Sociology Of Crime And Deviance

Marz Keane

115318456

SC2021 Sociology of Crime and Deviance

Professor Colin Sumner

4th January 2018

2. What does Policing the Crisis teach us about images of deviance?

2. What does Policing the Crisis teach us about images of deviance?

Policing the Crisis is a book written by Stuart Hall et.al in which they discuss the sudden appearance of an act of a street crime which is usually quite violent and relating to theft known as mugging in the United Kingdom in the 1970’s. They studied how this crime was dealt with by the police and how the media exaggerates certain crimes for public outcry and attention. The text incorporates ideologies relating to the study of deviants which was first discussed by Marx relating to economies and

The motive was blatant robbery but due to the nature of it, reporters from various media outlets branded it as a “mugging”. This term was new to the media newsrooms of Britain and people were curious as to where the term originated from. One newspaper that gave the public the description they wanted was the Daily Mirror, they claimed that the word was an American words which was “derived from the phrase 'attacking a mug: an easy victim '.” According to the American police the crime of mugging was described as an assault by crushing the victim in an armlock and / or to rob with any type of degree of force, with the use or without the use of weapons '. In the opinion of Hall et. al, this singular incident in 1972 became the starting point of an influx of reportings of muggings and relating them to moral panics. Data found in Folk Devils and Moral Panics, showed that in the years between 1984 and 1991, eight references to the situation of a moral panic were published in UK newspapers. Then in 1992, this figure increased to twenty five citations, then a leap to 145 in 1993. From that year to 2001 the average number of times moral panic was published was 109 times per year. (Cohen, 2002) This increase in reporting of muggings during the 1970’s can be coined with the term deviancy amplification.

Moral panics, defined as creating a mass hysteria in a society to make the general public believe in the issue which the media is reporting on. This occurred in the 1970’s in the UK during the sudden increase in a new type of crime seen on the streets known as mugging. Various media outlets engaged in moral panics and were one of the sole causes of creating a mass hysteria relating to mugging in the UK during that time period. Hall et. al explained this phenomenon and how it reinforces certain stereotypes within society and persuades the general public to keep to the pre-existing divisions which are seen in society relating to race or wealth. The UK police and general public created a target of young black people due to the increase in muggings. This created a division within society. These situations in the 1970’s can still be seen today regarding mass hysteria and blaming an entire group of people for the actions of some, for example the media creating hysteria whenever there is an attack on a group of people and the media immediately blames the Muslim faith. Clearly these images of deviance have an effect on society as a