What is a moral panic?

Moral panic is an interesting social phenomenon that can have tragic results. The term is used to describe the state of panic induced in a large group of people who feel that the social norm or aspect regulating people's safety is seriously endangered. The term is the creation of sociologist Stanley Cohen, who examined the way in which the fans of Mods and Rock and Roll were perceived as a threat to society in the 60 and early 70 years. Moral panic clearly existed before Cohen created this term. Virtually every dance style introduced in the 20th century created such panic; Even Waltz was convicted much earlier as a way to sin because the couples hugged each other. From the ministers condemning the evil of rock and roll to the significant news of Hippie culture and from the death of Kurt Cobain to the Goth movement, Lidimis is to fear that the corruptive influence is likely to cause damage to their children and their way of life. These concerns are often inflated by excessive coverage in the media severalAnd the events that would suggest that all the children who took the album Nirvana committed suicide, or all the children who dressed the Black Eye Shadow decided to worship vampires.

Media coverage is often the key to the production of moral panic, because some stories are made in the media to death. This is because the print will tend to capture anything in bizarre as more interesting than standard crimes. For example, several cases of accusations of Satanism in the 70s and the beginning of the 80s have created an important moral panic. Many people really feared that Satan was worshiped in almost every city in the US and that their children would "fall" with a Satanic cult. Although almost sometimes the instance of the Satanic ritual has been largely discounted after a significant investigation, it is still something that is concerned and their fear grows from an inflated view of danger.

Another example of moral panic has created children,which at the beginning of the 80s played Dungeons & Dragons®. Although most of these games were significantly innocent and many D&D players are now excellent members of the company, it was assumed that the reference to "demons" or monsters would spoil the moral behavior of children. If someone who ever played the D&D game committed a crime, the media certainly discovered and reported, which created excess fear that D&D is an unparalleled evil and a certain sign that children would be damaged if they played.

There are several news hooks that have currently received so much coverage that they cause significant fear. One specific news show devotes its time to catching sexual predators, at least once a week. Another example is the nancy Grace Show on CNN, which seems to appear in the main most terrible crimes against women and children who may commit. While grace does not create these stories, its coverage of them can inflate the fear that these evil is constantly happening, and that especially women and childrenThey are constantly endangered by terrible murder or abuse.

And finally, because moral panic may be focused on a specific group, it can lead to crowds attacking members of this group or accidentally attacking people who are assumed group members. This also led to mass killing people who seem to threaten the structure of society. Tests and mass executions Salem, Crusade, McCarthyism, Pogroms and Holocaust can be called moral panic.