SOCC30H3 Lecture Notes - Moral Panic, Toronto Star, Content Analysis
Document Summary
Young people are often the focus of public fear of crime. Today"s young are perceived as being the worst behaved than their predecessors. These fears are not new and often involve a backward look to a time when youth crime was not a problem (or so it is believed) Media coverage often focuses upon the disreputable behaviours of young people; moreover it concentrates on the serious (rear), rather than the minor crimes (more frequent) Particularly exaggerated fears are referred to as moral panics: the social reaction to a certain phenomena is out of proportion to the scope of the problem. The case of mods and rockers (uk, 1964) Most youth crime isn"t serious or homicide, but property/trespassing crime. Pearson took an analysis beginning in 1988 of the stories in various british newspapers young people + crime (stealing, fighting, hurting others, gangs, disrespect to authority, drug use, teen pregnancies, going off the rails. The youth of today are out of control)