as computer-mediated activities that are illegal or illicit conducted through global electronic networks)
• Jewkes notes the Internet creates opportunities to commit both ‘conventional crimes’ like fraud, and ‘new crimes using new tools’ like software piracy.

Question 11

What are categories of cyber crime identified by Wall?

Answer 11

• Cyber-trespass: crossing boundaries into others’ cyber property, includes hacking
• Cyber-deception and theft: including identity theft, ‘phishing’ (obtaining identity or bank account details by deception
• Cyber-pornography: including porn involving minors
• Cyber-violence: doing psychological harm or inciting harm, including cyber-stalking, and bullying on social media

Question 12

Describe the problem of global cyber-crime

Answer 12

• Policing cyber-crime is difficult due to the scale of the Internet and the limited resources of the police and because of its globalised nature, which poses problems of jurisdiction
• Police culture also gives cyber-crime a low priority as it’s seen as lack the excitement of more conventional policing

Question 13

How is technology good for the police?

Answer 13

• The new information and communication technology provides the police and state with greater opportunities for surveillance and control of the population
• Jewkes argues ICT permits routine surveillance through the use of CCTV cameras, electronic databases etc.