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Editorial

On Moral Panic

by Rick Lewis

“A spectre is haunting Britain”, as old Karl Marx might have said. A few weeks or months ago some journalist coined the phrase ‘moral panic’ to describe it. The trigger for it was a succession of horrific crimes (abduction, murder) committed by youngish schoolchildren, and the panic is characterised by the widespread fear that, as a result of changes in society, a generation are growing up with some very strange ideas about what constitutes acceptable behaviour. There have been other indications too of problems – the pregnancy rate of young schoolgirls, 15 year olds joyriding ‘borrowed’ XR3is around housing estates before torching them, and drug abuse. Politicians have conjured up images of schools where anything goes and homes where single mothers leave their offspring alone in tower blocks all day to watch video nasties and sniff glue while they go out to work.

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