Stan Cohen Moral Panic. Quick essay on moral panics effects. PDF

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What effect does moral panic have on perceptions of crime.
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In this essay I will be looking at a specific piece of work conducted by sociologist Stanley Cohen on moral panics. I will be defining what a moral panic is, how a moral panic comes to be and will also be discussing how moral panics construct particular identities and whether these identities tell the true story or if they are just figures of imagination based on the moral panic. Cohens work links closely with labelling theory as, in effect, the folk devil is given a label which leads to the individual or group becoming over sensationalised, usually because of the media, that they become seen as a threat to society and therefore targeted and excluded because of the panic surrounding their image. A folk devil is an individual or group who are considered deviants in society, that the moral panic is focused around. A Moral panic is defined as “An instance of public anxiety or alarm in response to a problem regarded as threatening the moral standards of society.” (Oxford Dictionaries | English, 2017) For a moral panic to occur Cohen said that certain stages must occur. These are: 1. “The threat that incites the moral panic, which Cohen referred to as "folk devils"; 2. Enforcers of rules or laws, like institutional authority figures, police, or armed forces; 3. The news media, which breaks the news about the threat and continues to report on it, thereby setting the agenda for how it is discussed, and attaching visual symbolic images to it; 4. Politicians, who respond to the threat, and sometimes fan the flames of the panic; 5. And the public, who develop focused concern about the threat and demand action in response to it.” (ThoughtCo, 2017)

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The above 5 steps are what is known as a deviancy amplification spiral. This is when deviant behaviour that is a small problem becomes a big problem due to the way its portrayed causing what is known as a moral panic. An example of this is Cohens very on study on Mods and rockers. In his book Folk devils and moral panics released in 1972 Cohen “explains that if someone is acting in a way that is not typical to what society is used to, then the media tends to extremely overreact about it.” (Underground-england.co.uk, 2017) He saw this when looking at the Mods and rockers back in 1964-1965 when doing his PHD work. “Mods and Rockers were two British youth subcultures in the mid 60’s and 70’s” (Underground-england.co.uk, 2017) who were said to be enemies by the media. When Cohen considered it more he saw that the violence was exaggerated dramatically, in 1964 there were clashes between the mods and the rockers on Brighton beach, “However at the time, the media exaggerated the scale of the violence.” (Foisy, 2017) Media coverage of the mods and the rockers had started in the 1950s but only on a small scale, and the conflicts that occurred on Brighton beach and other southern beaches in 1964 were being a “self fulfilling prophecy, so when the media said there would be trouble, loads of teenagers turned up more as spectators than to get involved.” (Foisy, 2017) The fact that there was so much attention given to it drew larger youthful crowds and though there was only small violence, the media described it as being important. For example, in 2014 the mirror did a 50 year ‘anniversary’ report on the 1964 incidents and the title used was “Mods v Rockers! The beach battles that rocked Britain in 1964 - and terrified bank holiday tourists” (McPhee, 2014) Still in recent years they are being viewed as if the =y had a battle. Battle is usually a term used when fighting in wars and these conflicts certainly were not war, they were just small disagreements between different cultures. Another ‘anniversary’ report by the BBC used this as their title “Mods and rockers 2

riots revisited 50 years on” (BBC News, 2014) here they are using ‘riots’ to over sensationalised what really was just a small conflict.These reports lead to the wider public seeing them as being a constant threat and to be ‘terrified’ of them even though they weren’t a threat. This created a moral panic and people would avoid them at all costs, so they had no chance of being hurt by these gangs. The reality of the mods and rockers was that they weren’t as bad as portrayed, most of the time they would hang about with each other in peace and harmony, but this was not portrayed in the media because it wasn’t a threat to society and would not give them anything to talk about. If they kept showing the mods and the rockers as the bad guys who are always fighting, they would have something to talk about. This is an example of how particular identities are constructed using moral panics. The media uses their power and influence to create a moral panic about certain individuals or in this case groups and portrays them in a negative way, this in turn flags up a panic that this ‘crime’ or situation is important and needs to be dealt with (deviancy amplification), the moral panic around it occurs leading to more people becoming aware of it and being able to deal with it through law and order or just societal values which brings down the threat of ‘folk devils’ and changes the way society views the crime. When this happens, the media will normally find something else to focus on as the previous moral panic has faded as a threat.

From this it is clear to see that moral panics are constructed and create for purpose of selling a story and influencing the communities we live in as opposed to informing us about what is a threat to society.

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Bibliography BBC News. (2014). Mods and rockers riots 50 years on. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-28709559/mods-and-rockers-riots-revisited-50-years-on Foisy, P. (2017). Are Mods Violent? Myth or Reality?. [online] Parkaavenue.blogspot.co.uk. Available at: http://parkaavenue.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/are-mods-violent-myth-or-reality.html McPhee, R. (2014). Mods v Rockers! The beach battles that rocked Britain in 1964 - and terrified bank holiday tourists. [online] mirror. Available at: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mods-vrockers-1964-beach-3437302 Oxford Dictionaries | English. (2017). moral panic | Definition of moral panic in English by Oxford Dictionaries. [online] Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/moral_panic ThoughtCo. (2017). Understanding Moral Panics and How They Threaten Freedom. [online] Available at: https://www.thoughtco.com/moral-panic-3026420 Underground-england.co.uk. (2017). Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers by Stanley Cohen |. [online] Available at: http://www.undergroundengland.co.uk/news/mods-v-rockers-traditional-english-seaside-entertainment-2/

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