Moral Panic Theory

A moral panic is defined as any episode that arises there is a misdirected public concern about an episode related to alarming laws or media that poses a threat to the social order (Krinsky, 2013). Moral panics usually center on marginalized people in the society by their race, sexuality, gender, and ethnicity. Moral panics emphasize the differences between people and amplify the stereotypes that are already in place. The media is one of the drivers of moral panics and stereotyping efforts in the society. Most people rely so much on the press for information than they do from real social interactions. Statistics show that 50% of the youth spend to get all their information from social media. Most of this information is baseless and is not verifiable and could, therefore, be misleading.

Politics is one other tool that people use to fuel moral panics in the society (Krinsky, 2013). Globally, it has been evidenced that most individuals will take the words of politicians as the gospel truth even though this might not be the case. The players in the political world could, therefore, use their positions to cause moral panic and create divisions along stereotypical lines among people. The groups mainly affected by these administrative proceedings are ethnicity and religion. Most politicians have a say in the religion they follow as well as their ethnic and geographic location. These panic attacks sometimes accelerate to violence along those lines. People resort to holding grudges along the lines of the division they never noticed before the influence of their leaders.

They create social crimes and problems where none existed.

Moral panics tend to affect the female gender most. There is so much judgment that surrounds the girl child. From time immemorial, the females had been considered weak and unfit to do what men could do. There was a time when women could not even drive vehicles. The same perception was used in interpreting the involvement of young men in gang-related activities. Gangs, especially those associated with crime and violence, consisted of men mainly. However, over the last few decades, the streets have seen women take part in these gangs in pretty much the same rate as men do. The perception that a change in behavior was coming over the girl child held the public for a long time. Their involvement in the violent gang activities tarnished the reputation of teenage girls and had them branded as nasty (Barron & Lacombe, 2008). The activities of a small percentage of the girls changed the image of the female gender and created distrust among people. The media played a substantial role in the exaggeration of the incidences of girl violence, magnifying the problem to something bigger than it was.

Another moral panic attack resulted from instances of ritual abuse in daycares. There were devil worshippers who apparently engaged in sexual relations with kids in daycares as some ritual (De Young, 2008). Although the allegations held bearing in the wake of disappearing children, the media and other drivers of moral panic caused an uproar throughout the society and tarnished the name and idea of daycare in the world. The incidences were manipulated to serve the ideological needs of some people and created distrust for the systems installed to protect the needs of clients. It showed the public that they could not trust the institutions that served to protect and educate their kids. It also fueled the propaganda that some churches are keen on spreading, thereby creating fear instead of a sense of safety among people.

References

Barron, C., & Lacombe, D. (2008). Moral Panic and the Nasty Girl*. Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue Canadienne de Sociologie, 42(1), 51-69. doi:10.1111/j.1755-618x.2005.tb00790.x
De Young, M. (2008). The Day Care Ritual Abuse Moral Panic: A Sociological Analysis. Sociology Compass, 2(6), 1719-1733. doi:10.1111/j.1751-9020.2008.00169.x
Krinsky, C. (2013). Introduction: The Moral Panic Concept. ASHGATE RESEARCH COMPANION, 1-14.