mugging

• Hall and Critcher both developed the idea of moral panic with a focus on moral order and social control 
• Hall et al identified a moral panic around street robbery which when committed by black youth came to be called mugging which Hall and others would prefer abolished because of its criminalisation of the black community 
• The outcome:

  • more social control, policing, prosecution, conviction and sentencing, resulting in very harsh sentences. Police amplified problem 
  • Sir Paul Condon (MP Commissioner) is reported to have said 80% of mugging victims identified black people 
  • Moral panic about black men and criminality has been created and caused black men to be marginalised 
• 1988, October 2 the Times reported: police unit cuts muggings, a police initiative has cut robberies in one of London’s worst street-crime areas by 60% 
• the police have then honed in on this group in terms of surveillance and this has lead to more arrests, seemingly corroborating what the media highlighted as their initial concern