Folk devils

Nachman Ben-Yehuda*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

Folk devils are thus people whose very existence is socially constructed as posing a negative challenge and a grave threat to morality and who, as a result, provoke feelings of fear. Folk devils must therefore be easily identifiable and made to be salient in the public sphere and mind. The concept of folk devils is primarily associated with moral panics and with concepts of fear, morality and deviance. Fear - and fear of moral challenges particularly - lies at the heart of the social construction of folk devils. As Barry Glassner pointed out, the fear of becoming a victim of crime is one of the central pillars of the culture of fear. Criminals tend to be prime candidates for being viewed as folk devils. While many illustrations for creating folk devils exist, one of the very best is probably the European witch craze of the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Routledge Companion to Criminological Theory and Concepts
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages177-180
Number of pages4
ISBN (Electronic)9781317593522
ISBN (Print)9781138818996
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 selection and editorial matter, Avi Brisman, Eamonn Carrabine and Nigel South; individual chapters, the contributors.

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