RESEARCH FOR STUDIO (TOUGH ON CRIME) PSYCH + FEAR

‘Tough on Crime’ – focusing on the PSYCHOLOGY of it (FEAR)

Psychology: the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context (dictionary.com)

Societal Elites manipulate public fear
MORAL PANIC- ‘a situation in which public fears and state interventions greatly exceed the objective threat posed to society by a particular individual or group who is/are claimed to be responsible for creating the threat in the first place.’
Stanley Cohen created the concept in England 1960s in response to threats posed by youth groups
However this implementation of fear provides benefits towards the media, politicians and law enforcement authorities
Moral Panic formed through distortion of mass media campaigns
Campaigns often based on race, ethnicity and social class through the reinforcement of stereotypes

MORAL PANIC CONVENTIONS:

Focus on Attention of Behavior – strip favorable characteristics and replace with negative ones.
Gap between Concern and Threat – objectively threat is less threatening than the image provided
Level of Concern Fluctuates- discover threat, rise in public concern, abrupt subside

This public Hysteria then forces the public to address and vote the legislation to justify agendas of those in power
Public and Political response to a distorted conception
An ‘allegedly harmful individual or group’
Can be an exaggeration – number of individuals involved, level of violence, amount of damage caused.

SOCIAL ACTORS INVOLVED:

PRIMING- ‘pays attention to the troublesome issue at hand and brings about old information from this issue, bringing back old memories from that issue’
Triggers the Publics pre-existent beliefs, attitudes and prejudices from the issue
Law enforcers and Politicians have a sworn identity to protect the public
President Ronald Regan U.S. war on drugs 1980s
The Public is the central actors within the concept of Moral Panic
Politicians + Law Enforces + Media = Moral Panic outcry from the Public
(1) Cohen, S. 1972. Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers. London: MacGibbon and Key Ltd.
(2) Tuchman, G. 1978. Making News: A Study in the Social Construction of Reality. New York: The Free Pres

Massive Media exposure labels the evil
Social construction of evil and public monsters
Typically stylized and exaggerated
Journalistic Hyperbole
Public concern and Anxiety is heightened
Scaring the Public through Advertising
Jeffery Dahmer as the ‘Milwaukee Cannibal’
‘Jeffery Dahmer: Man or Monster?’
Shortly after Dahmer’s capture, the front cover of People magazine published on August 12, 1991 read: Horror in Milwaukee: He was a quiet man who worked in a chocolate factory. But at an apartment 213 a real-life “Silence of the Lambs” was unfolding. Now that Jeffrey Dahmer has confessed to 17 grotesque murders, his troubling history of alcoholism, sex offenses and bizarre behavior raises a haunting question: Why wasn’t he stopped?
Comparison between fictional evil characters and focusing on the most evil aspect eg. Dahmer it was cannibalism
Ideas of dehumanization
Refer to evils in supernatural terms eg. Monster, alien
Blur the distinction between reality and fiction
Exaggerated Journalistic Rhetoric

Fear appears to strike a nerve with audiences, it provides scare tactics that are stunningly effective
Fear is an effective advertising technique as it’s a sensation that escalates instantaneously through the individuals response
Sometimes a fear advert makes it’s audience stop and think, in the long run it causes frustration
Fear appeals when it alerts or gathers awareness towards the public
Ethical questions can emerge when the advert at hand is too graphic and employs excessive amounts of fear tactics

Nakita's blog