THE SOCIOLOGY OF MORAL PANICS: TOWARD A NEW SYNTHESIS

Nachman Ben‐Yehuda*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

88 Scopus citations

Abstract

There are two alternative theoretical perspectives developed in the sociological study of a moral panic: the moral perspective and the interest perspective. Using as illustration a May 1982 national moral panic about drugs that occurred in Israel, this article argues that both perspectives must be used and integrated into one coherent model for a better and fuller sociological explanation of moral panics. The article provides a detailed account of the Israeli panic and an analysis clustered along two axes. One axis uses the interest perspective to analyze the timing of the panic by focusing on the question of why it happened when it did. The other axis uses the moral perspective to interpret the specific content of the panic, focusing on why the panic was about drugs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)495-513
Number of pages19
JournalSociological Quarterly
Volume27
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1986

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