Category: Moral Panic
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Moral Panics and the Media
A moral panic is an exaggerated outburst of public concern over the morality or behaviour of a group in society. Moral Panic Theory is strongly related to labelling theory, in fact moral panic theory is really labelling theory applied to the media – instead of the agent of social control doing the labelling, it is…
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The ‘epidemic’ of teens addicted to gambling – a moral panic with little substance?
The Gambling Commission recently released its latest 2018 ‘Young People and Gambling Report’, triggering some dramatic headlines: Headlines from The Independent and The Daily Mail. The news reports tended to focus on three statistics to support their narrative of ‘teens in crisis’: 55 000 children under 16 were categorised as ‘problem gamblers’, or 1.7% of the…
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The Croydon Cat Killer: The Perfect Moral Panic for our Age?
Police may have just found the culprit behind a horrific moggy murder spree which started in Croydon in October 2015. Three years ago, the decapitated bodies of cats began be show up in various locations around Croydon, South London. They appeared to have been killed by blunt force trauma and then the bodies torn apart…
