ABSTRACT
The genealogy of the moral panic concept can be traced to the labelling perspective, which emphasised the role of social control agents in amplifying, even creating, deviance. Jock Young’s original coining of the term ‘moral panic’ was adopted by Stan Cohen in his book Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1973), a study of the conflicting youth cultures in 1960s Britain. While incorporating popular rumours of the type associated with urban legends, Cohen focuses especially on the role of the media and on what he called ‘the manufacture of news’. Since the first paragraph of Cohen’s book has been cited creedal-style in all subsequent discussions of moral panics, I will simply intone the first line, confidently assuming that readers can complete its recital: ‘Societies appear to be subject, every now and then, to periods of moral panic…’ (Cohen 1973:9).
