Oliwia Kozica 1.5 write up: FINAL
Moral panic and folk devils:
Sociologist Stanley Cohen states that moral panic is “A condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to
become defined as a threat to societal values and interest.” Moral panic is practically an irrational reaction from
society to a perceived problem. Moral panic starts with the media focusing on a group as a folk devil, a threat to
societal values. The 1960s moral panic of the Mods and Rockers shows how the media sensationalised this group
which resulted in moral panic. The Mods and Rockers were two groups of people that were associated with lawless
gang fighting. The media sensationalised the Mods and Rockers gathering which consequently led to a deviancy
amplification spiral causing more people to join in. Headlines varied in the newspapers but all of them had a factor of
scaremongering, for example, ‘Wild Ones Invade Seaside – 97 Arrests’. However, there were only actually 24 arrests.
Moral panic can impact the public in making the perceived problem feel worse than it is in reality. The over
sensationalism and scaremongering would push the public into wanting harsher punishment and fearing the folk
devils of the moral panic.
Changing public concerns and attitudes:
Over periods of time, the publics concerns and attitudes can change according to the shown rises of different types
of crime. This is the case as the media has a type of power to make some crime or individuals look more dangerous
to the public than others, moulding their perspective. For example, Boris Johnson had made Islamophobic comment
on Muslim women who wore burqas; he compared the whole-body garment to ‘letterboxes’, figures show that after
this public hate crime Islamophobic incidents rose by 375%. Boris Johnson at this time was running for prime minister
of the UK, due to his prominent media coverage, he could shape the publics opinion due to everything he said being
published in media. We can see that Islamophobia is a public concern in the UK, a YouGov poll by ‘Hope not hate’
found that 60% believe “Islam is generally a threat to Western civilisation” and more than half believe “Islam is
generally a threat to British way of life”. The impact it has on the public is that it can increase hate crime on specific
individuals, another impact is that they will more likely support harsher punishments for specific crimes and more
likely fear individuals that are targeted in the media, because of this policing and government priorities will change to
support the publics concerns and attitudes.
Perceptions of crime trends:
The Crime Survey for England and Wales found that 72% of people thought that crime had nationally gone up, the
media can have a huge impact on how the public perceive crime. For example, the media predominantly gives
greater attention to violent crimes and in sensationalised ways. This in fact gives the impression that crime is
increasing, the media ‘successfully’ creates scaremongering amongst the public due to this high perception of crime.
According to Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimates for the year ending September 2022, adults aged
16 years and over experienced 9.1 million offences. This was a statistically significant decrease (10%) compared with
the year ending March 2020 survey data. This was predominantly because theft offences decreased by 20% (from 3.3
million to 2.6 million offences). This crime statistic shows that there has not been a concerning increase, however,
crimes like knife crime and terrorism are so sensationalised that the public perceive that there us a greater deal of
these crimes. This can impact the public because it creates a greater fear that anyone can become a victim, for
example, over reporting abductions can make parents fearful of their children being the victim and letting them go
outside unsupervised. On the other hand, under-reporting crime like stalking and harassment results in less people
aware that they are more likely to become a victim, it is known that stalking and harassment rose to 719,430
offences. This was a 45% increase compared with the year ending March 2020 and a 5% rise compared with the year
ending September 2021.
Stereotyping criminals:
A stereotype is an assumption about the character of a person based on one simple characteristic, stereotyping is
usually associated with negative connotations. For example, young black males are stereotypically associated with
more violent crimes; black males are 9x more likely to be stopped and searched in the UK. Knife crime is prominent in
the media, the folk devil of this moral panic are young males. Young males are associated to knife crime due to their
Moral panic and folk devils:
Sociologist Stanley Cohen states that moral panic is “A condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to
become defined as a threat to societal values and interest.” Moral panic is practically an irrational reaction from
society to a perceived problem. Moral panic starts with the media focusing on a group as a folk devil, a threat to
societal values. The 1960s moral panic of the Mods and Rockers shows how the media sensationalised this group
which resulted in moral panic. The Mods and Rockers were two groups of people that were associated with lawless
gang fighting. The media sensationalised the Mods and Rockers gathering which consequently led to a deviancy
amplification spiral causing more people to join in. Headlines varied in the newspapers but all of them had a factor of
scaremongering, for example, ‘Wild Ones Invade Seaside – 97 Arrests’. However, there were only actually 24 arrests.
Moral panic can impact the public in making the perceived problem feel worse than it is in reality. The over
sensationalism and scaremongering would push the public into wanting harsher punishment and fearing the folk
devils of the moral panic.
Changing public concerns and attitudes:
Over periods of time, the publics concerns and attitudes can change according to the shown rises of different types
of crime. This is the case as the media has a type of power to make some crime or individuals look more dangerous
to the public than others, moulding their perspective. For example, Boris Johnson had made Islamophobic comment
on Muslim women who wore burqas; he compared the whole-body garment to ‘letterboxes’, figures show that after
this public hate crime Islamophobic incidents rose by 375%. Boris Johnson at this time was running for prime minister
of the UK, due to his prominent media coverage, he could shape the publics opinion due to everything he said being
published in media. We can see that Islamophobia is a public concern in the UK, a YouGov poll by ‘Hope not hate’
found that 60% believe “Islam is generally a threat to Western civilisation” and more than half believe “Islam is
generally a threat to British way of life”. The impact it has on the public is that it can increase hate crime on specific
individuals, another impact is that they will more likely support harsher punishments for specific crimes and more
likely fear individuals that are targeted in the media, because of this policing and government priorities will change to
support the publics concerns and attitudes.
Perceptions of crime trends:
The Crime Survey for England and Wales found that 72% of people thought that crime had nationally gone up, the
media can have a huge impact on how the public perceive crime. For example, the media predominantly gives
greater attention to violent crimes and in sensationalised ways. This in fact gives the impression that crime is
increasing, the media ‘successfully’ creates scaremongering amongst the public due to this high perception of crime.
According to Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimates for the year ending September 2022, adults aged
16 years and over experienced 9.1 million offences. This was a statistically significant decrease (10%) compared with
the year ending March 2020 survey data. This was predominantly because theft offences decreased by 20% (from 3.3
million to 2.6 million offences). This crime statistic shows that there has not been a concerning increase, however,
crimes like knife crime and terrorism are so sensationalised that the public perceive that there us a greater deal of
these crimes. This can impact the public because it creates a greater fear that anyone can become a victim, for
example, over reporting abductions can make parents fearful of their children being the victim and letting them go
outside unsupervised. On the other hand, under-reporting crime like stalking and harassment results in less people
aware that they are more likely to become a victim, it is known that stalking and harassment rose to 719,430
offences. This was a 45% increase compared with the year ending March 2020 and a 5% rise compared with the year
ending September 2021.
Stereotyping criminals:
A stereotype is an assumption about the character of a person based on one simple characteristic, stereotyping is
usually associated with negative connotations. For example, young black males are stereotypically associated with
more violent crimes; black males are 9x more likely to be stopped and searched in the UK. Knife crime is prominent in
the media, the folk devil of this moral panic are young males. Young males are associated to knife crime due to their
