Moral panics

Stanley Cohen's classic 1972 definition:

"Societies appear to be subject, every now and then, to periods of moral panic. A condition, episode, person, or groups of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops, politicians and other right-thinking people; socially accredited experts pronounce their diagnoses and solutions; ways of coping are evolved (or more often) resorted to; the condition then disappears, submerges, or deteriorates and becomes more visible."

The key issue in determining whether or not something is a moral panic is what Goode and Ben-Yehuda (1994) have called "disproportionality"--the degree of public concern over the problem must be in excess of what would be appropriate were public concern proportional to the amount of objective harm the problem actually causes.