View source for Moral panic

{{Short description|Fear that some evil threatens society}}
{{For|the album|Moral Panic (album){{!}}''Moral Panic'' (album)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2019}}
[[File:Zeitung Derenburg 1555 crop.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35| [[Witch-hunt]]ing is a historical example of [[mass behavior]] potentially fueled by moral panic. 1555 German print.]]

A '''moral panic''' is a widespread feeling of [[fear]] that some [[evil]] person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a [[community]] or [[society]].<ref name="Crossman">{{Cite web|last=Crossman|first=Ashley|title=Understanding How Moral Panic Threatens Freedom|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/moral-panic-3026420|access-date=2021-06-01|website=ThoughtCo|language=en}}</ref><ref name="Walsh 2020">{{Cite journal |last1=Walsh |first1=James P |title=Social media and moral panics: Assessing the effects of technological change on societal reaction |journal=International Journal of Cultural Studies |date=November 2020 |volume=23 |issue=6 |pages=840–859 |doi=10.1177/1367877920912257 |doi-access=free |pmc=7201200 }}</ref><ref name = Jones>{{Cite book | last = Jones | first = Marsha | title = Mass media | publisher = Macmillan | location = Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire | year = 1999 | isbn = 978-0333672068 }}</ref> It is "the process of arousing social concern over an issue",<ref name="Oxford_Uni">{{Cite book|last=Scott|first=John|title=A Dictionary of Sociology|year=2014|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0-19-968358-1|edition=Fourth|page=492}}</ref> usually perpetuated by [[moral entrepreneur]]s and [[mass media]] coverage, and exacerbated by [[politician]]s and [[lawmakers]].<ref name="Crossman" /><ref name="Oxford_Uni" /> Moral panic can give rise to new laws aimed at controlling the community.<ref name="Pedneault">{{Cite book |last1=Pedneault |first1=Amelie |title=Child Abuse and Neglect: Forensic Issues in Evidence, Impact and Management|edition=1st |date=February 2019 |publisher=Academic Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |pages=419–433 |isbn=978-0128153444}}</ref>

[[Stanley Cohen (sociologist)|Stanley Cohen]], who developed the term, states that moral panic happens when "a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests".{{sfn|Cohen|2011|p=1}} While the issues identified may be real, the claims "exaggerate the seriousness, extent, typicality and/or inevitability of harm".{{sfn|Cohen|2011|p={{page needed|date=August 2022}}}} Moral panics are now studied in [[sociology]] and [[criminology]], [[media studies]], and [[cultural studies]].<ref name="Walsh 2020"/><ref name="Critcher-2017">{{Cite book |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.013.155 |chapter=Moral Panics |title=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice |year=2017 |last1=Critcher |first1=Chas |isbn=978-0-19-026407-9 }}</ref> It is often academically considered irrational (see Cohen's model of moral panic, below).

Examples of moral panic include the belief in widespread [[abduction of children]] by predatory [[Pedophilia|pedophiles]];<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hesselink-Louw |first1=Anne |last2=Olivier |first2=Karen |date=1 October 2001 |title=A criminological analysis of crimes against disabled children: the adult male sexual offender |journal=Child Abuse Research in South Africa |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=15–20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url= http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520262065 |title=Sex Panic and the Punitive State |last=Lancaster |first=Roger |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |year=2011 |isbn=978-0520262065 |location=Berkeley, California |pages=4, 33–34, 76–79}}</ref><ref name="Extein">{{Cite news |last1= Extein |first1= Andrew |title= Fear the Bogeyman: Sex Offender Panic on Halloween |url= http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-extein-msw/fear-the-bogeyman-sex-off_b_4161136.html |access-date= 26 November 2014 |work= [[Huffington Post]] |date= 25 October 2013}}</ref> belief in [[Satanic ritual abuse|ritual abuse of women and children by Satanic cults]];{{sfn|Goode|Ben-Yehuda|2009|pp=57–65}} and concerns over the effects of [[Parents Music Resource Center|music lyrics]].<ref>Deflem, Mathieu. 2020. [https://deflem.blogspot.com/2019/07/music-censorship-labeling.html "Popular Culture and Social Control: The Moral Panic on Music Labeling"]. ''American Journal of Criminal Justice'' 45(1):2–24 (First published online July 24, 2019)</ref> Some moral panics can become embedded in standard [[political discourse]],<ref name="Walsh 2020"/> which include concepts such as the [[MeToo movement]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mindingthecampus.org/2022/04/12/the-moral-panic-at-mit/|title=The Moral Panic at MIT|first=Ellen|last=Carmichael|date=12 April 2022|website=Minding The Campus}}</ref> [[Red Scare]],<ref name="RodwellReds">{{Cite book |last1=Rodwell |first1=Grant |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dEcrDwAAQBAJ |title=Moral Panics and School Educational Policy |date=2017 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |isbn=978-1351627818 |series=Routledge Research in Education Policy and Politics |location=London, England |pages=188 |quote=As with the "reds under the beds" moral panics of the post-World War II decades, moral panics have often been manufactured for political purposes [...]. |access-date=29 March 2019}}</ref> [[racism]],<ref name="McWhorter 2021">{{cite book |last=McWhorter |first=John H. |author-link=John H. McWhorter |title=Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America |publisher=Portfolio/Penguin |publication-place=New York, NY |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-593-42307-3 |oclc=1260690368 |page=}} [{{GBurl |id=RHkvEAAAQBAJ}} Partial preview] at [[Google Books]].</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2024}} and [[terrorism]].<ref name="MoralPanicToPermanentWar">
{{Cite book|last1=Brysk|first1=Alison|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2jfOrXzXZwoC|title=Lessons and Legacies of the War On Terror: From moral panic to permanent war|last2=Meade|first2=Everard|last3=Shafir|first3=Gershon|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1136188749|editor1-last=Shafir|editor1-first=Gershon|series=Routledge Critical Terrorism Studies|location=London|page=1|chapter=1: Introduction: Constructing national and global insecurity|quote=The contributors examine the social, cultural, and political drivers of the war on terror through the framework of a 'political moral panic.'|author-link1=Alison Brysk|access-date=29 March 2019|editor2-last=Meade|editor2-first=Everard|editor3-last=Aceves|editor3-first=William J.}}
</ref>

It differs from [[mass hysteria]], which is closer to a psychological illness rather than a sociological phenomenon.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-03-29|title=Carol Morley: 'Mass hysteria is a powerful group activity'|url=http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/mar/29/carol-morley-the-falling-mass-hysteria-is-a-powerful-group-activity|access-date=2021-06-02|website=[[The Guardian]]|language=en}}</ref>

== History and development ==
Though the term ''moral panic'' was used in 1830 by a religious magazine regarding a sermon,<ref name="HB">{{Cite journal|year=1830|title=Dr. Cox on regeneration|journal=[[Millennial Harbinger]]|volume=1|pages=546–550|oclc=1695161}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=THQoAAAAYAAJ Preview.] Cox asserted that regeneration of the soul should be an active process, and stated: "...if it be a fact that the soul is just as ''active'' in regeneration as in any other thing ... then, what shall we call that kind of orthodoxy that proposes to make men better by teaching them the reverse? To paralyze the soul, or to strike it through with a moral panic is not regeneration." (page 546) and "After quoting such scriptures as these, "''Seek'' and you shall find," "''Come'' unto me, and I will give you rest," they ask,  ...is it not the natural language of these expressions that the mind is as far as possible from stagnation, or torpor, or "moral panic? (p. 548)</ref><ref name="Princeton">{{Cite journal |last1=Hodge |first1=Charles |year=1830 |title=Review: Regeneration and the manner of its occurrence |journal=[[The Princeton Theological Review|The Biblical Repertory and Theological Review]] |volume=2 |pages=250–297 |oclc=8841951 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fuY1AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA250 }}</ref> it was used in a way that completely differs from its modern [[social science]] application. The phrase was used again in 1831, with an intent that is possibly closer to its modern use.<ref>''The Journal of Health Conducted by an Association of Physicians'' (1831) p. 180 "Magendie, a French physician of note on his visit to [[Sunderland]], where the [[Cholera]] was by the last accounts still raging, praises the English government for not surrounding the town with a cordon of troops, which as "a physical preventive would have been ineffectual and would have produced a moral panic far more fatal than the disease now is."</ref>

Though not using the term ''moral panic'', [[Marshall McLuhan]], in his 1964 book ''[[Understanding Media]]'',<ref>{{Cite book|last=McLuhan|first=Marshall|title=Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man|title-link=Understanding Media|publisher=[[MIT Press]]|year=1994|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|author-link=Marshall McLuhan|isbn=978-0-262-63159-4}}{{page needed|date=February 2022}}</ref> articulated the concept academically in describing the effects of media.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hunt |first=Arnold |date=1997 |title='Moral Panic' and Moral Language in the Media |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/591600 |journal=The British Journal of Sociology |volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=629–648 |doi=10.2307/591600 |issn=0007-1315}}</ref>

As a [[social theory]] or [[sociological concept]], the concept was first developed in the [[United Kingdom]] by [[Stanley Cohen (sociologist)|Stanley Cohen]], who introduced the phrase ''moral panic'' in a 1967–1969 PhD thesis that became the basis for his 1972 book ''Folk Devils and Moral Panics''.{{sfn|Cohen|2011|p=vi}} In the book, Cohen describes the reaction among the British public to [[Mods and rockers|the rivalry]] between the "[[Mod (subculture)|mod]]" and "[[Rocker (subculture)|rocker]]" youth [[subculture]]s of the 1960s and 1970s. Cohen's initial development of the concept was for the purpose of analyzing the definition of and social reaction to these subcultures as a [[social problem]].<ref name="Crossman" /><ref name="Critcher-2017" /><ref name="Mannion-2019">{{Cite journal |last1=Mannion |first1=Russell |last2=Small |first2=Neil |title=On Folk Devils, Moral Panics and New Wave Public Health |journal=International Journal of Health Policy and Management |date=29 September 2019 |volume=8 |issue=12 |pages=678–683 |doi=10.15171/ijhpm.2019.78 |pmid=31779296 |pmc=6885862 }}</ref>

According to Cohen, a moral panic occurs when a "condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to [[society|societal values]] and interests."{{sfn|Cohen|2011|p=1}} To Cohen, those who start the panic after fearing a threat to prevailing social or [[cultural]] values are '[[moral entrepreneur]]s', while those who supposedly threaten [[social order]] have been described as '[[folk devil]]s'.

In the early 1990s, [[Erich Goode]] and [[Nachman Ben-Yehuda]] produced an "[[Attribution bias|attributional]]" model that placed more emphasis on strict definition than cultural processes.{{sfn|Goode|Ben-Yehuda|2009|pp=57–65}}<ref name="Critcher-2017" />

=== Differences in British and American definitions ===
Many sociologists have pointed out the differences between definitions of a ''moral panic'' as described by American versus British sociologists.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Paul |first=Pamela |date=2023-06-29 |title=Opinion {{!}} Do Not Panic. It’s Just a Moral Panic. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/29/opinion/columnists/moral-panic.html |access-date=2024-08-23 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Kenneth Thompson claimed that American sociologists tended to emphasize [[Psychology|psychological]] factors, while the British portrayed "moral panics" as [[crisis of capitalism|crises of capitalism]].<ref>{{Cite book | last1 = Thompson | first1 = Kenneth | contribution = The History and Meaning of the Concept | editor-last = Critcher | editor-first = Chas | title = Critical Readings: Moral Panics and the Media | publisher = Open University Press | pages = 60–66 | location = Maidenhead England New York | year = 2006 | orig-year = 1998 | isbn = 978-0335218073 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | last = Thompson | first = Kenneth | title = Moral Panics | publisher = Routledge | location = London & New York | year = 1998 | isbn = 978-0415119771 }}{{page needed|date=February 2022}}</ref>

British criminologist [[Jock Young]] used the term in his [[participant observation]] study of drug consumption in [[Porthmadog|Porthmadog, Wales]], between 1967 and 1969.<ref>{{Citation | last1 = Young | first1 = Jock | author-link1 = Jock Young | contribution = The role of the police as amplifiers of deviance | editor-last = Cohen | editor-first = Stanley | editor-link = Stanley Cohen (sociologist) | title = Images of Deviance | publisher = Penguin | location = Harmondsworth | year = 1971 | isbn = 978-0140212938 }}{{page needed|date=February 2022}}; {{Cite book | last = Young | first = Jock | title = The Drugtakers: The Social Meaning of Drug Use | publisher = MacGibbon and Kee | location = London | year = 1971 | isbn = 978-0261632400 }}{{page needed|date=February 2022}}</ref> In ''Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order'' (1978),<ref name="Hall-2013">{{Cite book|last1=Hall|first1=Stuart|title=Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2013|isbn=978-1137007186|location=New York|display-authors=etal|author-link1=Stuart Hall (cultural theorist)|orig-year=1978}}{{page needed|date=February 2022}}</ref> Marxist [[Stuart Hall (cultural theorist)|Stuart Hall]] and his colleagues studied the public reaction to the phenomenon of [[robbery|mugging]] and the perception that it had recently been imported from American culture into the UK. Employing Cohen's definition of ''moral panic'', Hall and colleagues theorized that the "rising crime rate equation" performs an ideological function relating to [[social control]]. [[Crime statistics]], in Hall's view, are often manipulated for political and economic purposes; moral panics could thereby be ignited to create public support for the need to "police the crisis".<ref name="Hall-2013" />

==Cohen's model of moral panic==
{{Infobox book
| italic title      = no
| name              = Folk Devils and Moral Panics
| exclude_cover     = yes
| author            = [[Stanley Cohen (sociologist)|Stanley Cohen]]
| published         = {{plainlist|
* 1972 (1st ed., MacGibbon and Kee)
* 1980 (2nd ed., Basil Blackwood)
* 2002 (3rd ed., Routledge)
}}
}}
First to name the phenomenon, [[Stanley Cohen (sociologist)|Stanley Cohen]] investigated a series of "moral panics" in his 1972 book ''Folk Devils and Moral Panics''.{{sfn|Cohen|2011|p={{page needed|date=August 2022}}}} In the book, Cohen describes the reaction among the British public to [[Mods and rockers|the seaside rivalry]] between the "[[Mod (subculture)|mod]]" and "[[Rocker (subculture)|rocker]]" youth [[subculture]]s of the 1960s and 1970s. In a moral panic, Cohen says, "the untypical is made typical".{{sfn|Cohen|2011|p={{page needed|date=August 2022}}}}

Cohen's initial development of the concept was for the purpose of analyzing the definition of and social reaction to these subcultures as a [[social problem]]. He was interested in demonstrating how agents of social control amplified [[Deviance (sociology)|deviance]], in that they potentially damaged the [[Identity (social science)|identities]] of those labeled as "deviant" and invited them to embrace deviant identities and behavior.<ref name="Critcher-2017" /> According to Cohen, these groups were labelled as being outside the central core values of [[consensual]] society and as posing a threat to both the values of society and society itself, hence the term "[[folk devil]]s".<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Killingbeck|first1=Donna|year=2001|title=The role of television news in the construction of school violence as a 'moral panic'|url=http://www.albany.edu/scj/jcjpc/vol8is3/killingbeck.html|journal=Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture|volume=8|issue=3|pages=186–202|access-date=21 November 2016|archive-date=3 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803090800/https://www.albany.edu/scj/jcjpc/vol8is3/killingbeck.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Setting out to test his hypotheses on mods and rockers, Cohen ended up in a rather different place: he discovered a pattern of construction and reaction with greater foothold than mods and rockers{{snd}}the moral panic. He thereby identified five sequential stages of moral panic.{{sfn|Cohen|2002|p=9}}

Characterizing the reactions to the mod and rocker conflict, he identified four key agents in moral panics: [[mass media]], [[moral entrepreneur]]s, the culture of [[social control]], and [[Public|the public]].<ref name="Crossman" /><ref name="Critcher-2017" /><ref name="Mannion-2019" />

In a more recent edition of ''Folk Devils and Moral Panics'', Cohen suggested that the term "panic" in itself connotes [[irrationality]] and a lack of control. Cohen maintained that "panic" is a suitable term when used as an extended metaphor.{{sfn|Cohen|2011|p={{page needed|date=August 2022}}}}

=== Cohen's stages of moral panic ===
Setting out to test his hypotheses on mods and rockers, Cohen discovered a pattern of construction and reaction with greater foothold than mods and rockers{{snd}}the moral panic.{{sfn|Cohen|2002|p=9}}

According to Cohen, there are five sequential stages in the construction of a moral panic:<ref name="Crossman" />{{sfn|Cohen|2011|p={{page needed|date=August 2022}}}}<ref name="Mannion-2019" />

# An event, condition, episode, person, or group of persons is perceived and defined as a threat to societal values, safety, and interests.
# The nature of these apparent threats are amplified by the mass media, who present the supposed threat through simplistic, symbolic [[rhetoric]]. Such portrayals appeal to public prejudices, creating an [[evil]] in need of social control ([[folk devil]]s) and victims (the moral majority).
# A sense of [[social anxiety]] and concern among the public is aroused through these symbolic representations of the threat.
# The [[gatekeeper]]s of morality{{snd}}[[News editor|editors]], religious leaders, politicians, and other "moral"-thinking people{{snd}}respond to the threat, with socially-accredited experts pronouncing their diagnoses and solutions to the "threat". This includes new laws or policies.
# The condition then disappears, submerges or deteriorates and becomes more visible.

Cohen observed further:{{sfn|Cohen|2002|p=9}}

<blockquote>Sometimes the object of the panic is quite novel and at other times it is something which has been in existence long enough, but suddenly appears in the limelight. Sometimes the panic passes over and is forgotten, except in folk-lore and collective memory; at other times it has more serious and long-lasting repercussions and might produce such changes as those in legal and social policy or even in the way the society conceives itself.</blockquote>

=== Agents of moral panic ===
Characterizing the reactions to the mod and rocker conflict, Cohen identified four key agents in moral panics: [[mass media]], [[moral entrepreneur]]s, the culture of [[social control]], and [[Public|the public]].<ref name="Crossman" /><ref name="Critcher-2017" /><ref name="Mannion-2019" />
* Media – especially key in the early stage of social reaction, producing "processed or coded images" of deviance and the deviants.{{sfn|Cohen|2002|pp=44–48}} This involves three processes:<ref name="Critcher-2017" />

*# [[exaggeration]] and [[distortion]] of who did or said what;
*# [[prediction]], the dire consequences of failure to act;
*# symbolization, signifying a person, word, or thing as a threat.
* Moral entrepreneurs – individuals and groups who target deviant behavior
* Societal control culture – comprises those with institutional [[Power (social and political)|power]]: the [[police]], the [[court]]s, and local and national politicians. They are made aware of the nature and extent of the 'threat'; concern is passed up the [[Chain of Command|chain of command]] to the national level, where control measures are instituted.
* The public – these include individuals and groups. They have to decide who and what to believe: in the mod and rocker case, the public initially [[distrust]]ed media messages, but ultimately believed them.

==Mass media==
The concept of "moral panic" has also been linked to certain assumptions about the [[mass media]].{{sfn|Cohen|2011|p={{page needed|date=August 2022}}}} In recent times, the mass media have become important players in the dissemination of moral indignation, even when they do not appear to be consciously engaged in [[sensationalism]] or in [[Muckraker|muckraking]]. Simply reporting a subset of factual statements without contextual nuance can be enough to generate concern, anxiety, or panic.{{sfn|Cohen|2011|p={{page needed|date=August 2022}}}}

Cohen stated that the mass media is the primary source of the public's knowledge about deviance and social problems. He further argued that moral panic gives rise to the folk devil by labelling actions and people.{{sfn|Cohen|2011|p={{page needed|date=August 2022}}}} [[Christian Joppke]], furthers the importance of media as he notes, shifts in public attention "can trigger the decline of movements and fuel the rise of others."<ref name="Ramet-2013">{{Cite journal |last1=Ramet |first1=Sabrina P. |last2=Hassenstab |first2=Christine M. |title=The Know Nothing Party: Three Theories about its Rise and Demise |journal=Politics and Religion |date=September 2013 |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=570–595 |doi=10.1017/S1755048312000739 |s2cid=144872631 }}</ref>

According to Cohen, the media appear in any or all three roles in moral panic dramas:{{sfn|Cohen|2011|p={{page needed|date=August 2022}}}}

* Setting the agenda{{snd}}selecting deviant or socially problematic events deemed as newsworthy, then using finer filters to select which events are candidates for moral panic.
* Transmitting the images{{snd}}transmitting the claims by using the rhetoric of moral panics.
* Breaking the silence and making the claim.

== Goode and Ben-Yehuda's attributional model ==
In their 1994 book ''Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance'',{{sfn|Goode|Ben-Yehuda|2009|pp=57–65}} [[Erich Goode]] and [[Nachman Ben-Yehuda]] take a [[Social constructionism|social constructionist]] approach to moral panics, challenging the assumption that [[Sociology of deviance|sociology]] is able to define, measure, explain, and ameliorate [[social problems]].<ref name="Critcher-2017" />

Reviewing empirical studies in the social constructionist perspective, Goode and Ben-Yehuda produced an "[[Attribution bias|attributional]]" model that identifies essential characteristics and placed more emphasis on strict definition than cultural processes.<ref name="Jones" /><ref name="Critcher-2017" />{{sfn|Goode|Ben-Yehuda|2009|pp=57–65}} They arrived at five defining "elements", or "criteria", of a moral panic:{{sfn|Goode|Ben-Yehuda|2009|p=37}}

# Concern – there is "heightened level of concern over the behaviour of a certain group or category" and its consequences; in other words, there is the belief that the behavior of the group or activity deemed deviant is likely to have a negative effect on society. Concern can be indicated via [[opinion poll]]s, [[media coverage]], and [[lobbying activity]].{{sfn|Goode|Ben-Yehuda|2009|p=37}}
# Hostility – there is "an increased level of ''hostility''" toward the deviants, who are "collectively designated as the enemy, or an enemy, of respectable society". These deviants are constructed as "[[folk devil]]s", and a clear division forms between [[In-group and out-group|"them" and "us"]].{{sfn|Goode|Ben-Yehuda|2009|p=38}}
# Consensus – "there must be at least a certain minimal measure of consensus" across society as a whole, or at least "designated segments" of it, that "the threat is real, serious and caused by the wrongdoing group members and their behaviour". This is to say, though concern does not have to be nationwide, there must be widespread acceptance that the group in question poses a very real threat to society. It is important at this stage that the "[[moral entrepreneur]]s" are vocal and the "folk devils" appear weak and disorganized.{{sfn|Goode|Ben-Yehuda|2009|p=38}}
# Disproportionality – "public concern is in excess of what is appropriate if concern were directly proportional to objective harm". More simply, the action taken is disproportionate to the actual threat posed by the accused group. According to Goode and Ben-Yehuda, "the concept of moral panic ''rests'' on disproportion".{{sfn|Goode|Ben-Yehuda|2009|pp=40–41}} As such, [[statistics]] are exaggerated or fabricated, and the existence of other equally or more harmful activity is denied.
# Volatility – moral panics are highly volatile and tend to disappear as quickly as they appeared because [[public interest]] wanes or news reports change to another narrative.

Goode and Ben-Yehuda also examined three competing explanations of moral panics:<ref name="Critcher-2017" />{{sfn|Goode|Ben-Yehuda|2009|pp=51–72}}

# the grass-roots model – the source of panic is identified as widespread anxieties about real or imagined threats.
# the elite-engineered model – an [[Elitism|elite]] group induces, or engineers, a panic over an issue that they know to be exaggerated in order to move attention away from their own lack of solving social problems.
# the interest group theory – "the middle rungs of power and status" are where moral issues are most significantly felt.

Similarly, writing about the [[Blue Whale Challenge]] and the [[Momo Challenge]] as examples of moral panics, [[Benjamin Radford]] listed themes that he commonly observed in modern versions of these phenomena:<ref name="BR">{{Cite web|last=Radford|first=Benjamin|date=27 February 2019|title=The 'Momo Challenge' and the 'Blue Whale Game': Online Suicide Game Conspiracies|url=https://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/the_momo_challenge_and_the_blue_whale_game_online_suicide_game_conspiracies|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190228170347/https://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/the_momo_challenge_and_the_blue_whale_game_online_suicide_game_conspiracies|archive-date=28 February 2019|access-date=28 February 2019|website=Skeptical Inquirer}}</ref>

* Hidden dangers of modern technology.
* Evil stranger manipulating the innocent.
* A "hidden world" of anonymous evil people.

==Topic clusters==
In over 40 years of extensive study, researchers have identified several general clusters of topics that help describe the way in which moral panics operate and the impact they have.{{sfn|Cohen|2011|p={{page needed|date=August 2022}}}}<ref name="Critcher-2017" /> Some of the more common clusters identified are: [[child abuse]], drugs and alcohol, [[immigration]], [[Media (communication)|media]] technologies, and [[street crime]].

===Child abuse===
Exceptional cases of [[Physical abuse|physical]] or [[Child sexual abuse|sexual abuse against children]] have driven policies based on [[child protection]], regardless of their frequency or contradicting evidence from experts. While discoveries about [[Pedophilia by Roman Catholic priests|pedophilia in the priesthood]] and among celebrities has somewhat altered the original notion of pedophiles being complete strangers, their presence in and around the family is hardly acknowledged.<ref>Jenkins, Philip. ''Intimate Enemies: Moral Panics in Contemporary Great Britain'' (1992). {{ISBN|978-0-202-30436-6}}.{{page needed|date=February 2022}}</ref><ref>Kitzinger, J. 2004. ''Framing abuse''. London: Pluto Press.{{page needed|date=August 2022}}</ref>

===Alcohol and other drugs===
Substances used for pleasure such as  [[Alcoholic drink|alcohol]] and other [[drug]]s are popularly subject to legal action and criminalization due to their alleged harms to the health of those who partake in them or general order on the streets. Recent examples include [[Methamphetamine in the United States|methamphetamine]], [[mephedrone]], and [[designer drug]]s.<ref name="Critcher-2017" />

===Immigration===
A series of moral panic is likely to recur whenever humans migrate to a foreign location to live alongside the native or indigenous population, particularly if the newcomers are of a different [[Human skin color|skin color]] or [[religion]]. These immigrants may be accused of: bringing alien cultures and refusing to integrate with the mainstream culture; putting strain on [[Welfare state|welfare]], [[Education system|education]], and [[housing]] systems; and excessive involvement in crime.<ref name="Critcher-2017" />

===Media technologies===
{{Main|Media panic}}

The advent of any new [[medium of communication]] produces anxieties among those who deem themselves as protectors of childhood and culture. Their fears are often based on a lack of knowledge as to the actual capacities or usage of the medium. [[Moralizing left|Moralizing]] organizations, such as those motivated by religion, commonly advocate [[censorship]], while parents remain concerned.<ref name="Critcher-2017" /><ref>Livingstone, S. 2002. ''Young people and new media''. London and Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.{{page needed|date=August 2022}}</ref><ref>Barker, M., and J. Petley, eds. 1997 ''Ill effects: The media/violence debate''. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.{{page needed|date=August 2022}}</ref>

According to [[media studies]] professor Kirsten Drotner:<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Drotner |first1=Kirsten |title=Dangerous Media? Panic Discourses and Dilemmas of Modernity |journal=Paedagogica Historica |date=January 1999 |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=593–619 |doi=10.1080/0030923990350303 |pmid=22043530 }}</ref>

<blockquote>[E]very time a new [[Mass media|mass medium]] has entered the social scene, it has spurred public debates on social and cultural norms, debates that serve to reflect, negotiate and possibly revise these very norms.… In some cases, debate of a new medium brings about – indeed changes into – heated, emotional reactions … what may be defined as a [[media panic]].</blockquote>Recent manifestations of this kind of development include [[cyberbullying]] and [[sexting]].<ref name="Critcher-2017" />

===Street crime===
A central concern of modern mass media has been interpersonal crime. When new types or patterns of crime emerge, coverage expands considerably, especially when said crime involves increased violence or the use of weapons. Sustaining the idea that crime is out of control, this keeps prevalent the fear of being randomly attacked on the street by violent young men.<ref name="Critcher-2017" /><ref name="Jewkes1" />

==Examples==
{{See also|List of moral panics}}<!-- Note: Please do not make NEW ADDITIONS to this section unless you have a SCHOLARLY reference that cites the incident or phenomenon as an EXAMPLE OF A MORAL PANIC, *AND* which references the work of Stanley Cohen, Jock Young, Goode & Ben-Yehuda, or other researchers who have specifically defined this term. -->

Researchers have considered a number of historical and current events to meet the criteria set out by Stanley Cohen.

=== Historic examples ===
==== Nativist movement and the Know-Nothing Party (1840s–1860s) ====
{{Main|Nativism (politics)|Know Nothing}}

The brief success of the [[Know Nothing|Know-Nothing Party]] in the US during the 1850s can be understood as resulting from a moral panic over Irish Catholic immigration dating back to the 1840s, particularly as it related to religion, politics, and jobs.<ref name="Ramet-2013" /> [[Nativism (politics)|Nativist]] criticism of immigrants from [[Catholic countries|Catholic nations]] centered upon the control of the [[Pope]] over church members. The concern regarding the social threat led the Know-Nothing Party in the [[1856 United States presidential election|1856 presidential election]] to win 21.5% of the vote. The quick decline in political success for the Know Nothing-Party as a result of a decline in concern for the perceived social threat is an indicative feature of the movements situated in Moral Panic.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Downs|first=A.|date=1972|title=Up with Ecology and Down with Ecology: The 'Issue Attention' Cycle|journal=The Public Interest|volume=28|issue=38–50}}</ref>

==== Red Scare (1919–1920, late 1940s–1950s) ====
{{Main|First Red Scare|Second Red Scare}}

During the years 1919 to 1920, followed by the late 1940s to the 1950s, the United States had a moral panic over [[communism]] and feared being attacked by the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>{{Cite book |doi=10.1007/978-981-15-5569-5_6 |chapter=Case Study 2: Communist Panic |title=The Oldest Trick in the Book |year=2020 |last1=Debney |first1=Ben M. |pages=149–229 |isbn=978-981-15-5568-8 |s2cid=226498342 }}</ref><ref name="RodwellReds" /><ref name="MoralPanicToPermanentWar" /> In the late 1940s and the 1950s, a period now known as the [[McCarthy Era]], Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]] used his power as a senator to conduct a [[Witch-hunt#Figurative use of the term|witch hunt]] for communists he claimed had infiltrated all levels of American society, including Hollywood, the [[United States Department of State|State Department]], and the armed forces.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Griffith |first1=Robert |title=The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy |date=1970 |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |location=Boston|isbn=0-87023-555-9 |page=49 |url=https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif |access-date=19 January 2022}}</ref> When he began, he held little influence or respect within the Senate,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Herman |first1=Arthur |title=Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator. |date=1999 |publisher=Free Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0684836256 |pages=44, 51, 55 |url=https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/mode/2up |access-date=19 January 2022}}</ref> but he exploited Americans' fears of communism (and Congress' desire to not lose re-election) to rise to prominence and keep the hunt going in spite of an increasingly apparent lack of evidence, often accusing those who dared oppose him of being communists themselves.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pontikes |first1=Elizabeth |last2=Negro |first2=Giacomo |last3=Rao |first3=Hayagreeva |title=Stained Red: A Study of Stigma by Association to Blacklisted Artists during the 'Red Scare' in Hollywood, 1945 to 1960 |journal=American Sociological Review |date=June 2010 |volume=75 |issue=3 |pages=456–478 |doi=10.1177/0003122410368929 |s2cid=145166332 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wark |first1=Colin |last2=Galliher |first2=John F. |title=Progressive lawyers under siege: Moral panic during the McCarthy era |journal=Crime, Law and Social Change |date=June 2013 |volume=59 |issue=5 |pages=517–535 |doi=10.1007/s10611-013-9428-z |s2cid=143542653 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |doi=10.1007/978-981-15-5569-5_2 |chapter=Patterning Moral Panics |title=The Oldest Trick in the Book |year=2020 |last1=Debney |first1=Ben M. |pages=21–44 |isbn=978-981-15-5568-8 |s2cid=226722746 }}</ref>

==== "The Devil's music" (1920s–1980s) ====
{{See also|Parents Music Resource Center}}

Over the years, there has been concern of various types of new music causing spiritual or otherwise [[moral corruption]] to younger generations,<ref name="Centre for Suicide Prevention">{{Cite web|title=Suicide, Rock Music and Moral Panics|url=https://www.suicideinfo.ca/resource/musicandsuicide/|access-date=2021-06-02|website=Centre for Suicide Prevention|language=en-CA}}</ref> often called "the devil's music". While the types of music popularly labeled as such has changed with time, along with the intended meaning of the term, this basic factor of the moral panic has remained constant. It could thus be argued that this is really a series of smaller moral panics that fall under a larger umbrella. While most notable in the United States, other countries such as [[Romania]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Nechita |first1=Costel Mirel |title=SATANISMUL ÎN MUZICĂ-PUSTIIREA SUFLETEASCĂ A TINERETULUI |journal=Altarul Reîntregirii |date=2016 |issue=3 |pages=307–323 |doi=10.29302/AR.2016.3.17 |doi-access=free }}</ref> have seen exposure to or promotion of the idea as well.

[[Blues]] was one of the first music genres to receive this label, mainly due to a perception that it incited violence and other poor behavior.<ref>SFGate{{Full citation needed|date=March 2021}}</ref> In the early 20th century, the blues was considered disreputable, especially as white audiences began listening to the blues during the 1920s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A History of Blues Music - SantaFe.com |url=https://santafe.com/a-history-of-blues-music/ |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=santafe.com}}</ref>

[[Jazz]] was another early receiver of the label. At the time, traditionalists considered jazz to contribute to the breakdown of morality.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Fass|first=Paula|title=The damned and the beautiful : American youth in the 1920's|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=1977|isbn=978-0-19-502148-6|location=New York|page=22}}</ref> Despite the veiled attacks on blues and jazz as "negro music" often going hand-in-hand with other attacks on the genres, urban middle-class African Americans perceived jazz as "devil's music", and agreed with the beliefs that jazz's improvised rhythms and sounds were promoting promiscuity.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dinerstein|first=Joel|year=2003|title=Music, Memory, and Cultural Identity in the Jazz Age|journal=American Quarterly|volume=55|issue=2|pages=303–313|doi=10.1353/aq.2003.0012|s2cid=145194943}}</ref>

Some have speculated that the rock phase of the panic in the 1970s and 1980s contributed to the popularity of the [[satanic ritual abuse]] alleged moral panic in the 1980s.<ref name="Centre for Suicide Prevention" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Romano|first=Aja|date=2016-10-30|title=The history of Satanic Panic in the US – and why it's not over yet|url=https://www.vox.com/2016/10/30/13413864/satanic-panic-ritual-abuse-history-explained|access-date=2020-07-22|website=[[Vox (website)|Vox]]|language=en}}</ref>

==== Comic books (1950s) ====
{{See also|Comics Code Authority}}

In the United States, substantial limits were placed on comic book content during the 1950s, especially in the horror and crime genres. This moral panic was promoted by the psychologist [[Fredric Wertham]], who claimed that comics were a major source of juvenile delinquency, arguing in his book ''[[Seduction of the Innocent]]'' that they predisposed children to violence. Comic books appeared in congressional hearings, and organisations promoted [[book burning]]s.<ref name="haberman">{{Cite web |last1=Haberman |first1=Clyde |title=Two Pop Culture Wars: First Over Comics, Then Over Music |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/26/us/two-pop-culture-wars-first-over-comics-then-over-music.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=13 March 2024 |date=25 October 2015}}</ref><ref name="heer">{{Cite web |last1=Heer |first1=Jeet |title=The Caped Crusader |url=https://slate.com/culture/2008/04/the-campaign-against-comic-books.html |website=Slate |access-date=13 March 2024 |date=4 April 2008}}</ref> Wertham's work resulted in the creation of the [[Comics Code Authority|Comics Code]], which drastically limited what kind of content could be published.<ref name="heer"/> As a result of these limitations, many comics publishers and illustrators were forced to leave the profession, and the content produced by those that remained became tamer and more focused on [[superhero]]es.<ref name="heer"/><ref name="abad-santos">{{Cite web |last1=Abad-Santos |first1=Alex |title=The insane history of how American paranoia ruined and censored comic books |url=https://www.vox.com/2014/12/15/7326605/comic-book-censorship |website=Vox |access-date=13 March 2024 |language=en |date=15 December 2014}}</ref>

During the following decades, the Comics Code was loosened in scope before finally being abolished in 2011.<ref name="haberman"/><ref name="abad-santos"/>

==== Switchblades (1950s) ====
{{Main|Switchblade#1950s gang usage and controversy}}

In the United States, a 1950 article titled "The Toy That Kills" in the ''[[Woman's Home Companion|Women's Home Companion]]'',<ref>Pollack, Jack H., "The Toy That Kills", 77 ''Women's Home Companion Magazine'' 38, November 1950</ref> about automatic knives, or "[[switchblade]]s", sparked significant controversy. It was further fuelled by highly popular films of the late 1950s, including ''[[Rebel Without a Cause]]'' (1955), ''[[Crime in the Streets]]'' (1956), ''[[12 Angry Men (1957 film)|12 Angry Men]]'' (1957), ''[[The Delinquents (1957 film)|The Delinquents]]'', ''[[High School Confidential (film)|High School Confidential]]'' (1958), and the 1957 [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] musical ''[[West Side Story (musical)|West Side Story]]''.<ref name="TWFK" /><ref name="LEV" />

Fixation on the switchblade as the symbol of youth violence, sex, and delinquency resulted in demands from the public and Congress to control the sale and possession of such knives.<ref name="TWFK">{{Cite book | surname=Dick | given=Steven| title=The Working Folding Knife | year=1997| publisher= Stoeger Publishing Company |isbn= 978-0-88317-210-0 }}</ref><ref name="LEV">Levine, Bernard R., "[http://www.knife-expert.com/schr-pb.txt The Switchblade Menace]", ''OKCA Newsletter'' (1993): Rep. [[Sidney R. Yates]] (D) of Illinois was convinced of a sadistic connection, proclaiming that "vicious fantasies of omnipotence, idolatry...barbaric and sadistic atrocities, and monstrous violations of accepted values spring from [switchblades]&nbsp;... Minus switchblade knives and the distorted feeling of power they beget{{snd}}power that is swaggering, reckless, and itching to express itself in violence{{snd}}our delinquent adolescents would be shorn of one of their most potent means of incitement to crime".</ref> State laws restricting or criminalizing switchblade possession and use were adopted by an increasing number of state legislatures, and many of the [[Switchblade#Legality|restrictive laws around them]] worldwide date back to this period.{{Citation needed|date=September 2020|reason=Unsourced}}

==== Mods and rockers (1960s) ====
{{Main|Mods and rockers}}

In early 1960s Britain, the two main [[youth subculture]]s were [[Mod (subculture)|Mods]] and [[Rocker (subculture)|Rockers]]. The "Mods and Rockers" conflict was explored as an instance of moral panic by sociologist [[Stanley Cohen (sociologist)|Stanley Cohen]] in his seminal study ''Folk Devils and Moral Panics'',{{sfn|Cohen|2002|p=}} which examined media coverage of the Mod and Rocker riots in the 1960s.<ref>British Film Commission (BFC) (PDF), Film Education.</ref>

Although Cohen acknowledged that Mods and Rockers engaged in [[street fighting]] in the mid-1960s, he argued that they were no different from the evening brawls that occurred between non-Mod and non-Rocker youths throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, both at seaside resorts and after football games.{{sfn|Cohen|2002|p=27}}

==== ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (1980s–1990s) ====
{{Main|Dungeons & Dragons controversies}}

At various times, ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' and other [[tabletop role-playing game]]s have been accused of promoting such practices as [[Satanism]], [[witchcraft]], [[suicide]], [[pornography]] and [[murder]]. In the 1980s and later, some groups, especially [[Christian fundamentalism|fundamentalist]] Christian groups, accused the games of encouraging interest in [[Magic (paranormal)|sorcery]] and the veneration of [[demon]]s.<ref name="panic">{{Cite journal |year=2005 |title=Role-Playing Games and the Christian Right: Community Formation in Response to a Moral Panic |journal=The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture |volume=9 |pages=3 |doi=10.3138/jrpc.9.1.003 |last1=Waldron |first1=David|hdl=1959.17/44257 |url=https://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/services/Download/vital:919/DS1 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Laycock |first1=Joseph P. |title=Dangerous Games: What the Moral Panic over Role-Playing Games Says about Play, Religion, and Imagined Worlds |date=2015 |publisher=Univ of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-28492-0 }}{{page needed|date=August 2022}}</ref>

==== Satanic panic (1980s–1990s) ====
{{Main|Satanic panic}}

The "satanic panic" was a series of moral panics regarding satanic ritual abuse that originated in the United States and spread to other English-speaking countries in the 1980s and 1990s, which led to a string of wrongful convictions.{{sfn|Goode|Ben-Yehuda|2009|pp=57–65}}<ref name="Jenkins">{{Cite book |title=Moral Panic: Changing Concepts of the Child Molester in Modern America |last=Jenkins |first=Philip |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |year=1998 |isbn=978-0300109634 |location=New Haven, Connecticut |pages=[https://archive.org/details/moralpanicchangi0000jenk/page/207 207–231] |author-link=Philip Jenkins |url=https://archive.org/details/moralpanicchangi0000jenk/page/207 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend |last=Victor |first=Jeffrey S. |publisher=[[Open Court Publishing Company]] |year=1993 |isbn=978-0812691917 |location=Chicago |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/satanicpaniccrea00vict }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The Day Care Ritual Abuse Moral Panic |last=Young |first=Mary |publisher=McFarland |year=2004 |isbn=978-0786418305 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |author-link=Mary de Young}}</ref> The [[West Memphis Three]] were three teenagers falsely accused of murdering children in a satanic ritual.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}} Two were sentenced to life in prison and one was sentenced to death, before all being released after 18 years in prison.

==== <span class="anchor" id="AIDS"></span><!--[[AIDS panic]] redirects here--> HIV/AIDS (1980s–1990s) ====
{{See also|Gay plague}}

[[HIV/AIDS|Acquired immune deficiency syndrome]] (AIDS) is a viral illness that may lead to or exacerbate other health conditions such as [[pneumonia]], [[fungal infection]]s, [[tuberculosis]], [[toxoplasmosis]], and [[cytomegalovirus]]. A meeting of the [[British Sociological Association]]'s South West and Wales Study entitled "AIDS: The Latest Moral Panic" was prompted by the growing interest of medical sociologists in [[AIDS]], as well as that of UK health care professionals working in the field of health education. It took place at a time when both groups were beginning to voice an increased concern with the growing media attention and [[Fearmongering|fear-mongering]] that AIDS was attracting.<ref name="ATLMP">{{Cite book |last1=Coxon |first1=Anthony Peter Macmillan |last2=Gilligan |first2=J. H. |title=Aids: The Latest Moral Panic |date=1985 |publisher=School of Social Studies, University College of Swansea |isbn=978-0-947622-10-7 }}{{page needed|date=November 2016}}</ref> In the 1980s, a moral panic was created within the media over HIV/AIDS. For example, in Britain, a prominent advertisement by the government<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Pemberton |first1=Max |title=HIV/Aids treatment has come a long way– in the West |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/sex/sexual-health-and-advice/9715372/HIVAids-treatment-has-come-a-long-way-in-the-West.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/sex/sexual-health-and-advice/9715372/HIVAids-treatment-has-come-a-long-way-in-the-West.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=14 June 2017 |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|date=3 December 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref> suggested that the public was uninformed about HIV/AIDS due to a lack of publicly accessible and accurate information.{{Citation needed|date=September 2020|reason=How is that a panic reaction?}}

The media outlets nicknamed HIV/AIDS the "gay plague", which further stigmatized the disease. However, scientists gained a far better understanding of HIV/AIDS as it grew in the 1980s and moved into the 1990s and beyond. The illness was still negatively viewed by many as either being caused by or passed on through the gay community. Once it became clear that this was not the case, the moral panic created by the media changed to blaming the overall negligence of ethical standards by the younger generation (both male and female), resulting in another moral panic. Authors behind ''AIDS: Rights, Risk, and Reason'' argued that "British TV and press coverage is locked into an agenda which blocks out any approach to the subject which does not conform in advance to the values and language of a profoundly homophobic culture—a culture that does not regard gay men as fully or properly human. No distinction obtains for the agenda between 'quality' and 'tabloid' newspapers, or between 'popular' and 'serious' television."<ref>Aggleton, P., Davies, P., & Hart, G. (1992). ''AIDS: Rights, Risk, and Reason''. London: Falmer Press. {{ISBN|978-0750700405}}{{page needed|date=November 2016}}</ref>

Similarly, reports of a group of AIDS cases amongst gay men in [[Southern California]] which suggested that a [[Sexually transmitted disease|sexually transmitted]] [[Infectious disease|infectious agent]] might be the [[Etiology|etiological]] agent<ref name="MMWR Weekly, 1982">{{Cite journal | title = A cluster of Kaposi's sarcoma and ''Pneumocystis carinii'' pneumonia among homosexual male residents of Los Angeles and Orange Counties, California | journal = MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. | volume = 31 | issue = 23 | pages = 305–307 | date = June 1982 | pmid = 6811844 | url = https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00001114.htm | author1 = Centers for Disease Control (CDC). }}</ref> led to several terms relating to homosexuality being coined for the disease, including "gay plague".<ref name="AIDS-Encyclopedia">{{Cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Raymond A. |title=Encyclopedia of AIDS: A Social, Political, Cultural, and Scientific Record of the HIV Epidemic |publisher=Routledge |date= 1998 |page=347 |isbn=978-1-135-45754-9 }}</ref>

==== Dangerous dogs (late 1980s – early 1990s) ====
{{Main|Dangerous Dogs Act 1991}}

After a series of high-profile dog attacks on children in the United Kingdom, the British press began to engage in a campaign against so-called dangerous dog breeds, especially [[Pit bull|Pit Bulls]] and [[Rottweiler]]s, which bore all the hallmarks of a moral panic.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Jones |first1=S. |title=Criminology |date=2006 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |page=93}}</ref><ref name="Hallsworth-2011">{{Cite journal |last1=Hallsworth |first1=Simon |title=Then they came for the dogs! |journal=Crime, Law and Social Change |date=June 2011 |volume=55 |issue=5 |pages=391–403 |id={{INIST|24311361}} |doi=10.1007/s10611-011-9293-6 |s2cid=143531729 |url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00687814/file/PEER_stage2_10.1007%252Fs10611-011-9293-6.pdf }}</ref><ref name="Kaspersson-2008">{{Cite conference |last1=Kaspersson |first1=Maria |title=On treating the symptoms and not the cause: reflections on the Dangerous Dogs Act |conference=British Criminology Conference |date=July 2008 |volume=8 |pages=205–225 |url=https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/1452/ }}</ref>

This media pressure led the government to hastily introduce the [[Dangerous Dogs Act 1991|''Dangerous Dogs Act'' 1991]] which has been criticised as "among the worst pieces of legislation ever seen, a poorly thought-out knee-jerk reaction to tabloid headlines that was rushed through Parliament without proper scrutiny."<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Parkinson |first1=Justin |title=Pledge: Watch Dangerous Dogs |date=4 December 2009 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8391175.stm |access-date=5 September 2020}}</ref> The act specifically focused on Pit Bulls, which were associated with the lower social strata of British society, rather than the Rottweilers and [[Dobermann|Dobermann Pinschers]] generally owned by richer social groups. Critics have identified the presence of social class as a factor in the dangerous dogs moral panic, with establishment anxieties about the "[[Subproletariat|sub-proletarian]]" sector of British society displaced onto the [[folk devil]] of the "Dangerous dog".<ref name="Hallsworth-2011" /><ref name="Kaspersson-2008" />

=== Ongoing historic examples ===
==== Increase in crime (1970s–present) ====
Research shows that fear of increasing crime rates is often the cause of moral panics.{{sfn|Cohen|2011|p={{page needed|date=August 2022}}}}<ref name="Hall-2013" />{{sfn|Goode|Ben-Yehuda|2009|p=217}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Byron |first1=Reginald A. |last2=Molidor |first2=William S. |last3=Cantu |first3=Andrew |title=US Newspapers' Portrayals of Home Invasion Crime |journal=The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice |date=June 2018 |volume=57 |issue=2 |pages=250–277 |doi=10.1111/hojo.12257 |s2cid=158706064 }}</ref> Recent studies have shown that despite declining crime rates, this phenomenon, which often taps into a population's "[[herd mentality]]", continues to occur in various cultures. Japanese jurist [[:ja:浜井浩一|Koichi Hamai]] explains how the changes in crime recording in Japan since the 1990s caused people to believe that the crime rate was rising and that crimes were getting increasingly severe.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=浜井 |first1=浩一 |title=日本の治安悪化神話はいかに作られたか(I 課題研究 日本の治安と犯罪対策-犯罪学からの提言) |trans-title=How 'the myth of collapsing safe society' has been created in Japan: beyond the moral panic and victim industry |language=ja |journal=Japanese Journal of Sociological Criminology |volume=29 |issue=29 |date=2004 |pages=4–93 |id={{NAID|110006153656}} |doi=10.20621/jjscrim.29.0_10 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

==== Violence and video games (1970s–present) ====
{{Main|Violence and video games}}
{{See also|Columbine effect}}

There have been calls to regulate violence in [[video game]]s for nearly as long as the video game industry has existed, with ''[[Death Race (1976 video game)|Death Race]]'' being a notable early example.<ref name="byrd">{{Cite journal |last1=Byrd |first1=Patrick R. |title=It's All Fun and Games until Someone Gets Hurt: The Effectiveness of Proposed Video-Game Legislation on Reducing Violence in Children |journal=Houston Law Review |volume=44 |issue=2 |date=Summer 2007 |pages=401–432 |url=https://houstonlawreview.org/article/4842.pdf }}</ref><ref name="kocurek">{{Cite journal|last=Koucurek|first=Carly|date=September 2012|title=The Agony and the Exidy: A History of Video Game Violence and the Legacy of Death Race|url=http://gamestudies.org/1201/articles/carly_kocurek|journal=Game Studies|volume=12|issue=1}}</ref> In the 1990s, improvements in video game technology allowed for more lifelike depictions of violence in games such as ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' and ''[[Doom (franchise)|Doom]]''. The industry attracted controversy over violent content and concerns about [[influence of mass media|effects]] they might have on players, generating frequent media stories that attempted to associate video games with violent behavior, in addition to a number of academic studies that reported conflicting findings about the strength of correlations.<ref name="byrd" /> According to Christopher Ferguson, sensationalist media reports and the scientific community unintentionally worked together in "promoting an unreasonable fear of violent video games".<ref name="scotus">{{Cite journal|last1=Ferguson|first1=Christopher J.|year=2013|title=Violent video games and the Supreme Court: Lessons for the scientific community in the wake of Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association|journal=American Psychologist|volume=68|issue=2|pages=57–74|doi=10.1037/a0030597|pmid=23421606}}</ref> Concerns from parts of the public about violent games led to cautionary, often exaggerated news stories, warnings from politicians and other public figures, and calls for research to prove the connection, which in turn led to studies "speaking beyond the available data and allowing the promulgation of extreme claims without the usual scientific caution and skepticism".<ref name="scotus" />

Since the 1990s, there have been attempts to regulate violent video games in the United States through congressional bills as well as within the industry.<ref name="byrd" /> Public concern and media coverage of violent video games reached a high point following the [[Columbine High School massacre]] in 1999, after which videos were found of the perpetrators, [[Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold]], talking about violent games like ''Doom'' and making comparisons between the acts they intended to carry out and aspects of games.<ref name="byrd" /><ref name="scotus" />

Ferguson and others have explained the video game moral panic as part of a cycle that all new media go through.<ref name="scotus" /><ref name="fergusonapa">{{Cite journal|last1=Ferguson|first1=Christopher J.|year=2010|title=Blazing angels or resident evil? Can violent video games be a force for good?|journal=Review of General Psychology|volume=14|issue=2|pages=68–81|citeseerx=10.1.1.360.3176|doi=10.1037/a0018941|s2cid=3053432}}</ref><ref name="jpr">{{Cite journal|last1=Ferguson|first1=Christopher J.|last2=Coulson|first2=Mark|last3=Barnett|first3=Jane|year=2011|title=A meta-analysis of pathological gaming prevalence and comorbidity with mental health, academic and social problems|journal=Journal of Psychiatric Research|volume=45|issue=12|pages=1573–1578|doi=10.1016/j.jpsychires.2011.09.005|pmid=21925683}}</ref> In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in ''[[Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association]]'' that legally restricting sales of video games to minors would be unconstitutional and deemed the research presented in favour of regulation as "unpersuasive".<ref name="scotus" />

==== War on drugs (1970s–present) ====
{{Main|War on Drugs|Urban legends about drugs}}

Some critics have pointed to moral panic as an explanation for the War on Drugs. For example, a [[Royal Society of Arts]] commission concluded that "the [[Misuse of Drugs Act 1971]]&nbsp;... is driven more by 'moral panic' than by a practical desire to reduce harm".<ref name="DR">{{Cite web|date=March 2007|title=Drugs Report|url=http://www.thersa.org/action-research-centre/current-projects/drugs-commission/drugs-report|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140909140009/http://www.thersa.org/action-research-centre/current-projects/drugs-commission/drugs-report|archive-date=9 September 2014|access-date=24 November 2014|publisher=[[Royal Society of Arts]] Action and Research Centre}} [http://www.rsadrugscommission.org.uk/pdf/RSA_Drugs_Report.pdf Pdf.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140420011816/http://www.rsadrugscommission.org.uk/pdf/RSA_Drugs_Report.pdf|date=20 April 2014}}</ref>

Some have written that one of the many rungs supporting the moral panic behind the War on Drugs was a separate but related moral panic, which peaked in the late 1990s, involving media's gross exaggeration of the [[Date rape drug#Media coverage|frequency of the surreptitious use of date rape drugs]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Jenkins|first=Philip|url=https://archive.org/details/syntheticpanicss0000jenk|title=Synthetic Panics: The Symbolic Politics of Designer Drugs|publisher=New York University Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0814742440|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/syntheticpanicss0000jenk/page/20 20] and 161–182|author-link=Philip Jenkins|url-access=registration}}</ref>{{sfn|Goode|Ben-Yehuda|2009|p=217}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Webber|first=Craig|url=https://archive.org/details/psychol_web_2010_00_6514/page/67|title=Psychology & Crime|publisher=Sage|year=2010|isbn=978-1412919425|location=Los Angeles & London|page=[https://archive.org/details/psychol_web_2010_00_6514/page/67 67]}}</ref> News media have been criticized for advocating "grossly excessive protective measures for women, particularly in coverage between 1996 and 1998", for overstating the threat and for excessively dwelling on the topic.{{sfn|Goode|Ben-Yehuda|2009|p=217}} For example, a 2009 Australian study found that drug panel tests were unable to detect any drug in any of the 97 instances of patients admitted to the hospital believing their drinks might have been spiked.<ref name="Quigley 2009">{{Cite journal|last1=Quigley|first1=Paul|last2=Lynch|first2=Dania M.|last3=Little|first3=Mark|last4=Murray|first4=Lindsay|last5=Lynch|first5=Ann-Maree|last6=O'Halloran|first6=Sean J.|year=2009|title=Prospective study of 101 patients with suspected drink spiking|journal=Emergency Medicine Australasia|volume=21|issue=3|pages=222–228|doi=10.1111/j.1742-6723.2009.01185.x|pmid=19527282|s2cid=11404683|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==== Sex offenders, child sexual abuse, and pedophilia (1970s–present) ====
The media narrative of a [[sex offender]], highlighting egregious offenses as typical behaviour of any sex offender, and media distorting the facts of some cases,<ref name="Fox">{{Cite journal|last1=Fox|first1=Kathryn J.|year=2012|title=Incurable Sex Offenders, Lousy Judges & the Media: Moral Panic Sustenance in the Age of New Media|journal=American Journal of Criminal Justice|volume=38|pages=160–181|doi=10.1007/s12103-012-9154-6|s2cid=143562435}}</ref> has led legislators to attack [[judicial discretion]],<ref name="Fox" /> making sex offender registration mandatory based on certain listed offenses rather than individual risk or the actual severity of the crime, thus practically catching less serious offenders under the domain of harsh sex offender laws. In the 1990s and 2000s, there have been instances of moral panics in the United Kingdom and the United States, related to colloquial uses of the term [[pedophilia]] to refer to such unusual crimes as high-profile cases of [[child abduction]].<ref name="Jenkins" />

The moral panic over pedophilia began in the 1970s after the [[sexual revolution]]. While [[homosexuality]] was becoming more socially accepted after the sexual revolution, pro-contact pedophiles believed that the sexual revolution never helped pro-contact pedophiles.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Wolmar|first=Christian|date=February 27, 2014|title=Looking back to the great British paedophile infiltration campaign of the 1970s|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/looking-back-to-the-great-british-paedophile-infiltration-campaign-of-the-1970s-9155610.html|access-date=September 19, 2019|work=[[The Independent]]}}</ref> In the 1970s, pro-contact pedophile activist organizations such as [[Paedophile Information Exchange]] (PIE) and [[North American Man/Boy Love Association]] (NAMBLA) were formed in October 1974 and December 1978, respectively. Despite receiving some support, PIE received much backlash when they advocated for abolishing or lowering [[age of consent]] laws. As a result, people protested against PIE.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=de Castella|first1=Tom|last2=Heyden|first2=Tom|date=February 27, 2014|title=How did the pro-paedophile group PIE exist openly for 10 years?|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26352378|access-date=September 16, 2019|work=[[BBC News]]}}</ref>

Until the first half of the 1970s, sex was not yet part of the concept of domestic [[child abuse]], which used to be limited to physical abuse and neglect.<ref name="AllAgainstPedophilia">{{Cite journal|last=Lowenkron|first=Laura|year=2014|title=All Against Pedophilia|url=https://journals.openedition.org/vibrant/1528|journal=Vibrant. Virtual Brazilian Anthropology|issue=v10n2}} [[File:CC-BY icon.svg|50x50px]] Material was copied from this source, which is available under a [[creativecommons:by/4.0/|Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License]].</ref> The sexual part of child abuse became prominent in the [[Ages of consent in the United States|United States]] due to the encounter of two political agendas: the fight against [[battered child syndrome]] by pediatricians during the 1960s and the feminist [[anti-rape movement]], in particular the denunciation of domestic [[Sexual violence in the United States|sexual violence]].<ref name="AllAgainstPedophilia" /> These two movements overlapped in 1975, creating a new political agenda about child sexual abuse. Laura Lowenkron wrote: "The strong political and emotional appeal of the theme of 'child sexual abuse' strengthened the feminist criticism of the [[Patriarchal family|patriarchal family structure]], according to which domestic violence is linked to the unequal power between men and women and between adults and children."<ref name="AllAgainstPedophilia" /> Although the concern over child sexual abuse was caused by feminists, the concern over child sexual abuse also attracted traditional groups and conservative groups. Lowenkron added: "Concerned about the increasing expansion and acceptance of so-called 'sexual deviations' during what was called the libertarian age from the 1960s to the early 1970s", conservative groups and traditional groups "saw in the fight against 'child sexual abuse' the chance" to "revive fears about crime and sexual dangers".<ref name="AllAgainstPedophilia" />

In the 1980s, the media began to report more frequently on cases of children being raped, kidnapped, or murdered, leading to the moral panic over sex offenders and pedophiles becoming very intense in the early 1980s. In 1981, for instance, a six-year-old boy named [[Murder of Adam Walsh|Adam Walsh]] was abducted, murdered, and beheaded. Investigators believe the murderer was serial killer [[Ottis Toole]]. The murder of Adam Walsh took over nationwide news and led to a moral panic over [[child abduction]], followed by the creation of new laws for [[missing children]].<ref name="Time">{{Cite magazine|last=Waxman|first=Olivia B.|date=August 10, 2016|title=Adam Walsh Murder: The Missing Child Who Changed America|url=https://time.com/4437205/adam-walsh-murder/|access-date=September 16, 2019|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]}}</ref> According to criminologist [[Richard Moran (philosopher)|Richard Moran]], the Walsh case "created a nation of petrified kids and paranoid parents&nbsp;... Kids used to be able to go out and organize a stickball game, and now all playdates and the social lives of children are arranged and controlled by the parents."<ref name="Time" />

Also during the 1980s, inaccurate and heavily flawed data about sex offenders and their [[recidivism]] rates was published. This data led to the public believing sex offenders to have a particularly high recidivism rate; this in turn led to the creation of [[sex offender registry|sex offender registries]].<ref name="DJWOOD">Wood, Daniel J., "Sex offender registry acts: Deterrence or moral panic?" (2017). ''Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations''. [http://commons.emich.edu/theses/766 766].</ref> Later information revealed that sex offenders, including child sex offenders, have a low recidivism rate.<ref name="DJWOOD" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Borneman|first=John|date=June 29, 2018|title=Can Child Sex Offenders Be Rehabilitated?|url=https://www.sapiens.org/culture/can-child-sex-offenders-be-rehabilitated/|access-date=September 16, 2019|publisher=Sapiens}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=August 2000|title=Myths and Facts About Sex Offenders|url=https://www.csom.org/pubs/mythsfacts.pdf|access-date=September 16, 2019|publisher=Center for Sex Offender Management|archive-date=12 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190112181652/http://www.csom.org/pubs/mythsfacts.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Jeglic|first=Elizabeth|date=February 13, 2019|title=Five Myths About Child Sexual Abuse|url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/protecting-children-sexual-abuse/201902/five-myths-about-child-sexual-abuse|access-date=September 16, 2019|work=[[Psychology Today]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Kolata|first=Gina|date=September 1, 1996|title=The Many Myths About Sex Offenders|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/01/weekinreview/the-many-myths-about-sex-offenders.html|access-date=September 16, 2019|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> Other highly publicized cases, similar to the murder of Adam Walsh, that contributed to the creation of sex offender registries and sex offender laws include the abduction and murder of 11-year-old boy [[Jacob Wetterling]] in 1989; the rape and murder of 7-year-old girl [[Megan Kanka]] in 1994; and the rape and murder of 9-year-old girl [[Jessica Lunsford]] in 2005.<ref name="DJWOOD" />

Another contributing factor in the moral panic over pedophiles and sex offenders was the [[day-care sex-abuse hysteria]] in the 1980s and early 1990s, including the [[McMartin preschool trial]]. This led to a panic where parents became [[Hypervigilance|hypervigilant]] with concerns of predatory child sex offenders seeking to abduct children in public spaces, such as playgrounds.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Casey |first1=Maura |title=How not to investigate child abuse |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-modern-witch-hunt/2015/07/31/057effd8-2f1a-11e5-8353-1215475949f4_story.html |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=31 July 2015 }}</ref>

=== Contemporary examples ===
==== Human trafficking (2000–present) ====
Many critics of contemporary anti-prostitution activism argue that much of the current concern about [[human trafficking]] and its more general conflation with [[prostitution]] and other forms of [[sex work]] have hallmarks of moral panic. They further argue that this moral panic shares much in common with the '[[white slavery]]' panic of a century earlier, which in the US prompted passage of the 1910 ''[[Mann Act]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1007/s12147-999-0021-9 |pmid=12296110 |title=Loose women or lost women? The re-emergence of the myth of white slavery in contemporary discourses of trafficking in women |journal=Gender Issues |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=23–50 |year=1999 |last1=Doezema |first1=Jo |s2cid=39806701 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Weitzer |first1=Ronald |title=The Social Construction of Sex Trafficking: Ideology and Institutionalization of a Moral Crusade |journal=Politics & Society |date=September 2007 |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=447–475 |doi=10.1177/0032329207304319 |s2cid=154583133 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |doi=10.2139/ssrn.1333994 |chapter=Women's bodies, moral panic and the world game: Sex trafficking, the 2006 Football World Cup and beyond |title=Proceedings of the Second Australia and New Zealand Critical Criminology Conference |year=2009 |last1=Cunneen |first1=Chris |last2=Salter |first2=Michael |isbn=978-0-646-50737-8 |pages=222–242 |s2cid=146691694 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.2298/TEM0802021M |title=Football and sex: The 2006 FIFA World Cup and sex trafficking |journal=Temida |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=21–47 |year=2008 |last1=Milivojevic |first1=Sanja |last2=Pickering |first2=Sharon |doi-access=free }}</ref> [[Nick Davies]] argues that the following major factors contributed towards this effect. Since the [[collapse of Communism]], Western Europe was flooded with sex workers from [[Eastern Europe]], and the term "sex trafficking" came to mean any organized movement of sex workers, losing the connotation of force and coercion. This change of the definition entered, e.g., into the UK's [[Sexual Offences Act 2003]]. Second, academic researchers on sex trade provided a range of estimates of the trafficked persons, including estimates based on various assumptions, up to the very pessimistic ones. The media picked the most alarmist numbers, which were uncritically used by politicians, who in their turn were quoted for further misleading information.<ref>{{Cite news | last1 = Davies | first1 = Nick | author-link = Nick Davies | title=Prostitution and trafficking – the anatomy of a moral panic| work=[[The Guardian]]| access-date=29 November 2009 | date=20 October 2009 | url= https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/oct/20/trafficking-numbers-women-exaggerated }}</ref>

==== Terrorism and Islamic extremism (2001–present) ====
{{Main|War on Terror}}

After the [[September 11 attacks]] in 2001, some scholars identified a rising [[Islamophobia|fear of Muslims]] in the western world, which they described as a moral panic.<ref>{{Cite book |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-71776-0_8 |chapter='Ta-Ta Qatada': Islamophobic Moral Panic and the British Tabloid Press |title=Media, Crime and Racism |year=2018 |last1=Meyer |first1=Anneke |last2=Poynting |first2=Scott |pages=139–160 |isbn=978-3-319-71775-3 }}</ref><ref name="MoralPanicToPermanentWar" /><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Morgan |first1=George |title=Global Islamophobia: Muslims and Moral Panic in the West |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-12772-7 }}{{page needed|date=August 2022}}</ref> This exaggeration of the threat posed by Islam served a political purpose, contributing to the concept of a global [[war on terror]], including the [[War in Afghanistan (2001–present)|war in Afghanistan]] and a [[Iraq War|war in Iraq]].<ref name="MoralPanicToPermanentWar" /><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bonn |first1=Scott A. |title=[[Mass Deception|Mass Deception: Moral Panic and the U.S. War on Iraq]] |date=2010 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=978-0-8135-4996-5}}{{page needed|date=August 2022}}</ref>

Following the September 11 attacks, there was a dramatic increase in hate crimes against Muslims and Arabs in the United States, with rates peaking in 2001 and later surpassed in 2016.<ref name="MoralPanicToPermanentWar" /><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/11/15/assaults-against-muslims-in-u-s-surpass-2001-level/ |title=Assaults against Muslims in U.S. surpass 2001 level |publisher=[[Pew Research Center]] |last=Kishi |first=Katayoun |date=November 15, 2017 |access-date=September 16, 2019}}</ref>

==== QAnon conspiracies (2020s) ====
[[QAnon]], a late-2010s to early 2020s far-right conspiracy theory that began on [[4chan]] and which alleged that a secret [[cabal]] of [[Judaism|Jewish]], [[Satan Worshipping|Satan-worshipping]], [[Human cannibalism|cannibalistic]] pedophiles is running a global [[Child sex trafficking|child sex-trafficking]] ring, has been described as a moral panic and compared to the 1980s panic over satanic ritual abuse.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Vrzal |first1=Miroslav |title=QAnon as a variation of a Satanic conspiracy theory : an overview |journal=Theory and Practice in English Studies |date=2020 |volume=9 |issue=1–2 |pages=45–66 |hdl=11222.digilib/143485 }}</ref>

==== LGBT grooming conspiracy theory (2020s–present) ====
{{Main article|LGBT grooming conspiracy theory}}

Since the early 2020s, members of the [[far-right]] and a growing number of mainstream [[Conservatism in the United States|conservatives]], mostly in the United States, have falsely accused [[LGBT people]], as well as their [[Straight ally|allies]] and [[Progressivism|progressives]] in general, of systematically using [[LGBT sex education|LGBT-positive education]] and campaigns for [[LGBT rights by country or territory|LGBT rights]] as a method of [[child grooming]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Berman |first=Nora |date=2022-08-29 |title=Libs of Tiktok is fueling a pogrom against trans youth |url=https://forward.com/opinion/515868/libs-of-tiktok-is-fueling-a-pogrom-against-trans-youth/ |access-date=2022-08-30 |website=The Forward |language=en}}</ref> These accusations and [[Conspiracy theory|conspiracy theories]] are characterized by experts as baseless, [[homophobic]] and [[transphobic]], and as examples of moral panic.<ref>{{Cite web|date=July 22, 2022|title=Republicans Went From Pushing a 'Groomer' Panic to Forcing Kids to Give Birth|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/republicans-went-from-pushing-a-groomer-panic-to-forcing-kids-to-give-birth|author-last=Clift|author-first=Eleanor|access-date=July 29, 2022|work=[[The Daily Beast]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=April 13, 2022|title=Why So Many Conservatives Are Talking About 'Grooming' All Of A Sudden|url=https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-so-many-conservatives-are-talking-about-grooming-all-of-a-sudden/|author-last=Rodgers|author-first=Kaleigh|access-date=July 29, 2022|work=[[FiveThirtyEight]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Czopek |first=Madison |date=May 11, 2022 |title=Why it's not 'grooming': What research says about gender and sexuality in schools |url=https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/may/11/why-its-not-grooming-what-research-says-about-gend/ |access-date=August 26, 2022 |website=[[Politifact]] |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lee |first=Catherine |date=April 2023 |title=Inclusive relationships, sex and health education: Why the moral panic? |journal=Management in Education |language=en |volume=37 |issue=2 |pages=107–112 |doi=10.1177/08920206211016453 |issn=0892-0206|doi-access=free }}</ref>

== <span class="anchor" id="Criticism"></span> Criticism of moral panic as an explanation ==
Paul Joosse has argued that while classic moral panic theory styled itself as being part of the "sceptical revolution" that sought to critique [[structural functionalism]], it is actually very similar to [[Émile Durkheim]]'s depiction of how the [[collective conscience]] is strengthened through its reactions to [[Deviance (sociology)|deviance]] (in Cohen's case, for example, "right-thinkers" use folk devils to strengthen societal orthodoxies). In his analysis of [[Donald Trump]]'s victory in the [[2016 United States presidential election]], Joosse reimagined moral panic in [[Max Weber|Weberian]] terms, showing how charismatic moral entrepreneurs can at once deride folk devils in the traditional sense while avoiding the conservative moral recapitulation that classic moral panic theory predicts.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1093/bjc/azx047 |title=Expanding Moral Panic Theory to Include the Agency of Charismatic Entrepreneurs |journal=British Journal of Criminology |volume=58 |issue=4 |pages=993–1012 |last1=Joosse |first1=Paul |year=2017|url=https://osf.io/6xmtv/download |doi-access=free }}</ref> Another criticism is that of disproportionality: there is no way to measure what a proportionate reaction should be to a specific action.{{sfn|Cohen|2011|pp=xxvi–xxxi}}

Writing in 1995 about the moral panic that arose in the UK after a series of murders by juveniles, chiefly that of two-year-old [[Murder of James Bulger|James Bulger]] by two 10-year-old boys but also including that of 70-year-old [[Murder of Edna Phillips|Edna Phillips]] by two 17-year-old girls, the sociologist [[Colin Hay (political scientist)|Colin Hay]] pointed out that the folk devil was ambiguous in such cases; the child perpetrators would normally be thought of as innocent.<ref>{{Cite journal |first=Colin |last=Hay |author-link=Colin Hay (political scientist) |title=Mobilization Through Interpellation: James Bulger, Juvenile Crime and the Construction of a Moral Panic |journal=Social & Legal Studies |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=197–223 |year=1995 |doi=10.1177/096466399500400203 |s2cid=143468698 }} Cited in {{Cite book |first=Alan |last=Hunt |contribution=Fractious Rivals? Moral Panics and Moral Regulation |title=Moral Panic and the Politics of Anxiety |editor-first=Sean Patrick |editor-last=Hier |location=London |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=978-0415555555 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HLyTgaErBZ8C&pg=PA58 |page=58 }}</ref>

In 1995, [[Angela McRobbie]] and [[Sarah Thornton]] argued "that it is now time that every stage in the process of constructing a moral panic, as well as the social relations which support it, should be revised". Their argument is that mass media has changed since the concept of moral panic emerged so "that 'folk devils' are less marginalized than they once were", and that "folk devils" are not only castigated by mass media but supported and defended by it as well. They also suggest that the "points of social control" that moral panics used to rest on "have undergone some degree of shift, if not transformation".<ref>{{Citation | last1 = McRobbie | first1 = Angela | last2 = Thornton | first2 = Sarah L. | author-link1 = Angela McRobbie | author-link2 = Sarah Thornton | contribution = Rethinking 'moral panic' for multi-mediated social worlds | editor-last = McRobbie | editor-first = Angela | editor-link = Angela McRobbie | title = Feminism and youth culture | publisher = Macmillan Press | pages = 180–197 | location = Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire | year = 2000 | orig-year = 1991 | edition = 2nd | isbn = 978-0333770320 }}. Also available as: {{Cite journal |doi=10.2307/591571 |jstor=591571 |title=Rethinking 'Moral Panic' for Multi-Mediated Social Worlds |journal=The British Journal of Sociology |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=559 |year=1995 |last1=McRobbie |first1=Angela |last2=Thornton |first2=Sarah L. }}</ref>

British criminologist Yvonne Jewkes (2004) has also raised issue with the term "morality", how it is accepted unproblematically in the concept of "moral panic" and how most research into moral panics fails to approach the term critically but instead accepts it at face value.<ref name = Jewkes1>{{citation | last = Jewkes | first = Yvonne | contribution = Media and moral panics | editor-last = Jewkes | editor-first = Yvonne | title = Media & Crime | publisher = Sage | pages = [https://archive.org/details/mediacrime0000jewk/page/76 76–77] | location = London & Thousand Oaks, California | year = 2011 | orig-year = 2004 | edition = 2nd | isbn = 978-1848607033 | url = https://archive.org/details/mediacrime0000jewk/page/76 }}</ref> Jewkes goes on to argue that the thesis and the way it has been used fails to distinguish between crimes that quite rightly offend human morality, and thus elicit a justifiable reaction, and those that demonise minorities. The public are not sufficiently gullible to keep accepting the latter and consequently allow themselves to be manipulated by the media and the government.<ref name="Jewkes1"/>

Another British criminologist, Steve Hall (2012), goes a step further to suggest that the term "moral panic" is a fundamental category error. Hall argues that although some crimes are sensationalized by the media, in the general structure of the crime/control narrative the ability of the existing state and criminal justice system to protect the public is also overstated. Public concern is whipped up only for the purpose of being soothed, which produces not panic but the opposite, comfort and complacency.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hall |first=S. |year=2012 |title=Theorizing Crime and Deviance: A New Perspective |location=London |publisher=Sage |pages=132–139 |isbn=978-1-84860-672-2 }}</ref>

Echoing another point Hall makes, sociologists Thompson and Williams (2013) argue that the concept of "moral panic" is not a rational response to the phenomenon of social reaction, but itself a product of the irrational middle-class fear of the imagined working-class "mob". Using as an example a peaceful and lawful protest staged by local mothers against the re-housing of sex-offenders on their estate, Thompson and Williams argue that the sensationalist demonization of the protesters by moral panic theorists and the liberal press was just as irrational as the demonization of the sex offenders by the protesters and the tabloid press.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Thompson |first1=W. |last2=Williams |first2=A. |year=2013 |title=The Myth of Moral Panics: Sex, Snuff, and Satan |series=Routledge Advances in Criminology |location=London |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0415812665 }} {{page needed|date=November 2016}}</ref>

Many sociologists and criminologists (Ungar, Hier, Rohloff)<ref>{{Cite book |title=Moral panic and the politics of anxiety |date=2011 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-55555-5 |editor-last=Hier |editor-first=Sean P. |location=New York}}</ref> have revised Cohen's original framework. The revisions are compatible with the way in which Cohen theorizes panics in the third ''Introduction to Folk Devils and Moral Panics''.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1111/j.1468-4446.2011.01377.x |pmid=21899526 |title=Tightening the focus: Moral panic, moral regulation and liberal government |journal=The British Journal of Sociology |volume=62 |issue=3 |pages=523–541 |year=2011 |last1=Hier |first1=Sean P. }}</ref>

==See also==
<!-- Please keep list in alphabetical order. -->
{{Portal|Psychology|Society}}
{{div col|colwidth=18em}}
* {{Annotated link |Alarmism}}
* {{Annotated link |Antisemitic canard}}
* {{Annotated link |Blood libel}}
* {{Annotated link |List of common misconceptions}}
* {{Annotated link |Conspiracy theory}}
* {{Annotated link |List of conspiracy theories}}
* {{Annotated link |Deviance (sociology)}}
* {{Annotated link |False accusation}}
* {{Annotated link |Fear mongering}}
* {{Annotated link |Labeling theory}}
* {{Annotated link |LGBT ideology-free zone}}
* [[Major Boobage]], a fictional depiction of one
* {{Annotated link |Mass hysteria}}
** {{Annotated link |List of mass hysteria cases}}
* {{Annotated link |Moral entrepreneur}}
* {{Annotated link |Persecutory delusion}}
* ''[[The Population Bomb]]'' (1968)
* {{Annotated link |Recovered-memory therapy}}
* {{Annotated link |Satanic ritual abuse}}
* {{Annotated link |Social contagion}}
* {{Annotated link |Social mania}}
* {{Annotated link |Social panic}}
* {{Annotated link |Social stigma}}
* {{Annotated link |Think of the children}}
* {{Annotated link |Witch-hunt}}
** {{Annotated link |Modern witch-hunts}}
* {{Annotated link |Witch trials in the early modern period}}
{{Div col end}}

== Citations ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== General and cited references ==
* {{Cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=Stanley |date=2002 |title=Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers |location=London & New York |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-26712-0}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=Stanley |author1-link=Stanley Cohen (sociologist) |year=2011 |title=Folk Devils and Moral Panics |location=London & New York |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-203-82825-0 |doi=10.4324/9780203828250}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Goode |first1=Erich |author-link1=Erich Goode |last2=Ben-Yehuda |first2=Nachman |author-link2=Nachman Ben-Yehuda |date=2009 |title=Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1-4051-8933-0 }}

== Further reading ==
* {{Cite journal |last1=Ajzenstadt |first1=Mimi |title=Moral Panic and Neo-Liberalism: The Case of Single Mothers on Welfare in Israel |journal=British Journal of Criminology |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=68–87 |year=2009 |doi=10.1093/bjc/azn067 |jstor=23639656 |ssrn=1315135 }}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Barron |first1=Christie |last2=Lacombe |first2=Dany |year=2008 |title=Moral Panic and the Nasty Girl |journal=Canadian Review of Sociology |volume=42 |pages=51–69 |doi=10.1111/j.1755-618X.2005.tb00790.x}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Ben-Yehuda |first=Nachman |year=1986 |title=The Sociology of Moral Panics: Toward a New Synthesis |journal=The Sociological Quarterly |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=495–513 |doi=10.1111/j.1533-8525.1986.tb00274.x}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Ben-Yehuda |first1=Nachman |year=2009 |title=Foreword: Moral Panics – 36 Years on |journal=British Journal of Criminology |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=1–3 |doi=10.1093/bjc/azn076 |jstor=23639651 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Boëthius |first=Ulf |year=1995 |chapter=Youth, the Media and Moral Panics |editor-last1=Fornäs |editor-first1=Johan |editor-last2=Bolin |editor-first2=Göran |title=Youth Culture in Late Modernity |publisher=SAGE Publications |location=London & Thousand Oaks, CA |pages=39–57 |isbn=978-0803988996}}
* {{Cite journal |title=[Moral Panic issue] |volume=49 |issue=1 |date=January 2009 |url=https://academic.oup.com/bjc/issue/49/1 |url-access=subscription |journal=The British Journal of Criminology |publisher=Oxford University Press Academic }}
* {{Cite web |title=Moral panic studies working paper series |url=http://www.brunel.ac.uk/cbass/social-sciences-media-communications/research/moral-panics/working-papers |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304083044/http://www.brunel.ac.uk/cbass/social-sciences-media-communications/research/moral-panics/working-papers |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead |publisher=College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences, [[Brunel University London]] }}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Colomb |first1=Wendy |last2=Damphousse |first2=Kelly |year=2004 |title=Examination of Newspaper Coverage of Hate Crimes: A Moral Panic Perspective |journal=American Journal of Criminal Justice |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=147 |doi=10.1007/BF02885869 |s2cid=145519152 }}
* {{Cite book |last1=Cree |first1=Viviene E. |last2=Clapton |first2=Gary |last3=Smith |first3=Mark |year=2015 |title=Revisiting moral panics |publisher=Policy Press |location=Bristol, UK; Chicago |isbn=978-1447321859 }}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Critcher |first1=Chas |year=2008 |title=Moral Panic Analysis: Past, Present and Future |journal=Sociology Compass |volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=1127–1144 |doi=10.1111/j.1751-9020.2008.00122.x }}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Critcher |first1=Chas |year=2009 |title=Widening the Focus: Moral Panics as Moral Regulation |journal=British Journal of Criminology |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=17–34 |doi=10.1093/bjc/azn040 |jstor=23639653 |ssrn=1315133}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Gill |first1=Aisha K |last2=Harrison |first2=Karen |title=Child Grooming and Sexual Exploitation: Are South Asian Men the UK Media's New Folk Devils? |journal=International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy |volume=4 |issue=2 |year=2015 |pages=34–49 |doi=10.5204/ijcjsd.v4i2.214 |doi-access=free |s2cid=54797987}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Fitzgerald |first1=Maureen H. |year=2005 |title=Punctuated Equilibrium, Moral Panics and the Ethics Review Process |journal=Journal of Academic Ethics |volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=315–338 |doi=10.1007/s10805-005-9004-y  |s2cid=145303045 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Frankfurter |first=David |title=Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Satanic Abuse in History |publisher =[[Princeton University Press]] |location=Princeton |year=2008 |isbn=978-0691136295 }}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Gausel |first1=Nicolay |last2=Leach |first2=Colin Wayne |title=Concern for Self-Image and Social Image in the Management of Moral Failure: Rethinking Shame |journal=European Journal of Social Psychology |volume=41 |issue=4 |pages=468 |year=2011 |doi=10.1002/ejsp.803}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Heathcott |first1=Joseph |year=2011 |title=Moral Panic in a Plural Culture |journal=CrossCurrents |volume=61 |pages=39–44 |doi=10.1111/j.1939-3881.2010.00159.x |s2cid=143002118 }}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Hier |first1=S. P. |year=2002 |title=Conceptualizing Moral Panic Through a Moral Economy of Harm |journal=Critical Sociology |volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=311–334 |citeseerx=10.1.1.117.1290 |doi=10.1177/08969205020280030301 |s2cid=16081774 }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Hunt |first=Arnold |year=1997 |title='Moral Panic' and Moral Language in the Media |journal=The British Journal of Sociology |volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=629–648 |doi=10.2307/591600 |jstor=591600}}
* {{Cite encyclopedia |last=Jasper |first=James M. |author-link1=James M. Jasper |year=2001 |title=Moral Panics |editor-last1=Smelser |editor-first1=Neil J. |editor-last2=Baltes |editor-first2=Paul B. |encyclopedia=International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences |location=Amsterdam & New York |publisher=Elsevier |pages=10029–10033 |isbn=978-0080430768}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Jenkins |first1=Philip |year=2009 |title=Failure to Launch: Why Do Some Social Issues Fail to Detonate Moral Panics? |journal=British Journal of Criminology |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=35–47 |doi=10.1093/bjc/azn016 |jstor=23639654 |ssrn=1315131 }}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Klapp |first1=Orrin E. |year=1954 |title=Heroes, Villains and Fools, as Agents of Social Control |journal=American Sociological Review |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=56–62 |doi=10.2307/2088173 |jstor=2088173}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Klocke |first1=Brian V. |last2=Muschert |first2=Glenn W. |year=2010 |title=A Hybrid Model of Moral Panics: Synthesizing the Theory and Practice of Moral Panic Research |journal=Sociology Compass |volume=4 |issue=5 |pages=295 |doi=10.1111/j.1751-9020.2010.00281.x}}
* {{Cite web |last=Kuzma |first=Cindy |title=Rights and liberties: sex, lies, and moral panics |url=http://www.alternet.org/rights/26131/ |publisher=[[AlterNet]] |date=28 September 2005 |access-date=5 September 2008 |archive-date=19 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080519133419/http://www.alternet.org/rights/26131/ |url-status=dead }} Author affiliation: [[Planned Parenthood|Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA)]].
* {{Cite journal |last=Lawson |first=Louanne |year=2008 |title=Why Moral Panic Is Dangerous |journal=Journal of Forensic Nursing |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=57–59 |doi=10.1111/j.1939-3938.2007.tb00103.x |pmid=17679267}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Levi |first1=Michael |year=2009 |title=Suite Revenge?: The Shaping of Folk Devils and Moral Panics about White-Collar Crimes |journal=British Journal of Criminology |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=48–67 |doi=10.1093/bjc/azn073 |jstor=23639655 |ssrn=1315136 }}
* {{Cite book |editor-last=Monod |editor-first=Sarah Wright |date=2017 |title=Making Sense of Moral Panics: A Framework for Research |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=abM4DwAAQBAJ |series=Palgrave Studies in Risk, Crime and Society |location=Cham, Switzerland |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-618-21-0 |doi-broken-date=28 July 2024 |isbn=9783319618203 |oclc=3319618202}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Montana |first1=Riccardo |year=2009 |title=Prosecutors and the Definition of the Crime Problem in Italy: Balancing the Impact of Moral Panics |url=http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/202/2/Paradigms_of%20judicial_supervision_and_co-ordination_between_police_and_prosecutors.pdf |journal=Criminal Law Forum |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=471–494 |doi=10.1007/s10609-009-9108-y |s2cid=143090113 }}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Pearce |first1=J. M. |last2=Charman |first2=E. |year=2011 |title=A social psychological approach to understanding moral panic |journal=Crime, Media, Culture |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=293 |s2cid=145149474 |doi=10.1177/1741659011417607 }}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Rodwell |first1=Grant |year=2011 |title=One newspaper's role in the demise of the Tasmanian Essential Learnings Curriculum: Adding new understandings to Cohen's moral panic theory in analyzing curriculum change |journal=Journal of Educational Change |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=441–456 |s2cid=143481477 |doi=10.1007/s10833-011-9163-0 }}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Rohloff |first1=A. |last2=Wright |first2=S. |year=2010 |title=Moral Panic and Social Theory: Beyond the Heuristic |journal=Current Sociology |volume=58 |issue=3 |pages=403 |citeseerx=10.1.1.427.24 |doi=10.1177/0011392110364039 |s2cid=44838870 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Stein |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Stein (author) |date=2014 |title=American Panic: A History of Who Scares Us and Why |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4dJXAwAAQBAJ |location=New York |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=9781137279026 |oclc=869919504}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Ungar |first1=Sheldon |year=2001 |title=Moral panic versus the risk society: The implications of the changing sites of social anxiety |journal=British Journal of Sociology |volume=52 |issue=2 |pages=271–291 |doi=10.1080/00071310120044980 |pmid=11440057 }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Victor |first=Jeffrey S. |year=1998 |title=Moral Panics and the Social Construction of Deviant Behavior: A Theory and Application to the Case of Ritual Child Abuse |journal=Sociological Perspectives |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=541–565 |doi=10.2307/1389563 |jstor=1389563 |s2cid=18583486 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Waiton |first=Stuart |year=2008 |title=The Politics of Antisocial Behaviour: Amoral Panics |location=New York |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978--0415957052 }}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Ward |first1=Russell E. |year=2002 |title=Fan violence |journal=Aggression and Violent Behavior |volume=7 |issue=5 |pages=453–475 |doi=10.1016/S1359-1789(01)00075-1}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Weitzer |first1=Ronald |year=2009 |title=Legalizing Prostitution: Morality Politics in Western Australia |journal=British Journal of Criminology |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=88–105 |doi=10.1093/bjc/azn027 |jstor=23639657 |ssrn=1315132 }}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Woodiwiss |first1=Michael |last2=Hobbs |first2=Dick |year=2009 |title=Organized Evil and the Atlantic Alliance: Moral Panics and the Rhetoric of Organized Crime Policing in America and Britain |journal=British Journal of Criminology |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=106–128 |doi=10.1093/bjc/azn054 |jstor=23639658 |ssrn=1315134 |doi-access=free }}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Young |first1=Jock |year=2009 |title=Moral Panic: Its Origins in Resistance, Ressentiment and the Translation of Fantasy into Reality |journal=British Journal of Criminology |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=4–16 |doi=10.1093/bjc/azn074 |jstor=23639652 |ssrn=1315137 }}

==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline}}
* {{Wikiquote-inline}}
* {{Wiktionary-inline}}

{{Satanic ritual abuse}}
{{Media and human factors}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Moral panic| ]]
[[Category:Barriers to critical thinking]]
[[Category:Crowd psychology]]
[[Category:Deviance (sociology)]]
[[Category:Mass psychogenic illness]]
[[Category:Moral psychology]]
[[Category:Morality|Panic]]
[[Category:Social phenomena]]