Moral Panic Project

8/13/2019 Moral Panic Project

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Moral Panic and School Violence

Jared Hasler


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What is Moral Panic?

Conceptualized by Stanley Cohen

Intense, usually over-reactionary, response by

large portion of the population to something

that threatens social order

Occurs for incidences that may be serious,

trivial, or imagined

Although what causes it may not be real, the

effects are


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Key Features of Moral Panic

There are five main observable points of moral

panic (Garland, 2008)

Concern- of the public

Hostility- toward the Folk Devils

Consensus- large agreement among society

Disproportionality- reaction is bigger than the

issue

Volatility


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Types of Moral Panic

Interest Group

Uses moral panic as a way of furthering their

interests

Grass-Roots

Legitimate concern in society that is exaggerated

Elite-Engineered

Created and used by media


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Why Would You WANT Moral Panic?

Moral panic can be used to create government

policies

Media uses it to draw attention and sell

stories

Creates a sort of free publicity


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What Causes It?

Although it is arguably not caused there is a

certain set of necessary factors

Sensationalist mass media

Discovery of new form of deviance that somehow

impacts the standard way of living

Marginalized outsider group to make into a Folk

Devil Primed, sensitized public audience


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Who are Folk Devils?

The person or persons thought to threaten social

order

There is an interactive relationship between

moral panic and the folk devils

Reaction interacts with what is being responded to

Three possible outcomes. The action is-

Halted, amplified, or transformed

Important that the group is easy to project guilt

onto


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Opposition to Moral Panic

In earlier years it was easier to view public voiceas unified, making it hard to resist deviantidentity

With recent access to social media more peopleare willing to speak out in favor of the FolkDevils

Becoming harder to find issues that have broad

public agreement There is a shift from moral panic to culture wars

between small groups


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What is School Violence

Any violent activity that takes place on school

premises

Includes verbal abuse, physical abuse, bullying,

fighting, shooting, etc.

Particular focus of moral panic has been on

school shootings


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School Shootings

A recent outbreak of school shootings has

caused moral panic

Resulted in efforts to increase the safety of

schools

Schools are already statistically safe

School violence is down

Considered to be an urban problem that has

made its way into suburban and rural areas


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Shootings

1997- 16 year-old kills mother, shoots 9 students

2 months later- 14 year-old shoots 8 students in aprayer circle

1998- 2 shooters kill 5 students 1998- student fires into crowded cafeteria killing

2, wounding 22

1998- student kills a teacher and wounds 2

students 1999- Columbine, shoot 1 teacher, 12 students,

commit suicide

(Burns, 1999)


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Initial Reaction

The reaction to the previous statistics was themedia becoming flooded with horrific accounts

Funerals of victims were broadcast live

Entertainment industry was blamed for beingirresponsible

Media frames victims as heroes and shooters astroublemakers, causing fear in and out ofschools

Nationwide survey says that 75% of Americanswere seriously concerned about school violence


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Chart Representing Reactions

(Burns, 1999)


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Stages of Legitimizing Issues

There are 5 stages of legitimizing an issue

before it can become a moral panic

Emergence of the problem

Legitimization of the problem

Mobilization of action

Formation of official plan

Transformation of plan into implementation


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Overreaction

The shootings resulted in some of the

following actions

More security in schools

Metal detectors in schools

Learning warning signs of violence

Teachers required to carry concealed weapons

Bullet drills- students learn to drop and take cover

Warning labels on violent music


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Statistics on Youth Violence

There was no increase in arrests of children under 13 forhomicide 1965- 25 arrests, 1996- 16 arrests (36% decline)

Fewer than 3% of murders involve someone under 18

killing someone under 18 There were 55 deaths to school shootings in 92-93, 51 in

93-94, 20 in 94-95, 35 in 95-96, 25 in 96-97, and 40 in 97-98 There are 50+ million students in 80,000+ schools

Even when all added together, it is less than one percent

Children killed by guns is half as many as children killed bylightning

Number of students who bring guns to school droppedfrom 6% to 3.8%

(Burns, 1999)


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Interest in School Violence Panic

For politicians, cracking down on juvenile

violence is a no-lose scenario

Voters want it, so they give it. Juveniles dont, but

most juveniles are not allowed to vote (Burns,1999)

For the media violence against children is seen

as something that affects a very wideaudience and that is sentimentally priceless


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Can School Violence be Considered

Moral Panic?

It has the necessary features such as the

concern of the public, the disproportionality,

hostility toward folk devils, and consensus of

society (Garland, 2008)

This was made to be a much larger issue than it

actually is and was the cause of a lot of change in

government and state policies. Yes, it would beconsidered a moral panic


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References

Burns, Ronald and Charles Crawford. 1999. "School Shootings, the Media, and Public Fear: Ingredients for

a Moral Panic."Crime, Law and Social Change32(2):147-168. Retrieved July 20, 2013

(https://ezproxy.depauw.edu:443/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/216164152?accountid=

10478).

Garland, David. 2008. On the Concept of Moral Panic. Crime, Media, Culture 4(9), Retrieved July 20,

2013 (http://cmc.sagepub.com/content/4/1/9.abstract)

Hunt, Arnold. 1997. Moral Panic and Moral Language in the Media. The British Journal of Sociology.

48(4). Retrieved July 20, 2013 (http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.depauw.edu/stable/pdfplus/591600.pdf)
https://ezproxy.depauw.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/216164152?accountid=10478https://ezproxy.depauw.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/216164152?accountid=10478http://cmc.sagepub.com/content/4/1/9.abstracthttp://cmc.sagepub.com/content/4/1/9.abstracthttps://ezproxy.depauw.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/216164152?accountid=10478https://ezproxy.depauw.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/216164152?accountid=10478

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