Crime, Moral Panics and the Media

Most people use second hand information as their core source of

information about crime, this source of information usually being the

media. When carrying out sample research in Birmingham, Susan Smith

(1984) discovered that 52% of people obtained most of their

information about crime from the media, 36% obtained it from hearsay

or alleged experiences of friends and neighbours, 3% from their own

experiences, and 1% from the police service themselves (cited in

Jones, 2001; 8). However the media tend to exaggerate upon areas of

criminal activity causing a moral panic.

‘A moral panic is a semi- spontaneous or media generated mass movement

based on the perception that some individual or group, frequently a

minority group or subculture, is dangerously deviant and poses menace

to society. These panics are generally fuelled by the media, although

not always caused by, media coverage of social issues… These panics

can sometimes lead to mob violence… (newsfilter.co.uk).

Some of the governing models of moral panics include Jock Young (1971)

and Stanley Cohen (1972). Stanley Cohen fabricated the idea of moral

panics in his book Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972), whilst Jock

Young concentrated more on the correlation of deviance amplification

and drug taking. The main feature of a moral panic is deviance

amplification; this was looked at in more detail by Stanley Cohen

(1972) in what he called the deviancy amplification spiral. Some

examples of media moral panics include; internet pornography, violence

in video games, immigration, single parents etc… Moral panics can

affect the public’s perceptions of crime in many ways, making the

ext...

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...vious alternative source

of information is conversation. However, questions then arise to how

the other person’s opinions were reached. Even rumours have to start

some where” (Jones, 2003; 90)

Bibliography

Bradley, A (1994) A Morality play for all times [WWW DOCUMENT] URL

http:// www.informinc.co.uk

Cohen S (1972) Folk Devils and Moral Panics. Oxford: Martin Robertson.

Cohen S (1987) Folk Devils and Moral Panics. Oxford: Martin Robertson.

Critcher, C (2003) Moral Panics and the Media. Oxford: Oxford

University

Goode, E and Ben- Yehuda, N. (1994) Moral Panics. The social

construction of deviance. Oxford: Blackwells.

Williams, S (2004) Textbook on Criminology. US: Oxford University

Jones, S (2003) Criminology. Great Britain: Cromwell Press.

WWW. Theguardian.co.uk

WWW.Newsfilter.co.uk