The feral street gang is the new folk devil of our times. Does it represent a potential danger or a moral panic? (Essay Sample)

The feral street gang is the new folk devil of our times.
Does it represent a potential danger or a moral panic?
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction3
2.0 Potential danger5
2.1 Failure in the education system5
2.2 Nature of communities5
2.3 Poor background6
2.4 Traditional working class7
2.5 Culture7
2.6 Negative influence of the media8
3.0 Moral panic10
3.1 Overview of moral panic10
3.2 Outsiders10
3.3 Fear11
4.0 Conclusion12
References13
1 Introduction
The subject represented by this essay delves into a complex social issue that is contained in the title ‘The feral street gang is the new folk devil of our times. Does it represent a potential danger or a moral panic? This phenomenon was discussed by Cohen (1972) in his book “Folk devils and moral panics: the creation of the Mods and Rockers”, that helps in understanding the concept of moral panic. This concept explains the social phenomena that include social reactions to different types of crime such as gangs or mugging that represents a key underpinning of this essay (Hayle1, 2013). It also explains that groups of people tend to be defined as a threat to societal values and interests because of the nature of the crimes they commit (Case and Haines, 2009). Moral panic is a term regularly used by social commentators to depict danger. Cohen’s (1972) book explains that when a people or groups are behaving or acting in a manner that is not in keeping with to societal norms, the media can overreact in their reports.
An important element in terms of this essay represents that the rapid pace of social change in recent decades has led to a greater likelihood and frequency of moral panic (Nicholas, et al., 2013). This assumption is problematic in today’s terms because social change proceeds at a pace that is more rapid than in the past. It can be argued that society has changed to the extent where the creation of moral panic can be partly attributable to politics and the media that help to shape public opinion (Haines and Case, 2015). Scholars such as Goode et al., (1994) suggest that moral panic represents periods of widespread fear or concern when criminality is at the forefront. This tends to signify that certain elements in are trying to harm some segments of society (Fionda, 2005) ..