Stanley Cohen: Folk Devils and Moral Panics

A leading writer on Criminology and Sociology, Cohen is credited with coining the term moral panic in his 1972 study (Folk Devils and Moral Panics) of the popular UK media and social reaction to the Mods and Rockers phenomenon of the 1960s.







Cohen suggests the media overreact to an aspect of behaviour which may be seen as a challenge to existing social norms. However, the media response and representation of that behaviour actually helps to define it, communicate it and portrays it as a model for outsiders to observe and adopt. So the moral panic by society represented in the media arguably fuels further socially unacceptable behaviour.

Thirty years ago, he created the term "moral panic," which is used to summarize the disproportional, gripping fear that engulfs a society in the face of a moral dilemma so deep it could upend the social. Moral panic, Cohen taught us, is the dance of the devil that stirs within us in the face of demonic, demagogic problem.