NCJ Number
227032
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2009 Pages: 4-16
Date Published
January 2009
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This paper examines the origins and evolution of moral panic as it relates to crime.
Abstract
A moral panic is a moral disturbance centering on claims that direct interests have been violated, an act of othering sometimes expressed in terms of demonization, sometimes with humanitarian undertones that are grossly disproportionate to the event or the activities of the individuals concerned. The initial formulations of moral panic suggest that such phenomena arose out of considerable moral disturbances rooted in significant structural and value changes within society, in which the subjects of panic are not random but trigger points in such transformations and the effects of a panic are to some extent self-fulfilling. Moral panics, like crime, are seductive events. In addressing the origins of moral panic, this paper examines the work of Albert Cohen and his notion of moral indignation, the emergence of the concept in the tumult of 1968 and in the intellectual context of the National Deviancy Conference, the key attributes of moral panics as arising out of fundamental changes in social structure and culture, and issues of moral disturbance because of conflicts with values. The paper concludes with a critique of recent uses of the concept and a reformulation of the notions of moral disturbance, disproportionality, displacement, and volatility. References