CRIM 1700 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Moral Panic, Crack Epidemic
15 Nov 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Bars rumored to stop serving youth, so a riot ensues with a huge police reaction. Mods: hip kids, fashionable, ride mopeds, middle class. Not interested in culture of mods and rockers; but rather the overreaction. Moral panic: fundamental threat to society and its values. Who are the actors in the drama: the press- overstate the seriousness of it, the public- reinforcing it; tap into some latent concern, law enforcement, legislature and politicians, moral entrepreneurs (action groups) Mods and rockers are missing because not really about them. Folk devils: take out all positive to be negative, public image 100% negative: ex. child molesters, evil, deviant, must be stopped- framing at an extreme. How do we know if something is a moral panic: create elements. Disproportion: actual threat is lower than our concern about it. Volatility: blows up out of nowhere and then onto something new- internet speeds up process: de nes how shallow they are.
