ABSTRACT
With global migration patterns intensifying over the past ¿fty years, contemporary moral panics have taken on a more overt racialized form which often links ‘race’ with youth and crime (Cunneen 2007; White 2007). The classic example of this variety of moral panic has been outlined by Hall et al. (1978) in their analysis of the ‘mugging crisis’ in Britain in 1972 and 1973. Despite there being little evidence to suggest a ‘crime wave’ of mugging at the time, the ensuing moral panic came to symbolize ‘a crisis in law and order’ and to portray young black males as the archetypal folk devil, ‘dangerously prone to gratuitous violence’ (Critcher 2003: 14). It is argued here that the work of Hall et al. and the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) Mugging Group remains highly useful in examining post-9/11 media portrayals of young minority groups, including the ‘Muslim Other’.
