Stanley Cohen (sociologist) - Definition and Overview

Professor Stanley Cohen is the Martin White Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics. A leading writer on criminology, he is credited with coining the term moral panic in his 1972 study (Folk Devils and Moral Panics) of the popular UK media and social reaction to the Mods and Rockers phenomenon of the 1960s. It includes the Deviancy Amplification Spiral. Cohen suggests the media overreact to an aspect of behaviour which may be seen as a challenge to existing social norms. However, the media response and representation of that behaviour actually helps to define it, communicate it and portrays it as a model for outsiders to observe and adopt. So the moral panic by society represented in the media arguably fuels further socially unacceptable behaviour. The response to the use of ecstasy in the 1990s could perhaps be described as an example of a modern day moral panic.

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