Folk Devils

In his research into moral panic, Stanley Cohen describes members of the public who disapprove of some particular behaviour and may use the media to put pressure on authorities to do something about it. If successful the campaign will result in the negative labelling of the behaviour and group of people. A lot of these problems are caused by the creation of a moral panic which is an exaggerated overreaction by society to a perceived problem and often fed by the media. Therefore the social reaction amplifies the problem out of all proportion. In a moral panic a group, a “folk devil” is identified as a threat to their values. The group are then portrayed in a negative and stereotypical fashion and exaggerate the scale of the problem. This series takes a look at one of those groups of people.