Moral Panic
TUTORIAL 3
Student name: Tariro Sasa
Student number: g12s0218
Tutor: Sinazo Nomsenge
Topic: Deviance
Due: 4 October 2012
TASK: Critically discuss the idea of moral panic in the social construction of deviance.
INTRODUCTION
In order to discuss the idea of moral panic in the social construction of deviance it is important that these three concepts be first defined. Only then is it possible to initiate or conduct an interrogation of the links and connections between the two main inseparable constructs, which are moral panic, and deviance. In brief deviance is defined as “violations of the norms of society” (Thompson, 2004: 2). This means that deviance is an anomie that threatens to degenerate the consensually agreed upon behaviours, values, and beliefs that society shares and deems appropriate. As acceptable ways of behaviour are converted to societal norms, and mores; deviance is simultaneously constructed by society as it defines those behaviours it collectively negatively perceives, to be taboo, folk-devilish and thereby being deviant. Hence deviance threatens the moral fibre of a society. Moral panic was originally defined by Cohen (1972:9) to be a phenomenon whereby moral entrepreneurs feed into public sensationalism of deviant behaviour, indiscriminate of its magnitude and nature. This means that moral panic is the exaggerated response by the public towards the perpetrators of deviant behaviour.
In this essay I shall explain how moral panic feeds into the social construction of deviance. Thereby answering the question of how an episode of moral panic may lead to social changes and a redefining of what may be regarded as deviant, among other things. To achieve this I shall refer to a moral panic condition that emerged in Zimbabwe around November 2012, where three women were in the spotlight for being suspected of having committed about seventeen counts of rape against several different men (Vickers, 2011).
‘THE SEMEN
Student name: Tariro Sasa
Student number: g12s0218
Tutor: Sinazo Nomsenge
Topic: Deviance
Due: 4 October 2012
TASK: Critically discuss the idea of moral panic in the social construction of deviance.
INTRODUCTION
In order to discuss the idea of moral panic in the social construction of deviance it is important that these three concepts be first defined. Only then is it possible to initiate or conduct an interrogation of the links and connections between the two main inseparable constructs, which are moral panic, and deviance. In brief deviance is defined as “violations of the norms of society” (Thompson, 2004: 2). This means that deviance is an anomie that threatens to degenerate the consensually agreed upon behaviours, values, and beliefs that society shares and deems appropriate. As acceptable ways of behaviour are converted to societal norms, and mores; deviance is simultaneously constructed by society as it defines those behaviours it collectively negatively perceives, to be taboo, folk-devilish and thereby being deviant. Hence deviance threatens the moral fibre of a society. Moral panic was originally defined by Cohen (1972:9) to be a phenomenon whereby moral entrepreneurs feed into public sensationalism of deviant behaviour, indiscriminate of its magnitude and nature. This means that moral panic is the exaggerated response by the public towards the perpetrators of deviant behaviour.
In this essay I shall explain how moral panic feeds into the social construction of deviance. Thereby answering the question of how an episode of moral panic may lead to social changes and a redefining of what may be regarded as deviant, among other things. To achieve this I shall refer to a moral panic condition that emerged in Zimbabwe around November 2012, where three women were in the spotlight for being suspected of having committed about seventeen counts of rape against several different men (Vickers, 2011).
‘THE SEMEN