Stanley Cohen was a South African-born British sociologist and criminologist who coined the term moral panic in his 1972 book Folk Devils and Moral Panics, a study of the media and public reaction to clashes between mods and rockers subcultures on English seaside towns in the 1960s. He argued that societies periodically identify a group or condition as a threat to social values, amplified and simplified by the media into folk devils, provoking a disproportionate public and institutional response that reveals more about the anxieties of the wider society than about the actual scale of the threat. Cohen later turned to the sociology of human rights violations and organized denial, notably in States of Denial (2001), examining how individuals, organizations, and states come to know about atrocities and suffering while still managing not to fully acknowledge or act on that knowledge.
Facts
BirthplaceJohannesburg, South Africa 1 Nationality / Culture Defining ContributionCoined the concept of moral panic in Folk Devils and Moral Panics, describing how media and public reaction can amplify a group or behavior into a perceived threat to social order out of proportion to its real scale. 1 Notable WorkFolk Devils and Moral Panics (1972); Visions of Social Control: Crime, Punishment and Classification (1985); States of Denial: Knowing about Atrocities and Suffering (2001) 1 In the Other Atlases
- Also in Crime and Justice Atlas: Stanley Cohen, the same subject.
Sources
1. Stanley Cohen (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead section, birth date
Stanley Cohen (23 February 1942-7 January 2013) was a South African-British sociologist and criminologist, Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics
Lead section, birth year
Stanley Cohen (23 February 1942-7 January 2013) was a South African-British sociologist and criminologist, Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics
Life section, born
Cohen was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1942, son of a Lithuanian businessman.
Lead section, nationality
Stanley Cohen (23 February 1942-7 January 2013) was a South African-British sociologist and criminologist, Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics
Life section, death
He died on 7 January 2013 from consequences of Parkinson's disease.
Life section, death year
He died on 7 January 2013 from consequences of Parkinson's disease.
Folk Devils and Moral Panic (1972) section
Cohen suggested the media overreact to an aspect of behaviour which may be seen as a challenge to existing social norms.
Work section
Cohen's 1972 study (Folk Devils and Moral Panics) of the UK popular media and social reaction to the Mods and Rockers phenomenon is widely regarded by British criminologists as one of the most influential works in the field in the last forty years.
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