Editing Moral panic (section)

== 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 |jstor=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 |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]], 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" />