Widening The Focus: Moral Panics as Moral Regulation

2008/06/14 by Chas Critcher · 9 citations
Social Sciences · Health Professions · Psychology · #Crime, Deviance, and Social Control #Homelessness and Social Issues #Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion #Moral panic #Sociology #Focus (optics) #Media studies #Criminology

paper · doi:10.1093/bjc/azn040

openalex publication_date 2008/06/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

Moral panic analysis needs reconnecting to mainstream sociological theory. A potential connection is via moral regulation. The origins and development of moral regulation, and its application to moral panics, are traced through the work of Corrigan and Sayer, Hunt and Hier. While it appears highly beneficial to locate moral panics as an extreme form of more routine processes of moral regulation, better specification is required of the scope of moral regulation and its boundary with moral panics. Three dimensions of discursive construction are identified for differentiating between issues of moral regulation: as threats to the moral order, as being amenable to social control measures, and as involving ethical self-regulation. Clarity is also needed about the political project of moral regulation analysis.

Citations

• Folk Devils and Moral Panics

Cited by

• Incurable Sex Offenders, Lousy Judges & The Media: Moral Panic Sustenance in the Age of New Media
• Expanding Moral Panic Theory to Include the Agency of Charismatic Entrepreneurs
• ‘Ta-Ta Qatada’: Islamophobic Moral Panic and the British Tabloid Press
• Moral Panic and Social Theory
• Child Grooming and Sexual Exploitation: Are South Asian Men the UK Media’s New Folk Devils?
• Tightening the focus: moral panic, moral regulation and liberal government1
• Violent video games and the Supreme Court: Lessons for the scientific community in the wake of Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association.
• A Hybrid Model of Moral Panics: Synthesizing the Theory and Practice of Moral Panic Research
• Moral panic [wikipedia]

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• Tightening the focus: moral panic, moral regulation and liberal government1
• Moral Panic Analysis: Past, Present and Future
• Moral Panic and Social Theory
• A Hybrid Model of Moral Panics: Synthesizing the Theory and Practice of Moral Panic Research
• Moral Panics