The State

Many of the individual and social problems that are characterised as moral panics are, in reality, illustrations of a breakdown in the legitimacy of the state. This Byte picks up a number of case-study examples - internet pornography; internet radicalisation; ‘chavs’; the Tottenham riots; patient safety - and explores each through the lens of moral panic ideas, with an appraisal of the work of Stuart Hall, one of the key thinkers in moral panics.

Viviene E. Cree is Professor of Social Work Studies at the University of Edinburgh. She is a qualified youth and community worker and social worker, and has written and researched extensively on social work.