[ home | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z || help | about ]

MORAL PANIC

Suggests a panic or overreaction to forms of deviance or wrong doing believed to be threats to the moral order. Moral panics are usually fanned by the media and led by community leaders or groups intent on changing laws or practices. Sociologists are less interested in the validity of the claims made during moral panics than they are with the dynamics of social change and the organizational strategies of moral entrepreneurs. Moral panics gather converts because they touch on people's fears and because they also use specific events or problems as symbols of what many feel to represent ‘all that is wrong with the nation’. The moral panic over youth violence, for example, presents this violence as a symbol of all that is wrong with Canada - it is claimed that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms has undermined authority; the family has fallen apart; immigration has brought many disreputable groups into the country; governments and their agents have become self-serving and out of touch with the reality of social life; economic transformation has marginalized and demoralized young people.

Last updated 2002--0-9-

---

[ home | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z || help | about ]

© Robert Drislane, Ph.D. and Gary Parkinson, Ph.D.
The online version of this dictionary is a product of
Athabasca University and
ICAAP

*This social science dictionary has 1000
entries covering the disciplines of sociology, criminology, political
science and women's study with a commitment to Canadian examples and
events and names