The Sociology of Moral Panics: Toward A New Synthesis

Abstract

There are two alternative theoretical perspectives developed in the sociological study of a moral panic: the moral perspective and the interest perspective. Usingas illustration a May 1982 national moral panic about drugs that occurred in Israel. thisarticle argues that both perspectives must be used and integrated into onecoherent model for a better and fuller sociological explanation of moral panics. The article provides a detailed account of the Israeli panic and an analysis clustered along two axes. One axis uses the interest perspective to analyze the riming of the panic by focusing on the question of why it happened when it did. The other axis uses the moral perspective to interpret the specific conrenr of the panic, focusing on why the panic was about drugs. Direct all communications to:Crusades to transform the public's attitudes toward specified issues, change legislation. and/or attempt to "deviantize" (Schur 1980) others. Thus, moral crusaders often create what Cohen's (1972) outstanding work called Moral Panics in which . . . a condition, episode. person. or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests: its nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moral barricadesare manned by editors. bishops. politicians. and other right-thinking people; socially accredited experts pronounce their diagnoses and solutions: ways of coping areevolved. or (more often) resorted to; the condition then disappears. submerges or deteriorates and becomes more visible (p. 9). 1984. Sociology. Englewood Cliffs. NJ: Prentice-Hall. Gusfield. Joseph R. 1963. Symbolic, Crusade: Siarus Poliricx and the American Temperance ~. 198 I . The Culture yf Public, Problems: Drinking. Driving and the Synibolii, Order.

Priming family values: How being a parent affects moral evaluations of harmless but offensive acts

“…Given the present results it is perhaps not surprising that protecting children from corrupting influences has often been the focus of moralistic movements that seek to censure behaviors that many people consider personally offensive, including homosexuality, obscene content in art and literature, and recreational drug use (Ben-Yehuda, 1986;Biesel, 1997;Gilbert, 1988;Herman, 1997;Springhall, 1998). The present results suggest that parents may be a ready-made constituency for moral entrepreneurs who seek to mobilize moral outrage to enact restrictions on other citizens' personal freedoms.…”

The political and organizational response to gangs: An examination of a “Moral panic” in Nevada

“…Panics purportedly emerge when society's deeply held moral values are threatened. The reaction to the deviant group constitutes "boundary maintenance" and Downloaded by [University of Arizona] at 12:08 11 June 2016 represents a collective effort to reinforce socially approved behaviors (Ben-Yehuda 1986;Cohen 1972;Gusfield 1963;Trebach 1982).…”

“…How can we account for the end of the gang crisis? Two complementary perspectives, drawn from the moral panic literature, provide insight into such questions (Ben-Yehuda 1986). Antiogang Legislation, 1989-1994b 19891991199219931994 Additional penalty for procurement of solicitation of minor to commit certain violations as agent ( The first perspective focuses on the timing of moral panics and requires us to consider the social, political, and economic motivations behind the creation and cultivation of the gang crisis in Las Vegas.…”

the role of presidential rhetoric in the creation of a moral panic: reagan, bush, and the war on drugs

“…Gus eld (1963,1981), Ben-Yehuda (1986), Hawdon (1996), and others have discussed how drug use has led to moral panics in the past. These accounts, however, fail to consider the role policy rhetoric assumes in the life-course of a moral panic.…”