Crime : AO3 McRobbie and Thornton

• McRobbie and Thornton suggest that Cohen's idea of moral panics is a dated idea due to five specific reasons:

  • Frequency
  • Context
  • Reflexivity
  • Difficulty
  • Rebound
• Frequency:

  there is an increased amount of moral panics around, so much so that people fail to become panicked anymore.
• Context:

  in the 1960's media were keen to scapegoat a particular group; society is too fragmented to scapegoat a group like that today.
• Reflexivity:

  many groups try and generate moral panics today in order to generate publicity for themselves; however, the media is also aware of this and refuses to be pulled into their plans.
• Difficulty:

  definitions of what is good and bad is different for different people, society is too fragmented to generate one specific ideal.
• Rebound:

  people are wary of starting a panic in the first place in case it backfires;e.g. a politician starting a moral panic around family values needs to make sure that their family is perfect otherwise it can jump back and bite them.