Moral Panics

Abstract

Students of deviance, social problems, and politics have used the concept of a moral panic to describe sudden concern over a group or activity, accompanied by calls for control and suppression. Out of an infinite range of potential perceived threats, one—which may or may not be new—is suddenly the center of considerable attention. The news media, public officials, religious leaders, and private ‘moral entrepreneurs’ are key in focusing public attention on the issue, typically by identifying some recognizable group as ‘folk devils’ responsible for the menace. Human history has been full of rumors, fears, and efforts—often deadly—to constrain or eliminate the human source of perceived problems. In the nineteenth century more systematic efforts appeared, especially in the UK and the USA, to make the lower classes conform to the expectations of the middle and upper classes. Moral panics seem to have become more frequent in recent decades, or at least more visible to national audiences. Much of the ‘panic’ in moral panics, the disproportionate nature of the response, is due to amplification by communications media. A number of variations in culture and social structure affect the shape and outcomes of moral panics, including the political, and especially the electoral, system; the structure of the media industry; the incentives facing other potential moral entrepreneurs; and differences in the general public. The concept of moral panics has not lacked its critics. Like all cultural constructionism, the concept of moral panics can be turned against those who use it. Just as they find bias and exaggeration in those they study, so their own critics can claim to find these in their research on moral panics. Debates over the utility of moral panics as an analytic tool tap into deep disagreements about the rationality of political action that occurs outside normal institutional channels, but the concept focuses attention on precisely the cultural and psychological dynamics that recent rationalist perspectives tend to miss.