NCJ Number
187270
Date Published
1999
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This article argues that recent societal reactions to youth violence can be characterized as a moral panic.
Abstract
The article claims that, as with all moral panics, reactions are disproportionate to the phenomena. It further claims that the current moral panic over youth violence both arises from and has been contributing to a restructuring of the role of the state. This restructuring takes the form of reductions in public investment in social welfare and education and a concomitant transfer of resources to a more repressive apparatus of social control through policing and incarceration. The article reviews literature on the history and rationale of juvenile justice and on moral panics, and discusses data on both the moral panic in one community school district in New York City and the actual patterns of adolescent daily life in that community. It argues that: (1) the national moral panic is compounded of many local-level reactions to adolescent violence; (2) at both national and local levels, moral panics over adolescent violence are connected to a societal withdrawal of public resources from children and a demonization of all adolescents; (3) both the withdrawal of resources and demonization are deeply embedded in racial imagery and politics and disproportionately target poor children of color; and (4) moral panic and demonization exacerbate the actual problems, undermining public safety, sense of community, and positive youth development across society. References