Panic Theory Research Articles

Sex panic and robots: a critical discourse analysis of the banned Texan robotic brothel

ABSTRACT This study examines the unique relationship between panic, technology, and sexuality using a sex panic framework. Sex panic, a derivative of moral panic theory, focuses on fears related to or because of sexuality or sexual practices. Inextricably tied to emotion, sex panic events are often scripted and based on performativity. In Texas, a sex robot “testing center” attempted to open as a storefront in the suburbs of Houston. Local officials and community leaders condemned the brothel announcement. A critical discourse analysis of sixty news articles and videos, Houston City Council meeting minutes, and the subsequent city ordinances were evaluated to explore the controversy of the ultimately banned brothel. Through this analysis, prevalent discursive themes on the protection of women and children, fears about sex robot users, and concerns over how the Houston community would be viewed were found. Discursive tactics centered on creating panic around issues of rape, dehumanization, and moral standards. This study contributes to the critical scholarship on sex robots and their effects on public discourse.

Drug Trafficking as Crime Against Humanity: Global Moral Panics and Drugs at the United Nations

AbstractThis article presents archival data produced by Australian diplomats in the 1980s that report on the ‘drug problem’ in various host countries. The reports reveal growing concern in many countries at a rapid increase in drug use. The second half of the article focusses on diplomatic reports from the United Nations where discussions were beginning about creating a third convention against drug trafficking. These early drafts of the convention labelled drug trafficking a ‘crime against humanity’—a criminal charge that had not been prosecuted since the Nuremburg trials. The article applies elements of moral panic theory, neorealism, and the sociology of punishment. Combining these theories suggests that condemning drug traffickers in the 1980s allowed diplomats to create a global social solidarity that may have helped end the Cold War.

“I've lost my children to vaping”: A frame analysis of the Australian media's construction of the “Youth vaping crisis”

BackgroundYouth vaping has become an issue of extreme concern in the Australian public and political discourse, recently culminating in the announcement of further restrictions on the sale and use of nicotine vaping products (NVPs) by the Federal Government. We examine how youth vaping has been framed in the Australian news media in the six months leading up to the announcement of these new measures in May 2023. MethodsDrawing a sample from the Factiva database, we conducted a frame analysis on articles published during this six month period, identifying media framings that included the necessary components of a distinct Problem Definition, Causal Attribution, Moral Evaluation, and Treatment Recommendation. ResultsWe identified 123 relevant articles, and four dominant framings being applied. Most common was that of A Failure of Control, followed by A Poisonous Epidemic, A Health Behaviour Needing Regulation, and A Moral Failure. ConclusionThese findings are discussed in the context of moral panic theory and how framings are constructed by the media in collaboration with policy actors to support particular policy measures.

Closing the Borders to End Human Trafficking: Moral Panic and the New Official State Politics on the Refugee Crisis in Greece

This article traces the incident on the Greece–Turkey border in spring 2020 as a turning point in asylum seeker flow management in Greece. It argues that the handling of the event can be approached using moral panic theory, and it explains why the government has chosen its tough stance against these people. It further explores the government’s rhetoric during this event and the consequences of this shift both on the asylum policies leading to pushbacks and on the legitimization of these policies within the Greek society, which could be claimed to have made the Pylos shipwreck acceptable, as examined in its last section.

Beyond panic: navigating the tides of change in relationships and sex education

ABSTRACT This paper critically evaluates societal reactions to integrating LGBTQ+ content into the Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) curriculum in England and Wales. Utilising Stanley Cohen’s theory of moral panics, it examines the roles of media, moral entrepreneurs, authorities, and the public in shaping debates around educational reforms. The paper highlights the complexities of balancing traditional values and inclusivity in education, emphasising the necessity of a considerate and comprehensive RSE approach. The study employs mixed methods, combining qualitative and quantitative analyses, to explore the multifaceted nature of this societal issue and its wider implications.

The Islamophobia controversy in Nussa dan Rarra cartoon film: an insight into Indonesian netizens’ tweets

ABSTRACT This article examines the Islamophobia controversy over the Nussa dan Rarra cartoon film (NRCF) on Twitter (X). This controversy was initially triggered by two influencers that became a trending topic. The study employed a qualitative method with a moral panic theory approach. The primary data was tweets on Twitter containing comments on the NRCF. Data analysis was done through five stages of the moral panic process. The trigger tweet’s main issue in the NRCF was the figure behind the scenes, Felix Siauw, with his Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia (HTI). The pro and contra responses went back and forth to debate the themes of NRCF’s negative labels, such as costume, manner, Taliban, and radicalism, as a threat to society. This study found that the effort to evoke Islamophobia has not succeeded in causing panic because the majority of society and authorities do not support it, making the film still survive to this day.

Dual Panic Theory: New Insight into Moral Panics

Moral panics have been broadly discussed in the public discourse since Stanley Cohen’s (1972) seminal text on the topic. Despite copious research, we believe that the theory is in need of expansion due to the increased complexity of societal interactions. Through the lens of an increasingly polarizing American culture, we believe the original concept of moral panics is overly simplified and no longer encompasses the intricacies of American society. Using the story of the McCloskey family’s 2020 interactions with Black Lives Matter protestors and Goode and Ben-Yehuda’s (1994) definitional criteria, we propose a new, expanded theory of moral panics – Dual Panic Theory.

When are trans women treated worse than trans men?

PurposeThis paper aims to test penis panic theory, which predicts that trans women will face more discrimination than trans men in some but not all situations.Design/methodology/approachRespondents were 262 American college students who were all enrolled in the same undergraduate course. They were presented with a case about coworker resistance to transgender employees' use of the workplace restrooms of their choice. Four versions of a case were randomly distributed as follows: trans woman, restroom with one toilet; trans woman, restroom with three toilets; trans man, restroom with one toilet and trans man, restroom with three toilets.FindingsThe authors observed greater discrimination against trans women compared to trans men when there was one toilet but not when there were three toilets. This supports penis panic theory.Research limitations/implicationsThe chief limitation was the use of American college students as respondents. The results may not generalize to practicing managers especially in other countries. Future researchers should develop a scale to measure situational discrimination against trans women. This study should be replicated in other contexts to deepen the understanding of discrimination against trans men and trans women with disabilities, as well as discrimination against nonbinary individuals who identify as neither trans men nor trans women.Practical implicationsEmployers need to search for situations in which trans women face greater discrimination than trans men, because they can be resolved in ways that protect the rights of transgender employees no matter how transphobic their coworkers may be. Also, employers need a nuanced approach to combat discrimination that recognizes the unique perspectives of trans men, trans women and other members of the transgender community.Originality/valueThis is the first quantitative study of penis panic theory, and it illuminates the understanding of discrimination against transgender individuals.

The Loughan House Controversy

In October 1978, a detention centre known as Loughan House opened near Blacklion, Co. Cavan for young offenders between twelve and sixteen years of age. The history of this episode survives in folk memory as a disproportionate reaction to a perceived social crisis surrounding juvenile crime in 1970s Ireland. In order to assess the accuracy of this existing narrative, this article examines the episode through the lens of moral panic theory [MPT]. It argues that Loughan House, though not necessarily a punitive response in rhetoric or reality, nevertheless represented a failure of political imagination. This episode is particularly useful in highlighting the limitations of MPT, especially surrounding the concepts of disproportionality and punitiveness. Nevertheless, in spite of these limitations, the article contends that MPT remains valuable on both conceptual and affective levels.

Where is the pain? A qualitative analysis of Ghana's opioid (tramadol) 'crisis' and youth perspectives.

Over the last five years, media reports in West African countries have suggested a tramadol abuse 'crisis' characterised by a precipitous rise in use by youth in the region. This discourse is connected to evidence of an emerging global opioid crisis. While the reported increase in tramadol abuse in West Africa is likely true, few studies have critically interrogated structural explanations for tramadol use by youth. Nascent academic literature has sought to explain the rise in drug use as a function of moral weakness among youth. This Ghanaian case study draws on primary and secondary data sources to explore the pain that precedes tramadol abuse. Through a discourse analysis of 295 media articles and 15 interviews (11 with youth who currently use tramadol and 4 with health system stakeholders), this study draws on structural violence and moral panic theories to contribute to the emerging literature on tramadol (ab)use in West Africa. The evidence parsed from multiple sources reveals that government responses to tramadol abuse among Ghanaian youth have focused on arrests and victim blaming often informed by a moralising discourse. Interviews with those who use tramadol on their lived experiences reveal however that although some youth use the opioid for pleasure, many use tramadol for reasons related to work and feelings of dislocation. A more complex way to understand tramadol use among young people in Ghana is to explore the pain that leads to consumption. Two kinds of pain; physical (related to strenuous work) and non-physical (related to anxiety and the condition of youth itself) explain tramadol use requiring a harm reduction and social determinants of health approach rather than the moralising 'war on drugs' approach that has been favoured by policy makers.

Alarm about Childhood Vaccinations: A Persistent Panic?

Some threats to the social order, such as crime, drugs and terrorism, give rise to ongoing alarms. To understand both the alarms and their persistence, it is useful to draw on two bodies of theory. Moral panic theory addresses alarms about groups or activities that transgress social norms, proposing several characteristic features, but does not explain why a moral panic would persist. Several concepts from studies of scientific controversies, including the lack of impact of new evidence, help to explain how a moral panic might continue indefinitely. To illustrate the combined use of moral panic and controversy theory, the case study of the alarm over unvaccinated children and criticisms of childhood vaccines is used. Persistent panics potentially have several negative consequences, especially for groups targeted as causing a danger.

Comparing symptom networks of daytime and nocturnal panic attacks in a community-based sample

Nocturnal panic refers to waking in a state of panic without obvious triggers, experiencing the same symptoms as panic attacks that occur while awake. Interrelationships between daytime and nocturnal panic symptoms have not been examined despite theories suggesting panic symptoms perpetuate one another in a forward feedback loop. The current study compared associations between symptoms in daytime and nocturnal panic using network analysis. Network theory conceptualizes symptoms as causing one another, rather than originating from a latent variable (i.e., a disorder). Given that nocturnal panic originates from sleep stages without cognitive activity, cognitive symptoms were expected to be more central in daytime panic networks than nocturnal panic networks. Prior literature indicates similar nocturnal and daytime panic severity; thus, we expected that panic groups would report equivalent panic symptom severity. An online community sample (N = 215) provided panic symptom history. Panic network structures did not differ, although the daytime panic network produced stronger and more numerous connections between physical and cognitive symptoms. The nocturnal panic group, however, reported more severe cognitive symptoms than the daytime panic group. These results challenge biologically-focused nocturnal panic theories and suggest a more significant role of cognitive symptoms in perpetuating nocturnal panic attacks once the individual awakens.

Polarizing Moral Panics: A Theory and Its Application to the Refugee Crisis in Poland

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to propose a corrective of moral panic theory by introducing a concept of polarizing moral panics. We believe that the significant social and technological changes that have occurred since the 1970s have made the classical concept of moral panic less useful to describe and analyze most of the contemporary cases because it fails to include a variety of voices and a more divisive nature of modern moral panics. Polarizing moral panics are recurrent eruptions in an ongoing process of transformation of normative systems that manifest themselves in the intensive, media-amplified polarization of society over an issue, a condition or a group of persons. This leads to a clash between two moral communities and their respective and competitive visions of social order: one more conservative, the other more liberal. This can be fueled by employing politics of fear by politicians and other interest groups for political benefits. The first part of the article discusses the theory and the application of polarizing moral panics. The second part focuses on the refugee crisis in Poland in 2015–2016 as an illustration of the concept and its use to gain votes in a parliamentary election.

President Trump’s transgender moral panic

ABSTRACT This article argues that former President Donald Trump acted as a moral entrepreneur when he created a moral panic by sending tweets that established a new national policy that negatively affected transgender Americans. The statement was that transgender Americans could not serve the US military in any valid capacity. The implication of the demonization was a moral panic predicated on the belief that transgender citizens were a burden to the American people, that they were invalid Americans. The policy tool used to facilitate the moral panic was Twitter, which was used to transmit his concerns to the broader public. The moral panic is a legacy of the Trump presidency for the way it sent a message that trans citizens were “others” and validated right-wing arguments against trans people in society. To reach this analysis, this article addresses the theory of moral panics within the context of the policy studies literature, including moral entrepreneurship, policy issues, and policy tools.

Folk Devils or Moral Entrepreneurs? Gap Bridging in the Social Studies of Pro-ana Communities

ABSTRACT In moral panic studies, pro-ana communities are usually considered folk devils. Namely, pro-ana culture is investigated as an object of ‘moral crusades’ led by scientists, physicians, activists, politicians, mass media, parents and many other social actors concerned about the epidemics of restrictive eating disorders. In this paper, I put aside this strand of moral panic research and discuss the role of pro-ana communities as facilitators of moral panic to bridge the macro-micro divide in scientific investigations of the pro-ana phenomenon. I propose to examine pro-ana people as entrepreneurs of the moral panic over obesity. This means that pro-ana communities can be analyzed as creating and spreading contemporary legends on obesity in their communication processes. Furthermore, I discuss and exemplify the roles of pro-ana people as amplifiers, supporters and enforcers of this panic. In addition, while reconnecting micro and macro levels in the explanation of the pro-ana phenomenon, I contribute to the development of moral panic theory, as the application of the concept of ‘moral panic’ to pro-ana communities facilitates niche formation in biomedical social research.

Toilet Paper Thrones and Heated Tweets: Applying Moral Panic and Social Network Theory to Responses Over Panic Buying during COVID-19

Social networks string everyone together. In the world affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, residents left their houses less often and maintained their connections online. Preparing for longer periods at home, some customers stockpiled supplies, the most discussed of which being toilet paper. When internet users came across videos of empty store shelves and people boasting about the amount of toilet paper they obtained, public contempt exploded over these supposed “panicked buyers.” From February to May of 2020, patterns of reaction against panic buying matched the description of a moral panic as presented by sociologist Stanley Cohen. The media is an agent of contagions in a social network. During COVID-19, news headlines often detailed shortages of supplies around the world. Meanwhile, social media became a platform for videos of stockpiling consumers, like those who built thrones out of toilet paper boxes. These behaviors from the media further escalated a small issue of temporary toilet paper shortage to almost a national emergency, while drawing attention away from shortages of crucial medical supplies and test kits.

Public panic over Covid-19 Outbreak: Criticism toward panic theory in collective behavior study

This article evaluates the issue of public panic over the coronavirus outbreak in Indonesia from March to April 2020. The study was conducted with secondary data analysis sourced from competent online media, and was aimed to expand the panic scope as well as criticize the related theories in a collective behavior study. The results showed inconsistencies in the event of public panic in a crowd. This include while dealing with natural disasters, terror, sinking ships, fires, collapsed buildings or other physical threats, and also over invisible dangers, as observed with viruses. In addition, the individual disposition persists for a long time on occasions where the authorities, both political and academic, fail to immediately strategize a convincing countermeasure. Based on these findings, the study provides a critique of several theories, comprising crowd panic, emerging norms, and moral panic.

ANALYZING REJECTION OF CORPSE INFECTED BY COVID 19 IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF MORAL PANIC AND FIQH SOSIAL THEORIES

This research discusses an interdisciplinary study of Covid 19 excesses that is currently affecting the world, including Indonesia. There were cases of stigma and rejection of corpse infected by Covid 19 that occurred in Banyumas, Lampung, Gowa, South Sulawesi, and Semarang. The theory used as an analytical tool is Stanley Cohen's theory of moral panic to understand the background of community actions, and subsequently uses the social fiqh theory to reinforce the building of an argument for scientific response to the case. The method used in this research is library research by making effective data obtained from reliable online news, journals, and books that can be accounted for. The results of this study are: (1) The perspective of Stanley Cohen's moral panic theory explained that the case of the rejection of the corpse of Covid 19 was triggered by excessive public panic and anxiety until "social / health panic" is closely related to the term "moral panic" in Cohen's theory. This gives the consequence of giving stigma and discrimination of Covid 19. (2) The perspective of social Fiqh with the application model of Madzhab Qauli, the act of refusing a corpse infected with Covid 19 is “a wrong way" in Islamic legal norms. This claim of Islamic law is considered to be in harmony with the maqashid syairah which is understood from Abdul Majid Najjar's thoughts about the maqasid hifdzu al karamah al insaniyyah.

Who Uses the Moral Panic Concept? A Bibliometric Analysis of Moral Panic Scientific Literature

In this paper, the bibliometric approach was used for the investigation of the research field organized around the concept of moral panic. To examine the current condition of the moral panic field, we analyzed the papers published in the WoS from 1972–2019. As a result of our study, the thematic areas, and the most influential actors in the field were revealed and described. Today, the moral panic filed is dominated by sociologists. Among the leaders in terms of citations are authors from financially-developed countries. This shows that there is economic inequality in the production of papers. The most cited are publications devoted to online studies. The results of this research demonstrate that there is no noticeable erosion among the empirical contexts, where the concept is used because children and youth are still the most popular object of moral panic studies. They are the classical objects for moral panic papers. At the same time, it could be argued that this field is still in the process of development because the theoretical and empirical papers that prevail are connected with the integration of the moral panic theory with other theories and concepts. We suppose this approach to the conceptual analysis developed in this paper could be useful for the revision of other fields developed around controversial concepts in sociology.

Drugs, Crime, and Aggravated Felony Deportations: Moral Panic Theory and the Legal Construction of the "Criminal Alien".

The "aggravated felony" is an oft-overlooked legal distinction that provides the basis for the removal of thousands of immigrants each year. This category's broad expansion and definitive results draw from a punitive turn in crime, drug, and immigration policy, which occurred in the 1980s and 1990s. The concept of "moral panic" is a useful tool for those who seek to understand the development of punitive responses to perceived social problems. This article revisits the original formulations of moral panic theory in order to highlight the importance of societal context in determining the symbolic salience and punitive outcomes of moral panics. The goal of the article is to evaluate the thesis that a moral panic about immigrant criminality played an important role in the development of the aggravated felony category.