This report critically evaluates the book ‘Folk Devils and Moral Panics’
(2002) written by Stanley Cohen. The book was the third edition of Cohen’s work which was based on his PhD; it aims to summarise how societies can be subject to moral panic. Cohen’s book is seen as the most influential books addressing moral panic within society and was given high praise. Moral panic is when a society acts out in alarm and anxiety towards something that threatens the usual norm expected from society. Cohen explains that when a factor appears as a threat to society, it is then exaggerated upon by the mass media, religious leaders and politicians until experts within the social field produce a cure or solution to help deteriorate or help cope with the issue; such as the Mods and Rockers in the 1960s. At times the issue may be a new matter that has emerged or something that has existed silently and suddenly becomes a headlining issue. He goes on to further clarify that the moral panic at times dies down and is forgotten about except in folklore and collective memory; in more serious situations, it may result in legal and social changes.
At first, Cohen examines the transactional approach to deviance which explores how the approach on the way people judge situations has now changed and in what ways this effects deviance. He then goes on to analyse the influence the mass media has on deviance. Finally, he goes into further detail on the Mods and Rockers. Although Cohen’s explanation of moral panics is strong, he is criticised as mass media has changed since the concept of moral panic emerged so “that ‘folk devils’ are less marginalized than they once were”, and that ‘folk devils’ are not only castigated by mass media but supported and defended by it as well. They also suggest that the “points of social control” that moral panics used to rest on “have undergone some degree of shift, if not transformation.
Cohen begins by explaining how the culture of deviance and problematic behaviour has ‘undergone a radical orientation’ in the last decade. He states that society has now started to question what deviance is in today’s society and how deviance is problematic. Many people are starting to show an increase in wanting to understand what is deemed as deviant or abnormal in our society and why that is. He underlies the fact that although there are certain types of behaviour that are deemed as deviant and that certain characters may intentionally be deviant; we should not assume this is a person’s character. Becker’s statement, which is quoted in Cohen’s book, supports this statement as he states that deviance is created by society due to the boundaries placed in the publics lives, which are expected to not be crossed and is not a quality of the act the person commits or the quality of them as a person.
This is supported by the labelling theory created by Emily Durkheim however flourished during Becker’s findings in the 1960s. The labelling theory states that putting a label to a certain type of behaviour then leads onto the self-fulfilling prophecy as the victim of the label then subconsciously fulfils the label put against them. Most victims of labelling usually are from working class backgrounds where they are pre judged as deviant due to the type of area they live in and the way they dressed. This type of labelling is carried out by law enforcement as well as teachers within schools. Some victims of labelling are able to ignore the label and do not react negatively to the deviant title which is what sociologist Lemert states is primary deviance. Secondary deviance occurs after a person negatively reacts to labeled a deviant by society which leads onto the self-fulfilling prophecy. The self-fulfilling prophecy is when the person labelled as deviant sees themselves as a failure and an outcaste from society resulting in them being ‘deviant.’ This supports Becker’s quote “social groups create deviance by creating the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labelling them as outsiders.”
Furthermore, Cohen addresses the relation of deviance with the mass media. He claims that news is ‘second hand’ and ‘processed by the mass media’ which means that we are presented news in a format that has been subjected to the medias view of how the news should be presented to the public. Due to different forms of which we can receive news from the media, the news is further constructed to suit the form whether it is a newspaper or radio report. An important factor Cohen briefly mentions is the commercial and political restraints as the media have to comply with rules that have been set in place my policies formed by the government however there is no substantial evidence to prove this therefore Cohen is criticised for making an opinion a certain fact.
Cohen states “the student of moral enterprise cannot but pay particular attention to the role of the mass media in defining and shaping social problems.” This is supported by current issues that we face today in recent events known as the ‘creepy crown phase’. Although this phase merely started as a sinister prank, the mass media exaggerated and broadcasted the situation as deviant youths pulling acting out of control. The craze then began to be in everyday headlines captioned “creepy clown craze sweeps the globe.” This then led to violent stories of clowns being broadcasted on the news as a father was stabbed by a youth in a clown costume when the father plunged for the knife the clown was holding, out of fear due to the mass media reports.
Another current example of the influence the mass media holds over the way society perceives different groups of people is through race and religion. An issue that is current is the mention of religion in reports by the media which outcastes an entire religion. Many online articles have headlines such as “I would do it again 100 times’: Muslim father ‘murdered his THREE daughters in honor killing for dating wrong boys,” which automatically casts a shadow of opinion amongst the public over Muslim’s around the world. Results of this have been hate crimes towards the Muslim’s as they face judgement from most people even most are innocent. This portrays how the mass medias influence can be negative once situations are exaggerated and can end up causing deviance. Cohen states that the “media might leave behind a diffuse feeling of anxiety about the situation: ‘something should be done about it’, ‘where will it end?’ as once this begins, it creates an endless cycle of attacks made from different groups of people towards one another and then is deemed as deviant behavior leaving the rest of the public anxious.
Finally, Cohen addresses the Mods and Rockers which was classed as a phenomenon in the 1960s. The Mods and Rockers were two groups of youths that were classed as a bunch of deviant youths from working class families in Britain which caused a wave of panic and concern for the youth in Britain. They were eventually known as what Cohen calls ‘folk devils’ as they were soon forgotten about but related to when we remember what we do not want to be. Certain situations that took place at English seaside resorts is what created the deviant image of the Mods and Rockers such as “youths chasing across the beach and riding bikes or scooters down the streets.” Cohen illustrates how the mass medias importance is intensified when dealing with crowd behavior as the media builds up and spreads a sensation nationally and/or internationally.
Cohen then started to notice a correlation between what he thought was moral panics and physical disasters. He notes that it is clear that the difference between what happened at the seaside resorts is greatly different from a disaster such as an earthquake, the resemblances were clear and the Mods and rockers incident could be classified as a disaster by the public. This supports Cohen’s view of how the mass media can create a moral of panic as the confrontations the Mods and Rockers faced were not any more serious than a pub brawl.
On the other hand, criminologist Steve Hall argues that the mass media use their overage of deviation for awareness to help assure the public in a positive note rather than a negative note.
In conclusion, majority of Cohen’s points are strong and are well supported from issues that are relevant today and from other sociologists and criminologists however he does face criticism due to his terminology ‘moral panics’ and for only claiming the medias negative influence on society whilst rejecting the positive.