Though the term moral panic was used in 1830 by a religious magazine regarding a sermon, it was used in a way that … See more

First to name the phenomenon, Stanley Cohen investigated a series of "moral panics" in his 1972 book Folk Devils and Moral Panics. In the book, Cohen describes the reaction among the British public to the seaside riv… See more

The concept of "moral panic" has also been linked to certain assumptions about the mass media. In recent times, the mass media have become important players in the dissemination of moral indignation, even when … See more

In their 1994 book Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance, Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda take a social constructionist approach to moral panics, challenging the assumption that sociology is able to defi… See more

In over 40 years of extensive study, researchers have identified several general clusters of topics that help describe the way in which moral panics operate and the impact they have. Some of the more common cl… See more

Researchers have considered a number of historical and current events to meet the criteria set out by Stanley Cohen.
The brief success of the Know-Nothing Party in the US during the 1850s can be understoo… See more

Paul Joosse has argued that while classic moral panic theory styled itself as being part of the "sceptical revolution" that sought to critique structural functionalism, it is actually very similar to Émile Durkheim's depiction o… See more