NCJ Number
227034
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2009 Pages: 35-47
Date Published
January 2009
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This paper attempts to explain the lack of a moral panic through an examination of the issue of internet child pornography.
Abstract
There are some social issues/problems that have all the features that would generate a moral panic, and, yet, they do not do so. By understanding why some issues do not generate panics, there will be an ability to better predict which problems might or might not achieve prominence. The issue of internet child pornography offers one puzzling instance of the lack of panic response. It is suggested that internet child pornography has every qualification to become the basis of a moral panic. Yet, the social response has been virtually non-existent. One major reason is technological. Law enforcement has little idea of the nature of the trade, its complex world of concealment and deception. The failure to construct the problem in ‘panic’ terms reflects the technological shortcomings of law enforcement agencies, which force them to interpret available data according to familiar forms of knowledge, rather than comprehending or publicizing new forms of deviant organization. Small criminals are much more fertile sources of moral panics than large or well-connected ones. The capacity to understand and summarize social issues as a limiting factor is shaping panics. As social issues focus more on scientific areas that demand substantial background, in information technology and biotechnology, it will be interesting to see how interest groups create problems that touch on public fears, but in the most peripheral ways, rarely touch on the substantive issues. References