CJ 240 Deviance and Social Control
Moral Panics Mary deYoung
What is a moral panic?
Term “moral panic” – coined by Stanley Cohen (1972)
Collective response,
generated by unsettling social strain
and incited and spread by interest groups,
towards ppl who are actively transformed into folk devils
and then treated as threats to dominant social interests and values
Features of a Moral Panic
use highly emotive claims and fear based appeals
Orchestrates cultural consent
“something must be done quickly”
This results in a call for increased social control
preserves and reasserts the values and interests that are being undermined by the folk devils
Moral panic – serves a distinct stabilizing function at a time of unsettling social strain
increasing cycle of media reporting on a category of antisocial behavior or other undesirable events
Deviance Amplification Spiral
Begins with deviant act
Mass media reports on this newsworthy act
New focus on the issue uncovers borderline instances that would not be newsworthy EXCEPT that they “prove” the pattern
Info (like stats) that would show the general public that the issue is less common or harmful tends to be ignored
Minor problems begin to look serious and rare events appear common
Public concern about the crime forces LE and CJS to devote more resources (than warranted) to the act
Judges and lawmakers pass stiffer sentences in response to public pressure
All of this tends to convince the public that any fear was justified
Media continue to profit by reporting on police and LE activity
Examples of Moral Panics
SRA
80s – day care providers charged with satanic ritual abuse (SRA)
Abusing their young charges in satanic rituals
Blood drinking, cannibalism, human sacrifices
All the characteristics of a moral panic –
Widespread, reactive, hostile and largely irrational
The Satanic Day Care Moral Panic
Timing of the Moral Panic
80s – growing cultural anxiety about satanic menaces to children
Concerns about demonic influences in:
Heavy metal music
Fantasy role play games
Tarot cards and Ouija boards
Urban legends about mysterious Satanists abducting fair haired, blue eyed children from malls
Rumors of covert satanic cults filming child porn
Tales of child sex rings
Target and Triggers of the Moral Panic
Economic strains make participation in work forces necessary
Puts more women with children into the work force
1980 – record 45% of women with kids working outside the home
Many parents considered day care a worse alternative to the stay at home child care of their parents generation
Deep cuts in federal funding had closed many centers
Left remaining centers with high fees, too many kids and due to low wages – few providers and high turn over
Still a spark was needed to ignite the panic
1983 McMartin Preschool – 2 ½ yo made statements vaguely suggestive of sexual abuse
Eventually worked into an allegation of SRA by social workers who already had some experience as claims makers
Spread of the Moral Panic
News media emerged as a major interest group
Case was complex enough to warrant daily coverage
Intolerable horrors to evoke and sustain intense emotional responses
Enough familiarity in terms of location, key claims makers and even prime suspects to spark interest
Enough real folk devils in role of day care providers to demonize
Sufficient exigency to elicits feelings that “something must be done”
In national news – tempered considerably and quelled completely in a few investigative reports
Social workers, mental health professionals, attorneys, LEOs are chief moral entrepreneurs (eventually become a target themselves)
Burgeoning sexual abuse industry
Lecture circuit, addressed child protection conferences, conduct workshops, consulted professionals involved in other cases and testified as expert witnesses
SW who interviewed most of the kids testified before Congress of an organized operation of child predators using day care centers as a ruse for a large unthinkable network of crimes against children
Rhetoric like that may be enough to ignite a moral panic
Backed up with facts is more combustible
Professionals developed and disseminated a synthetic diabolism out of materials haphazardly borrowed from eclectic sources on Satanism, occult, mysticism, paganism and witchcraft
Indicator lists/ symptom lists
Little was the result of well designed and controlled studies
Parents of the allegedly abused victims were unabashed believers
CLOUT – legislative group – Child friendly testifying procedures:
Shield witnesses by allowing to testify on video, CCTV, behind screens or with their backs to the defendants
Denouement of the Moral Panic
Moral panic effectively ended in 1991
Several factors contributed to its demise:
Cultural anxiety had been largely debunked
Most vocal claims makers had retreated into silence
More women in work force – more use of day care – more mainstream
Tightened day care regulations
More teeth to enforce them
Significant day care reforms on state level
Day care providers took steps to protect themselves from allegations
Video cameras, opened up private spaces, kept PC to a minimum, open door policies, parents drop in
Schism within the claims making professional groups that widened over the years of the moral panics
