Moral Panic Essay

The term “moral panic” has been attributed to the alarm surrounding youth delinquency and sexual immorality. Considering the fact that the concern led to the formation of the Special Committee of Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents it could be assumed that this situation displayed at least two of the characteristics of moral panics: concern and consensus. The heightened level of concern led to a consensus that the threat was real and action had to be taken to remedy the issue. Volatility may also be assumed, as the discussion appears to only be of greatest significance during the 1950’s. Additionally, clear hostility is seen towards youths, with them being described as “overdressed and oversexed immigrants preying on young New Zealand virgins.” (Yska, 1993: 191). However, the
characteristic that is difficult to ascertain is disproportionality. I believe determining whether a response is disproportional relies heavily subjective perspective, and is very difficult to ascertain in an objective manner. For example, today it may be easy to look at the reaction, and think of it as an overreaction.
However, today’s society has significantly different values than society in the 1950’s. In the 1950’s, a large majority of society would not have considered the response disproportional, because the actions of these youth were significantly indicating a move away from the Christian values that were embedded in New Zealand society. Guy (2009) contends that the concern shown over youth sexuality during the 1950’s should not be labelled a moral panic. Guy believes that the label of ‘moral panic’ ignores the fact that the incidents were indicators of a shift in societal beliefs about sexuality (Guy, 2009: 442). There was a definite shift in societal values around this time. Between 1940-1960, illegitimacy rates more than doubled (Guy, 2009: 449), suggesting that society was moving away from the Christian belief that sex was only appropriate within marriage. Guy argues that this shows that the response was not disproportionate, as what was feared did come true (Guy, 2009: 442). What the society did do, however, was take a few individuals actions and see them as representative of all
youths. In this way, we may be able to see there was disproportionality to a certain extent. The controversy over bodgies has various characteristics of a moral panic, however because of changes in societal values over time, it is now hard to completely claim whether the reaction had the element of disproportionality to it.