Moral panic theory examines when a group or behavior is perceived as threatening to societal values and interests, leading to a disproportionate social reaction. Key stages include identifying the threatening group, media stereotyping and marginalization, and proposed expert responses to diminish the threat. Moral panics are characterized by widespread concern, hostility towards the targeted group, consensus around the threat, and volatility in the level of panic. They can be grassroots, manufactured by interested middle groups seeking change, or elite-driven to divert attention from genuine crises. Moral panics reinforce social control and regulate divergence from dominant societal norms.

4. Moral Panics: Key Stages 1. Specific condition or group of people who ‘pose a threat’ to the values, interests and/or order of the wider society (Cohen, 2002; Thompson, 1998). 2. The media stereotypes, removes all positive characteristics of and marginalises the threat and perpetrators. Public concern continues to escalate (Cohen, 2002; Goode and Ben-Yehuda, 1995). 3. Responses to diminish or limit the effects of the threat are proposed by ‘socially accredited experts’ (Cohen, 2002). 4. The threat, public panic and concern either: a) Disappear as quickly as it arose, or, b) Result in legal and social change within the society (Cohen, 2002).