Moral Panicks

• Stan Cohen, an Interactionist, published the most influential study of moral panics and the role of the media in ‘Folk Devils & Moral Panics’.

  A moral panic is an exaggerated over-reaction to a perceived threat, where the problem and reaction to it is distorted out of proportion to its real seriousness.
• Mods v Rockers


  •Mods and rockers were two conflicting British youth subcultures of the early/mid 1960s to early 1970s. Media coverage of mods and rockers fighting in 1964 sparked a moral panic about British youth, and the two groups became widely perceived as violent, unruly troublemakers.
• Criticisms of moral panics

  • It assumes society's reaction to a crime is always an over-reaction - who is to decide what is an overreaction and what is in fact a real problem? Left Realists argue the fear of crime is rational.
  • It can't explain why some issues are amplified but others are not.
  • McRobbie & Thornton argue moral panics have less impact in today's modern world as we are all used to 'shock, horror' stories and so don't react.
  • It is harder for the media to create moral panics because there is little agreement about what is and isn't deviant and this constantly changes. For example, single motherhood was seen as deviant in the 1950s but now is seen as an accepted family type.