This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Cyr, J. L. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

The Folk Devil Reacts: Gangs and Moral Panic

Previous analyses of moral panics and gangs have emphasized the impact of media images as well as the public, police, and legislative response in relation to the immediate threat posed by gangs and gang members. What is absent from the current moral panic literature is the effect that a moral panic may have on the group (or individual) to whom it is directed. In this article, survey data from gang-involved and non-gag-involved youth, as well as police and gang task force members, are used to extend the empirical analysis of moral panics into the communities at which they are directed, using the criteria set forth by Goode and Ben-Yehuda (1994). The results suggest that individuals who are closest to gangs estimate the problem of gangs to be as serious as or more serious than those groups who have the responsibility for dealing with them. Thus, the gang moral panic seems to have the power to change how youth in gang-impacted communities conceive and present themselves.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				N. Doran Decoding 'encoding': Moral panics, media practices and Marxist presuppositions Theoretical Criminology, May 1, 2008; 12(2): 191 - 221. [Abstract] [PDF]

				R. Ruddell and S. H. Decker Kids and Assault Weapons: Social Problem or Social Construction? Criminal Justice Review, May 1, 2005; 30(1): 45 - 63. [Abstract] [PDF]

				F.-A. Esbensen and F. M. Weerman Youth Gangs and Troublesome Youth Groups in the United States and the Netherlands: A Cross-National Comparison European Journal of Criminology, January 1, 2005; 2(1): 5 - 37. [Abstract] [PDF]