50/50 Criminology – AC1.5 work
Moral panic is where criminal activity is over exaggerated in the media causing fear among society as
it threatens our moral standards, this is reinforced by the media resulting in folk devils which
demonizes members of the population as explained by Cohen. For example, one of the earliest
records of moral panic was the 1960’s mods and rockers, the media created an image for these
groups as rival gangs that caused chaos wherever they went. They utilised words such as ‘wild’ and
‘invade’ in headlines which amplified people’s fear of them. Another example of this is terrorism, this
is because attitudes of islamophobia / racism are seen to increase when terror attacks take place due
to the broad and simplified explanations in media. Therefore, moral panic can draw on known
stereotypes and create divisions between people and communities within the public.
Another impact of media representation on public perception is changing public concerns and
attitudes, this re shapes society’s priority and view of what is acceptable therefore creating new
norms. For instance, Black Lives Matter protestors were watched by police as they “toppled one
statue and deface Churchill memorial”. This indicates that the public, even police, will allow acts of
crime in favour for more prominent or more significant issues. Additionally, following the 2017
Manchester attacks, the public’s main concern was the threat of another terrorist attack. This also
affected the government as the threat level was changed from severe to critical. We can see that
media representation makes individuals see certain crimes such as terrorism, hate crimes, etcetera
to be a prominent occurrence as it consumes front pages, this creates paranoia among the public.
Media representation also warps the reality of crime trends to people as the public. When media
reports a high volume of crime, it effects the public, giving them false belief on the trends of crime.
According to the CSEW, crime has been falling in the UK since its peak in 1995 from 19.4 million
incident to 5.6 million incidents in March 2020 (excluding fraud and computer misuse cases). Despite
this, public perceptions of criminal behaviour have remained consistently high. 8 out of 10 people
interviewed in the most recent CSEW experienced no crime in the previous 12 months, yet only 1 in
5 felt safe from crime. This means that the public perceives crime to be on the increase, because
media specifically chooses crime stories grab our attention.
Moral panic is where criminal activity is over exaggerated in the media causing fear among society as
it threatens our moral standards, this is reinforced by the media resulting in folk devils which
demonizes members of the population as explained by Cohen. For example, one of the earliest
records of moral panic was the 1960’s mods and rockers, the media created an image for these
groups as rival gangs that caused chaos wherever they went. They utilised words such as ‘wild’ and
‘invade’ in headlines which amplified people’s fear of them. Another example of this is terrorism, this
is because attitudes of islamophobia / racism are seen to increase when terror attacks take place due
to the broad and simplified explanations in media. Therefore, moral panic can draw on known
stereotypes and create divisions between people and communities within the public.
Another impact of media representation on public perception is changing public concerns and
attitudes, this re shapes society’s priority and view of what is acceptable therefore creating new
norms. For instance, Black Lives Matter protestors were watched by police as they “toppled one
statue and deface Churchill memorial”. This indicates that the public, even police, will allow acts of
crime in favour for more prominent or more significant issues. Additionally, following the 2017
Manchester attacks, the public’s main concern was the threat of another terrorist attack. This also
affected the government as the threat level was changed from severe to critical. We can see that
media representation makes individuals see certain crimes such as terrorism, hate crimes, etcetera
to be a prominent occurrence as it consumes front pages, this creates paranoia among the public.
Media representation also warps the reality of crime trends to people as the public. When media
reports a high volume of crime, it effects the public, giving them false belief on the trends of crime.
According to the CSEW, crime has been falling in the UK since its peak in 1995 from 19.4 million
incident to 5.6 million incidents in March 2020 (excluding fraud and computer misuse cases). Despite
this, public perceptions of criminal behaviour have remained consistently high. 8 out of 10 people
interviewed in the most recent CSEW experienced no crime in the previous 12 months, yet only 1 in
5 felt safe from crime. This means that the public perceives crime to be on the increase, because
media specifically chooses crime stories grab our attention.
