Moral Panic and Juvenile Panic

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Moral Panic and Juvenile Panic

Moral panic is the term used to refer the instance of a case of anxiety to the civilians in reaction to a problem that is considered a threat to the ethical values of the society. The full spread fear is characterized by irritation and moral standards threatening regarding community’s interest and the safety of the public. It is substantially created by the social media, stimulated by the politicians and the end this results to the generation of new policies focus towards the instantaneous source of distress. Hence, there is increasing social control in the society, and the panic’s impacts can be positively experienced in the society. Moral panics have been experienced there before, and it significantly shapes people’s perception and understanding of juvenile and juvenile delinquency. Juvenile delinquency is the act of committing criminal offenses by the young people who are under the age of ordinary prosecution. In this paper, the effects of moral panic in determining society’s point of view towards juvenile misbehavior are expounded into a more profound extent.

Moral panics have played a significant role interpreting juvenile and the youths’ behavior not only in today’s society but also during the old days of the nation’s history. Fear is a great enemy of the social cognitive and sound decision making that affects every person especially the children who are growing and developing their characters. It is normal that under pressure and panic ones thinking capacity about decision making is interrupted and affected to a significant effect. During the old days, the energetic people were subjected to threats to provide labor resources to their lords. Therefore, they felt offended, hence the development of anxiety and need to be free leading to juvenile delinquency in the process. In many instances, they tend to use force or try to use fishy deeds which are against the law.

For instance, considering the case of gunfire in the learning institutions, a moral panic has dramatically contributed in regarding juvenile as an unethical and unprincipled group. The shootings led to the death of fellow students as well as tutors as the college people had the authority to carry handguns to school. It has also extended to the cities neighboring learning institutions reaching to the towns and the countryside parts. The fear is not only affecting the students and learning institution’s staff but also the parents and society at large. Therefore, they take the juvenile as eroded of manners and indiscipline people who can to be trusted on ethical matters. Not all of the youths are such even though there was a number of them who tend to take advantage of the freedom granted. To cope up with the fright, the raised significant actions such as prohibiting possession of hand weapons in class and legal penalties against the victims.

On the other hand, the actions are taken against a juvenile in the name of preventing juvenile delinquency results to moral panic. The youths are at many times under the fear that if found doing any irregularity the next action will be a harsh punishment that can be a serious as long-term imprisonment. Therefore, this generated fear influenced their spirit of being innovating and the way of doing things as at all the times they are anxious about the penalty that may follow. They have a role to play in the society but not causing moral panic to the civilians. The public fear about juvenile misconduct and the actions partaken has positively lead to a decrease in cases of juvenile crimes. The best way to completely eradicate the immoral activities is through adopting strategies that will not influence the youths’ way of doing things but dealing with the specific individual involved in the act.

The people will at all the time judge the juvenile according to their behaviors, and in many instances, the young people have a collective behavior due to peer pressure and interactions influence. Currently, many current moral waves of panic are primarily used to the belief of juvenile behaviors. Among the common one is involvement of immoral acts in establishing instant riches with the desire to have high living standards at their tender age. Among these unethical activities include drug trafficking, burglary and adopting evil beliefs that promise great things at a price. It is very disheartening that the outfit of a young person who tends to copy the modern fashion may result in misinterpretation as a drug peddler. The society has a common belief that these peddlers have a kind of unique outfit based on their way of dressing and shaving among many other characteristics. The juvenile is growing and like following the trending fashion, and at instances, the society’s perspective does not determine who they are and their deeds.

The thought-provoking thing is that the moral panics shape peoples’ belief on the subjects even when the official statistics contradict the perception put forward by these moral panics. The reason behind this is that people are complex and it is difficult to convince them that the thing they believe in through their observation or experience is wrong. The statistics done through research takes into consideration all the juveniles in the nation or a certain part of is not the case with individual experience. For instance, one cannot change the mentality of a person who had faced a threat from a juvenile that they are morally upright. Change is inevitable, and it is every person’s responsibility to take part in shaping the behavior of the juveniles as they are the future elders and rulers of the nation.

References

Cossins, A. (2015). The Moral Panic Concept: Its History, Social Utility and Ability to Interpret Past Events. In Female Criminality (pp. 16-56). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Morrison, J. (2016). Familiar strangers, juvenile panic and the British press: the decline of social trust. Springer.

Morrison, J. (2016). Trust, Risk and Framing Contemporary Childhood. In Familiar Strangers, Juvenile Panic and the British Press (pp. 1-34). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Panic, M. (2017). DEMONIZATION OF YOUTH AND POLITICIZATION OF JUVENILE JUSTICE. Reaffirming Juvenile Justice: From Gault to Montgomery, 22.

Rowbotham, J., & Stevenson, K. (2017). Behaving Badly: Social Panic and Moral Outrage-Victorian and Modern Parallels. Routledge.

Schildkraut, J., Elsass, H. J., & Stafford, M. C. (2015). Could it happen here? Moral panic, school shootings, and fear of crime among college students. Crime, Law and Social Change, 63(1-2), 91-110.