Editing Moral panic (section)

=== Ongoing historic examples ===
==== Increase in crime (1970s–present) ====
{{see also|Crime drop}}
Fear of increasing crime rates is often the cause of moral panics.{{sfn|Cohen|2011|p={{page needed|date=August 2022}}}}<ref name="Hall-2013" />{{sfn|Goode|Ben-Yehuda|2009|p=217}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Byron |first1=Reginald A. |last2=Molidor |first2=William S. |last3=Cantu |first3=Andrew |title=US Newspapers' Portrayals of Home Invasion Crime |journal=The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice |date=June 2018 |volume=57 |issue=2 |pages=250–277 |doi=10.1111/hojo.12257 |s2cid=158706064 }}</ref> In fact, the rates of many types of crime have [[Crime drop|declined by 50% or more]] beginning in the mid to late 1980s and early 1990s.<ref name=cj>{{cite journal|last1=Farrell|first1=Graham|last2=Tilley|first2=Nick|last3=Tseloni|first3=Andromachi|title=Why the Crime Drop?|journal=Crime and Justice|date=September 2014|volume=43|issue=1|pages=421–490|doi=10.1086/678081|s2cid=145719976|url=http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/97466/1/Farrell%20Tilley%20Tseloni%202014%20Why%20the%20Crime%20Drop%20%28C%26J%20vol43%29.pdf}}</ref> In Europe, [[crime statistics]] show this is part of a broader pattern of crime decline since the late [[Middle Ages]], with a reversal from the 1960s to the 1980s and 1990s, before the decline continued.<ref name=tonry-1-2>{{Cite journal |url=https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/faculty_articles/511 |last=Tonry |first= Michael |title=Why Crime Rates Are Falling Throughout the Western World, 43 Crime & Just. 1 (2014) |journal=Crime & Just |date=January 2014 |pages=1–2}}</ref>

This phenomenon, which often taps into a population's [[herd mentality]], continues to occur in various cultures. In some cases, the perception of increased crime can be caused by increased reporting of crimes or by better record-keeping. Japanese jurist [[:ja:浜井浩一|Koichi Hamai]] explains how the changes in crime recording in Japan since the 1990s caused people to believe that the crime rate was rising and that crimes were getting increasingly severe.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=浜井 |first1=浩一 |title=日本の治安悪化神話はいかに作られたか(I 課題研究 日本の治安と犯罪対策-犯罪学からの提言) |trans-title=How 'the myth of collapsing safe society' has been created in Japan: beyond the moral panic and victim industry |language=ja |journal=Japanese Journal of Sociological Criminology |volume=29 |issue=29 |date=2004 |pages=4–93 |id={{NAID|110006153656}} |doi=10.20621/jjscrim.29.0_10 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

==== Violence and video games (1970s–present) ====
{{Main|Violence and video games}}
{{See also|Columbine effect}}

There have been calls to regulate violence in [[video game]]s for nearly as long as the video game industry has existed, with ''[[Death Race (1976 video game)|Death Race]]'' being a notable early example.<ref name="byrd">{{Cite journal |last1=Byrd |first1=Patrick R. |title=It's All Fun and Games until Someone Gets Hurt: The Effectiveness of Proposed Video-Game Legislation on Reducing Violence in Children |journal=Houston Law Review |volume=44 |issue=2 |date=Summer 2007 |pages=401–432 |url=https://houstonlawreview.org/article/4842.pdf }}</ref><ref name="kocurek">{{Cite journal|last=Koucurek|first=Carly|date=September 2012|title=The Agony and the Exidy: A History of Video Game Violence and the Legacy of Death Race|url=http://gamestudies.org/1201/articles/carly_kocurek|journal=Game Studies|volume=12|issue=1}}</ref> In the 1990s, improvements in video game technology allowed for more lifelike depictions of violence in games such as ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' and ''[[Doom (franchise)|Doom]]''. The industry attracted controversy over violent content and concerns about [[influence of mass media|effects]] they might have on players, generating frequent media stories that attempted to associate video games with violent behavior, in addition to a number of academic studies that reported conflicting findings about the strength of correlations.<ref name="byrd" /> According to Christopher Ferguson, sensationalist media reports and the scientific community unintentionally worked together in "promoting an unreasonable fear of violent video games".<ref name="scotus">{{Cite journal|last1=Ferguson|first1=Christopher J.|year=2013|title=Violent video games and the Supreme Court: Lessons for the scientific community in the wake of Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association|journal=American Psychologist|volume=68|issue=2|pages=57–74|doi=10.1037/a0030597|pmid=23421606}}</ref> Concerns from parts of the public about violent games led to cautionary, often exaggerated news stories, warnings from politicians and other public figures, and calls for research to prove the connection, which in turn led to studies "speaking beyond the available data and allowing the promulgation of extreme claims without the usual scientific caution and skepticism".<ref name="scotus" />

Since the 1990s, there have been attempts to regulate violent video games in the United States through congressional bills as well as within the industry.<ref name="byrd" /> Public concern and media coverage of violent video games reached a high point following the [[Columbine High School massacre]] in 1999, after which videos were found of the perpetrators, [[Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold]], talking about violent games like ''Doom'' and making comparisons between the acts they intended to carry out and aspects of games.<ref name="byrd" /><ref name="scotus" />

Ferguson and others have explained the video game moral panic as part of a cycle that all new media go through.<ref name="scotus" /><ref name="fergusonapa">{{Cite journal|last1=Ferguson|first1=Christopher J.|year=2010|title=Blazing angels or resident evil? Can violent video games be a force for good?|journal=Review of General Psychology|volume=14|issue=2|pages=68–81|citeseerx=10.1.1.360.3176|doi=10.1037/a0018941|s2cid=3053432}}</ref><ref name="jpr">{{Cite journal|last1=Ferguson|first1=Christopher J.|last2=Coulson|first2=Mark|last3=Barnett|first3=Jane|year=2011|title=A meta-analysis of pathological gaming prevalence and comorbidity with mental health, academic and social problems|journal=Journal of Psychiatric Research|volume=45|issue=12|pages=1573–1578|doi=10.1016/j.jpsychires.2011.09.005|pmid=21925683}}</ref> In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in ''[[Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association]]'' that legally restricting sales of video games to minors would be unconstitutional and deemed the research presented in favour of regulation as "unpersuasive".<ref name="scotus" />

==== War on drugs (1970s–present) ====
{{Main|War on Drugs|Urban legends about drugs}}

Some critics have pointed to moral panic as an explanation for the War on Drugs. For example, a [[Royal Society of Arts]] commission concluded that "the [[Misuse of Drugs Act 1971]]&nbsp;... is driven more by 'moral panic' than by a practical desire to reduce harm".<ref name="DR">{{Cite web|date=March 2007|title=Drugs Report|url=http://www.thersa.org/action-research-centre/current-projects/drugs-commission/drugs-report|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140909140009/http://www.thersa.org/action-research-centre/current-projects/drugs-commission/drugs-report|archive-date=9 September 2014|access-date=24 November 2014|publisher=[[Royal Society of Arts]] Action and Research Centre}} [http://www.rsadrugscommission.org.uk/pdf/RSA_Drugs_Report.pdf Pdf.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140420011816/http://www.rsadrugscommission.org.uk/pdf/RSA_Drugs_Report.pdf|date=20 April 2014}}</ref>

Some have written that one of the many rungs supporting the moral panic behind the War on Drugs was a separate but related moral panic, which peaked in the late 1990s, involving media's gross exaggeration of the [[Date rape drug#Media coverage|frequency of the surreptitious use of date rape drugs]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Jenkins|first=Philip|url=https://archive.org/details/syntheticpanicss0000jenk|title=Synthetic Panics: The Symbolic Politics of Designer Drugs|publisher=New York University Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0814742440|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/syntheticpanicss0000jenk/page/20 20] and 161–182|author-link=Philip Jenkins|url-access=registration}}</ref>{{sfn|Goode|Ben-Yehuda|2009|p=217}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Webber|first=Craig|url=https://archive.org/details/psychol_web_2010_00_6514/page/67|title=Psychology & Crime|publisher=Sage|year=2010|isbn=978-1412919425|location=Los Angeles & London|page=[https://archive.org/details/psychol_web_2010_00_6514/page/67 67]}}</ref> News media have been criticized for advocating "grossly excessive protective measures for women, particularly in coverage between 1996 and 1998", for overstating the threat and for excessively dwelling on the topic.{{sfn|Goode|Ben-Yehuda|2009|p=217}} For example, a 2009 Australian study found that drug panel tests were unable to detect any drug in any of the 97 instances of patients admitted to the hospital believing their drinks might have been spiked.<ref name="Quigley 2009">{{Cite journal|last1=Quigley|first1=Paul|last2=Lynch|first2=Dania M.|last3=Little|first3=Mark|last4=Murray|first4=Lindsay|last5=Lynch|first5=Ann-Maree|last6=O'Halloran|first6=Sean J.|year=2009|title=Prospective study of 101 patients with suspected drink spiking|journal=Emergency Medicine Australasia|volume=21|issue=3|pages=222–228|doi=10.1111/j.1742-6723.2009.01185.x|pmid=19527282|s2cid=11404683|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==== Sex offenders, child sexual abuse, and pedophilia (1970s–present) ====
The media narrative of a [[sex offender]], highlighting egregious offenses as typical behaviour of any sex offender, and media distorting the facts of some cases,<ref name="Fox">{{Cite journal|last1=Fox|first1=Kathryn J.|year=2012|title=Incurable Sex Offenders, Lousy Judges & the Media: Moral Panic Sustenance in the Age of New Media|journal=American Journal of Criminal Justice|volume=38|pages=160–181|doi=10.1007/s12103-012-9154-6|s2cid=143562435}}</ref> has led legislators to attack [[judicial discretion]],<ref name="Fox" /> making sex offender registration mandatory based on certain listed offenses rather than individual risk or the actual severity of the crime, thus practically catching less serious offenders under the domain of harsh sex offender laws. In the 1990s and 2000s, there have been instances of moral panics in the United Kingdom and the United States, related to colloquial uses of the term ''[[pedophilia]]'' to refer to such unusual crimes as high-profile cases of [[child abduction]].<ref name="Jenkins" />

The moral panic over pedophilia began in the 1970s after the [[sexual revolution]]. While [[homosexuality]] was becoming more socially accepted after the sexual revolution, pro-contact pedophiles believed that the sexual revolution never helped them.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Wolmar|first=Christian|date=February 27, 2014|title=Looking back to the great British paedophile infiltration campaign of the 1970s|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/looking-back-to-the-great-british-paedophile-infiltration-campaign-of-the-1970s-9155610.html|access-date=September 19, 2019|work=[[The Independent]]}}</ref> In the 1970s, pro-contact pedophile activist organizations such as [[Paedophile Information Exchange]] (PIE) and [[North American Man/Boy Love Association]] (NAMBLA) were formed in October 1974 and December 1978, respectively. Despite receiving some support, PIE received much backlash when they advocated for abolishing or lowering [[age of consent]] laws. As a result, people protested against PIE.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=de Castella|first1=Tom|last2=Heyden|first2=Tom|date=February 27, 2014|title=How did the pro-paedophile group PIE exist openly for 10 years?|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26352378|access-date=September 16, 2019|work=[[BBC News]]}}</ref>

Until the first half of the 1970s, sex was not yet part of the concept of domestic [[child abuse]], which used to be limited to physical abuse and neglect.<ref name="AllAgainstPedophilia">{{Cite journal|last=Lowenkron|first=Laura|year=2014|title=All Against Pedophilia|url=https://journals.openedition.org/vibrant/1528|journal=Vibrant. Virtual Brazilian Anthropology|issue=v10n2}} [[File:CC-BY icon.svg|50x50px]] Material was copied from this source, which is available under a [[creativecommons:by/4.0/|Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License]].</ref> The sexual part of child abuse became prominent in the [[Ages of consent in the United States|United States]] due to the encounter of two political agendas: the fight against [[battered child syndrome]] by pediatricians during the 1960s and the feminist [[anti-rape movement]], in particular the denunciation of domestic [[Sexual violence in the United States|sexual violence]].<ref name="AllAgainstPedophilia" /> These two movements overlapped in 1975, creating a new political agenda about child sexual abuse. Laura Lowenkron wrote: "The strong political and emotional appeal of the theme of 'child sexual abuse' strengthened the feminist criticism of the [[Patriarchal family|patriarchal family structure]], according to which domestic violence is linked to the unequal power between men and women and between adults and children."<ref name="AllAgainstPedophilia" /> Although the concern over child sexual abuse was caused by feminists, the concern over child sexual abuse also attracted traditional groups and conservative groups. Lowenkron added: "Concerned about the increasing expansion and acceptance of so-called 'sexual deviations' during what was called the libertarian age from the 1960s to the early 1970s", conservative groups and traditional groups "saw in the fight against 'child sexual abuse' the chance" to "revive fears about crime and sexual dangers".<ref name="AllAgainstPedophilia" />

In the 1980s, the media began to report more frequently on cases of children being raped, kidnapped, or murdered, leading to the moral panic over sex offenders and pedophiles becoming very intense in the early 1980s. In 1981, for instance, a six-year-old boy named [[Murder of Adam Walsh|Adam Walsh]] was abducted, murdered, and beheaded. Investigators believe the murderer was serial killer [[Ottis Toole]]. The murder of Adam Walsh took over nationwide news and led to a moral panic over [[child abduction]], followed by the creation of new laws for [[missing children]].<ref name="Time">{{Cite magazine|last=Waxman|first=Olivia B.|date=August 10, 2016|title=Adam Walsh Murder: The Missing Child Who Changed America|url=https://time.com/4437205/adam-walsh-murder/|access-date=September 16, 2019|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]}}</ref> According to criminologist [[Richard Moran (philosopher)|Richard Moran]], the Walsh case "created a nation of petrified kids and paranoid parents&nbsp;... Kids used to be able to go out and organize a stickball game, and now all playdates and the social lives of children are arranged and controlled by the parents."<ref name="Time" />

Also during the 1980s, inaccurate and heavily flawed data about sex offenders and their [[recidivism]] rates was published. This data led to the public believing sex offenders to have a particularly high recidivism rate; this in turn led to the creation of [[sex offender registry|sex offender registries]].<ref name="DJWOOD">Wood, Daniel J., "Sex offender registry acts: Deterrence or moral panic?" (2017). ''Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations''. [http://commons.emich.edu/theses/766 766].</ref> Later information revealed that sex offenders, including child sex offenders, have a low recidivism rate.<ref name="DJWOOD" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Borneman|first=John|date=June 29, 2018|title=Can Child Sex Offenders Be Rehabilitated?|url=https://www.sapiens.org/culture/can-child-sex-offenders-be-rehabilitated/|access-date=September 16, 2019|publisher=Sapiens}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=August 2000|title=Myths and Facts About Sex Offenders|url=https://www.csom.org/pubs/mythsfacts.pdf|access-date=September 16, 2019|publisher=Center for Sex Offender Management|archive-date=12 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190112181652/http://www.csom.org/pubs/mythsfacts.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Jeglic|first=Elizabeth|date=February 13, 2019|title=Five Myths About Child Sexual Abuse|url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/protecting-children-sexual-abuse/201902/five-myths-about-child-sexual-abuse|access-date=September 16, 2019|work=[[Psychology Today]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Kolata|first=Gina|date=September 1, 1996|title=The Many Myths About Sex Offenders|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/01/weekinreview/the-many-myths-about-sex-offenders.html|access-date=September 16, 2019|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> Other highly publicized cases, similar to the murder of Adam Walsh, that contributed to the creation of sex offender registries and sex offender laws include the abduction and murder of 11-year-old boy [[Jacob Wetterling]] in 1989; the rape and murder of 7-year-old girl [[Megan Kanka]] in 1994; and the rape and murder of 9-year-old girl [[Jessica Lunsford]] in 2005.<ref name="DJWOOD" />

Another contributing factor in the moral panic over pedophiles and sex offenders was the [[day-care sex-abuse hysteria]] in the 1980s and early 1990s, including the [[McMartin preschool trial]]. This led to a panic where parents became [[Hypervigilance|hypervigilant]] with concerns of predatory child sex offenders seeking to abduct children in public spaces, such as playgrounds.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Casey |first1=Maura |title=How not to investigate child abuse |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-modern-witch-hunt/2015/07/31/057effd8-2f1a-11e5-8353-1215475949f4_story.html |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=31 July 2015 }}</ref>