T7: MORAL PANICS

- media cause of crime via labelling - moral ent. + weed tax example - media + labelling, creation of the moral panic in process -mods + rockers; COHEN - deviance amplification spiral; COHEN -The wider context; COHEN, FUNC SUPP, NEO-MARX SUP STUART ET AL (mugging) - criticisms of the idea of moral panics; McRobbie and Thornton - Cybercrime; Thomas and Loader (2000) definition, JEWKES (opps), WALL (4 types), why policing = difficult

One further way in which the media may cause crime and deviance is through…

labelling

Who labels seeking to change? What can they use to put pressure on the authorities to 'do something' about the alleged problem? If successful, what will their campaigning will result in giving the example of the introduction of the Marijuana Tax Act in the USA?

• moral entrepreneurs who disapprove of some particular behaviour

  e.g drug taking

• may use the media

• the negative labelling of the behaviour and perhaps a change in the law

How does media help cause crime through moral entrepreneurs and the example of the introduction of the Marijuana Tax Act in the USA? What is an important element in this process?

• helping label smoking previously legal as criminal

• creation of a moral panic.

What is a moral panic?

• exaggerated over-reaction by society to a perceived problem - usually driven or inspired by the media - where the reaction enlarges the problem out of all proportion to its real seriousness.

What are the steps in a moral panic:

• The media…

• The media present the group…

• Moral entrepreneurs, editors, politicians, police chiefs, bishops and other 'respectable' authorities…

• This usually leads to calls for a…'crackdown' on the group.

• However…

• identify a group as a folk devil or threat to societal values.

• in a negative, stereotypical fashion and exaggerate the scale of the problem.

• condemn the group and its behaviour.

• 'crackdown' on the group.

• may create a self-fulfilling prophecy that amplifies the very problem that caused the panic in the first place → DEVIANCE AMPLIFICATION SPIRAL

What are the most influential study of moral panics and the role of the media? What group is examined? What did the media's response to investigated in the study creating a moral panic?

• COHEN - FOLK DEVILS + MORAL PANICS

• Mods + Rockers → disturbances between, largely WC teens at English seaside resorts from 1964 to 1966

What are the differences between Mods and Rockers despite in in the early stages, distinctions not being clear-cut? How did the media further amplify the deviance later on, which led to more youths adopting these styles and drew in more participants for future clashes? In turn, how did the media transform loose-knit groupings into two tight-knit gangs?

• M = smart dress + rode scooters

• rockers = leather jackets +rode motorbikes

• Minor, e.g broken windows

• by defining the two groups and their subcultural styles.

• By emphasising their supposed differences, the media crystallised two distinct identities → encourage polarisation → SFP → escalate conflict as they act out roles media assigned to them

What was the media’s reaction of the inital disorder between Mods + Rockers? What 3 elements did it contain according to COHEN? (SPED)

• Over-reaction via production of an inventory of what happened

  • Exaggeration and distortion e.g numbers involved, extent of violence + damage via dramatic reporting and sensational headlines

  • Prediction e.g the media regularly assumed and predicted further conflict and violence would result.

  • Symbolisation e.g styles = neg. label + associated with deviance, which allowed them to link unconnected events like bikers in different parts of the country

Cohen argues that the media's portrayal of events produced a… This led to calls for an... This produced further… marginalisation and stigmatisation of the mods and rockers as deviants, and less and less tolerance of them, and so on in an upward spiral.

• deviance amplification spiral → problem = spreading + getting out of hand.

• increased control response from the police and courts

• marginalisation + stigmatisation → mods and rockers = deviants, less tolerant of them → upward spiral.

What is crucial in creating a moral panic? Why? How can this be applied to the Mods + Rockers?

• media definitions of the situation

• Because in large-scale modern societies, most = no direct experience of the events themselves → rely on the media for information

• allowed the media to portray them as folk devils - major threats to public order and social values.

What wider context of change does COHEN give expanding on the moral panic from mods + rockers? What are the changes in that period?

• post- war British society

  • new found consumerism and hedonism challanging old gen (lived through hardships of 30s/40s)

When do moral panics often occur reflecting the anxieties to the challenges of old values? In turn, What does COHEN argues that the moral panic was a result of?

• Times of social change

• a boundary crisis → uncertainty about the where the boundary = acceptable v unacceptable behaviour in a time of change. 

What does the folk devil created by the media symbolises and gives a focus to?

popular anxieties about social disorder.

Through a functionalist persp/evaluation, what can moral panics be seen as? Through dramatizing the threat to society in the form of a folk devil, what does the media raise?

• ways of responding to the sense of anomie or normlessness created by change.

• the collective consciousness and reasserts social controls when central values are threatened.

How have other sociologists have also used the concept of moral panics?

• NEO-MARXIST APPROACH → S… ; mugging

• recent years

• Neo-Marxist approach → Stuart Hall et al → the role of moral panics in the context of capitalism.

  • 'mugging' British media 1970s → moral panic → served to distract attention from the crisis of capitalism, divide the working class on racial grounds and legitimate a more authoritarian style of rule.

• Folk devils and moral panics in recent decades → dangerous dogs, New Age travellers, 'bogus' asylum seekers, child sexual abuse, Aids, binge drinking and single parents.

How can moral panics be criticised?

• assumes…

• what turns the amplifier on and off?…

• Late modernity→ media audiences? McRobbie and Thornton argue… , Why is it harder for the media to create panics about them?

• societal reaction is a disproportionate over-reaction; who decided? // Left realist view - fear of crime = rational

• why can media amplify some problems but not others?

• media audiences = accustomed to shock, horror' stories, do they react with panic to media exaggerations? 

  • argue that moral panics = now routine + have less impact.

  • LM soc → little consensus of deviance e.g single motherhood

What is often met with a moral panic e.g horror comics, cinema tv, games? What have they all been accused of? How can this moral panic and accusations be applied to the Internet?

• arrival of new types of media

• undermining public morality and corrupting the young

• because of the speed of development + scale

What fraction of the world's population are now online highlighting the scale?

two-thirds

What has the arrival of the Internet has led to fears of? What is the definition of this according to Thomas and Loader (2000)?

• cyber-crime

• define as computer-mediated activities that are either illegal or considered illicit by some, and that are conducted through global electronic networks.

Jewkes (2003) notes, the Internet creates opportunities to commit both…

‘conventional crimes', such as fraud, and 'new crimes using new tools', such as software piracy.

What four categories of cybercrime does W___ identify?

• It includes hacking and sabotage, such as spreading viruses.

• including identity theft, 'phishing' (bank details via deception) and violation of intellectual property rights (e.g. illegal downloading).

• Cyber-p..

• Cyber-v..

• WALL

  • Cyber-trespass → crossing boundaries into others' cyber-property.

  • Cyber-deception and theft

  • Cyber-pornography → including child pornography, issues of accessibility

  • Cyber-violence - doing psychological harm or inciting physical harm, cyber-stalking, hate crimes against minority groups, as well as bullying by text or on social media.

• Why is policing cyber-crime difficult? What aspect of Police culture also makes it difficult?

• partly → sheer scale of the Internet, limited resources of the police, and it’s globalised nature (problems of jurisdiction)

• gives cyber-crime a low priority because seen as lacking the excitement of more conventional policing

Despite the arrival of new types of media often being met with a moral panic as well as the intro of global cybercrime, what has ICT more positively provided? How does JEWKES expand on this?

• ICT permits… through the use of… as well as the installation of listening devices called '?' at Internet service providers to monitor email traffic.

• provides the police +state w/ greater opportunities for surveillance and control of the population.

  • Jewkes (2003) → ICT permits routine surveillance through the use of CCTV cameras, electronic databases, digital fingerprinting and 'smart' identity cards, as well as the installation of listening devices called 'carnivores' at Internet service providers to monitor email traffic.