History
According to theory, the spiral starts with some "deviant" act. Usually the deviance is criminal but it can also involve lawful acts considered morally repugnant. The mass media report what they consider to be newsworthy, but the new focus on the issue uncovers hidden or borderline examples which themselves would not have been newsworthy except inasmuch as they confirm the "pattern". For a variety of reasons, what is not frightening and would help the public keep a rational perspective (such as statistics showing that the behavior or event is actually less common or harmful than generally believed) tends to be ignored.
As a result, minor problems begin to look serious and rare events begin to seem common. Members of the public are motivated to keep informed on these events. The resulting publicity has potential to increase deviant behavior by glamorizing it or making it seem common or acceptable.
In the next stage, supporters of the theory contend, public concern about crime typically forces the police and the whole law enforcement system to focus more resources on dealing with the specific deviancy than it warrants. Judges and magistrates under public pressure deal out harsher sentences. Politicians pass new laws to deal with the perceived threat. All this tends to convince the public that any fear was justified while the media continue to profit by reporting police and other law enforcement activity.
The theory does not contend that moral panics always include the deviancy amplification spiral. In modern times, media involvement is usual in any moral panic.
Eileen Barker asserts that the controversy surrounding certain new religious movements can turn violent in a deviancy amplification spiral.
In the autobiography of Lincoln Steffens, there is a chapter "I Make a Crime Wave" detailing how news reporting creates the impression of a crime wave.
See also
- Media hype
- Availability heuristic/Representativeness heuristic
- Yellow journalism
- Mass hysteria
- Sensationalism
- Folk devil
- Moral panic
- Mean world syndrome
- Mass media
- Social control
- Crowd psychology
- Culture of fear
- Missing white woman syndrome
- Junk food news
- Jenkem
References
Further reading
- Cohen, Stanley. Folk devils and moral panics. London: Mac Gibbon and Kee, 1972. ISBN 0-415-26712-9.
- Section 3.4 Interpreting the crime problem of Free OpenLearn LearningSpace Unit DD100_1 originally written for the Open University Course, DD100.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Thursday June 19, 2008 at 02:21:35 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation
History
According to theory, the spiral starts with some "deviant" act. Usually the deviance is criminal but it can also involve lawful acts considered morally repugnant. The mass media report what they consider to be newsworthy, but the new focus on the issue uncovers hidden or borderline examples which themselves would not have been newsworthy except inasmuch as they confirm the "pattern". For a variety of reasons, what is not frightening and would help the public keep a rational perspective (such as statistics showing that the behavior or event is actually less common or harmful than generally believed) tends to be ignored.
As a result, minor problems begin to look serious and rare events begin to seem common. Members of the public are motivated to keep informed on these events. The resulting publicity has potential to increase deviant behavior by glamorizing it or making it seem common or acceptable.
In the next stage, supporters of the theory contend, public concern about crime typically forces the police and the whole law enforcement system to focus more resources on dealing with the specific deviancy than it warrants. Judges and magistrates under public pressure deal out harsher sentences. Politicians pass new laws to deal with the perceived threat. All this tends to convince the public that any fear was justified while the media continue to profit by reporting police and other law enforcement activity.
The theory does not contend that moral panics always include the deviancy amplification spiral. In modern times, media involvement is usual in any moral panic.
Eileen Barker asserts that the controversy surrounding certain new religious movements can turn violent in a deviancy amplification spiral.
In the autobiography of Lincoln Steffens, there is a chapter "I Make a Crime Wave" detailing how news reporting creates the impression of a crime wave.
See also
- Media hype
- Availability heuristic/Representativeness heuristic
- Yellow journalism
- Mass hysteria
- Sensationalism
- Folk devil
- Moral panic
- Mean world syndrome
- Mass media
- Social control
- Crowd psychology
- Culture of fear
- Missing white woman syndrome
- Junk food news
- Jenkem
References
Further reading
- Cohen, Stanley. Folk devils and moral panics. London: Mac Gibbon and Kee, 1972. ISBN 0-415-26712-9.
- Section 3.4 Interpreting the crime problem of Free OpenLearn LearningSpace Unit DD100_1 originally written for the Open University Course, DD100.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Thursday June 19, 2008 at 02:21:35 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation
Copyright © 2008, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.