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First published online April 22, 2010

Moral Panic and Social Theory: Beyond the Heuristic

Abstract

Chas Critcher has recently conceptualized moral panic as a heuristic device, or ‘ideal type’. While he argues that one still has to look beyond the heuristic, despite a few exceptional studies there has been little utilization of recent developments in social theory in order to look ‘beyond moral panic’. Explicating two current critical contributions — the first, drawing from the sociologies of governance and risk; the second, from the process/figurational sociology of Norbert Elias — this article highlights the necessity for the continuous theoretical development of the moral panic concept and illustrates how such development is essential to overcome some of the substantial problems with moral panic research: normativity, temporality and (un)intentionality.

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1.
The initial research for this article was carried out while Amanda Rohloff was a graduate student at Victoria University of Wellington. She acknowledges the support of a Peter Caws Studentship, an ORSAS Award and an LB Wood Travelling Scholarship, while producing the revised version of the article at Brunel University.
2.
Sarah Wright acknowledges the support of a Victoria University PhD Scholarship.
3.
1. Though the distinction between Cohen’s (1972) study of reactive and interactive phenomena and Goode and Ben-Yehuda’s (1994) approach in terms of social constructionism and collective behaviour is usually clear, Critcher (2003) conceptualizes the former as a model of processes; the latter as a model of identifiable criteria (attributes: concern, hostility, consensus, disproportionality and volatility).
4.
2. Cohen’s (2002) defence is that although panics may be initiated (and sustained) by wider political and social forces, this does not mean that they do not have their own internal trajectories that can be the matter for study, and, further, that a panic by definition is temporary and spasmodic, especially if we are taking into particular account media formats and cycles (a view echoed by Critcher, 2003)
5.
3. This is not to say that ‘interest group’ panics do not entail intentional actions. Rather, the panic is regarded as an unintentional outcome of intentional crusades.
6.
4. In this way, he indirectly recognizes Goode and Ben-Yehuda’s (1994) grass-roots, interest group and elite models of panic.
7.
5. Critcher (2008) suggests a dimensional categorization based upon how an issue is discursively constructed; as a threat to basic values (the moral order dimension), the extent to which there is a proposed solution (the social order dimension) and the regulation of others insofar as it requires the ethical formation of the self (the governmentality dimension). Those issues that score high on the first two (child sexual abuse, violent crime, asylum seeking) are potential panics; issues such as smoking, obesity and sexually transmitted diseases score high only on the third, and as such are not likely to generate the same language of evil; their perpetrators are less subject to the same degree of social expulsion.
8.
6. Following Ungar, Hier and other critics, we would argue that this is not to say that the concept of moral panic necessitates a disproportionate reaction to a perceived social problem.
9.
7. Indeed, Critcher (2009: 24) argues that this is the challenge for new empirical works; to consider which groups/individuals are identified as the source of harm — when, and why.
10.
8. Exploring ‘as dispassionately as possible’ through a ‘detour via detachment’ should not be confused with ‘emotionless rationality’. Rather, the aim is for ‘passion’ associated with ‘heteronomous evaluations’ to be replaced (though never absolutely) with increasingly controlled ‘passion’ associated with the pursuit of a more reality congruent knowledge (Kilminster, 2007: 121—3).

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Published In

Article first published online: April 22, 2010
Issue published: May 2010

Keywords

  1. Norbert Elias
  2. governance
  3. moral panic
  4. risk
  5. social theory

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Amanda Rohloff
Sarah Wright
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, [email protected]

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