ABSTRACT
Others have criticised the whole notion of moral panics as a conceptualisation of social reaction. Left realists – the subject of Chapter 16 in this book – maintain that crime and the fear of crime should be taken seriously and not dismissed as just an expression of media over-reaction or panic. For example, Waddington (1986) criticised the empirical basis of Hall et al.’s (1978) influential study of street robberies, arguing that incidents of ‘mugging’ were increasing at the time and therefore asked what a proportionate response to the problem should have involved. Others have identified problems with the use of the concept of moral panic to capture reaction to diverse themes or issues. For example, Watney (1987) has questioned the use of the concept to characterise media and policy reactions to HIV/Aids. McRobbie and Thornton (1995) argue that the whole idea of a moral panic needs to be reconsidered in an environment where there may be an institutionalised need for the media to generate ‘good stories’ and that these can easily become part of a promotional culture that ‘ironically’ uses sensationalism for commercial purposes.
