“Moral Panic” and Social control
The question of “moral panic” was first coined by British sociologist Stanley Cohen from his study of “mods” and “rockers” during the 1970s. He used this term to define the role of media and deviant behaviour which fed on peoples’ already sensitive fears of the unknown, raw from economic hardship. The threat from this perceived deviancy was thereby exaggerated, fuelling unrest. Cohen defined this collective behaviour as:
A condition, episode, person or group emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops, politicians and other right thinking people; socially accredited experts pronounce their diagnosis and solutions; ways of coping are evolved or (more often) resorted to; the condition then disappears, submerges or deteriorates and becomes visible. 1
A recent UK Home office report found that “a lack of intimacy and high levels of loneliness” were common factors in the profiles of the vast majority of sex offenders, similar to the appalling level of uncared for children in the UK and abroad.2
With “Sarah Payne’s law” in the UK and Megan’s law in the US 3 both seek to alert the public about the whereabouts of the sex offender in your town or village under the guise of freedom and protection. What it actually does is to further isolate and exclude the offender, - child molester or not - and reinforces this identity and stigmatization, naturally driving such people underground and continuing the likelihood of child abuse or other related crimes.
The question of such moral panics disappearing is dependent on how useful their presence may be. Self appointed vanguards of this moral imperative would love to believe they are upholding the sanctity of society as they perceive it. It is more likely that they are merely cogs in the wheel of a purposely initiated “panic” that is tailored towards a pre-designed conclusion sourced from the Establishment. The witch hunts of 17th Europe; the trials of the Spanish Inquisition; the Nazi programs of genocide and the McCarthysim of 1950s America are testament to the ease by which ponerization of the populace can be initiated.
The primary mode of panic thus adopted appears to have been the “Elite-engineered”4 model, with other secondary models under its influence. We can include the Grass Roots model of dissatisfied society achieving catharsis through retribution and the Interest Group model made up of advocates, activists, interests groups and think-tanks seeking to bring awareness to the “moral evils” in society. These latter forces work in tandem and come up against the infinitely more knowledgeable core of Elite control, the top tiers of which have had the populace under a microscope for a considerable length of time. These “positive” forces for change can thus be easily manipulated yet an awareness of this fact is still missing.
When the action of negative feedback is excluded from contemporary discourse concerning abuse and the nature of the child molester, the obvious outcome is a headlong rush to reaction without any understanding of the consequences. Judgments about whether one is a child molester, a terrorist, mentally ill, a deviant or dissident, it is becoming the province of authorities which are tied to regressive world-views and corrupt political interests.
Moral panics lead to various individuals and groups becoming scapegoats for a host of inner demons the history of which is long and rich, whether they are the “white trash” of nomadic America or the gypsies on the outskirts of London. When crude moral panics surface with their clamours for “justice,” scape-goating always emerges from its artificial womb.
The seemingly most horrific and depraved of crimes can be the most precise mirror of societies which can then be focused towards a group or individuals that best fit those fears and denials. The politicization of grief and crime is a familiar story. The reaction of populations against the threat of predators, real or imagined in any given context, creates the vortex to which all “deviance” or resistance is drawn. Behind this chaos lie select members in power for whom such confusion is ripe for manipulation. The reaction seems to follow a pattern whereby those least able to defend themselves are targeted such as ethnic, religious and sexual minorities. Sexual offenders in the US, under the present laws, many of whom have placed on the register as dangerous paedophiles, may have only committed relatively minor offences. This often serves to bypass the real culprits who were responsible for the crimes, sexual or otherwise. Hence it’s usefulness.
As we shall see, medical and health authorities are becoming the next stage in the law and justice treadmill. There is a medicalization of social control that is coming closer where mental illness, ethics and political bias are merged. That is not to say that we must embrace deviancy that is clearly harmful to the child as outlined previously. There must be the clearest definitions possible so as to maintain the purest objectivity in a world of full of murky disinformation.
While the “moral panic” meme does have validity it also acts to mask deeper social problems that lie festering at the roots. Social constructivists focus on how these issues become defined at particular historical junctures but they neglect the overall synthesis of why these social problems appear and are singled out for public exposure.
Ponerization operates on precisely these gaps in awareness, where sophisticated “twists” on truth discombobulate individuals and groupings perceived as threatening to the status quo. The tide of emotional rage becomes paramount and reasoning leaves by the back door, so often held open by the authorities. The multiple strands of warring interests groups exclude the possibility that there is unwarranted panic about Satanism and ritual abuse or conversely, in certain circumstances it does indeed exist and such panic serves to ensure it's cover. Far from dealing with the dark and hidden aspects of our collective shadows we have found new ways to limit reality and thus our own understanding by creating new demons, whether they are paedophiles or terrorists. Both exist but not in the ways that we think. It is far easier to see abuse that is not right on our doorsteps and even easier to project our denials onto a convenient pariah.
Ponerization operates on precisely these gaps in awareness, where sophisticated “twists” on truth discombobulate individuals and groupings perceived as threatening to the status quo. The tide of emotional rage becomes paramount and reasoning leaves by the back door, so often held open by the authorities. The multiple strands of warring interests groups exclude the possibility that there is unwarranted panic about Satanism and ritual abuse or conversely, in certain circumstances it does indeed exist and such panic serves to ensure it's cover. Far from dealing with the dark and hidden aspects of our collective shadows we have found new ways to limit reality and thus our own understanding by creating new demons, whether they are paedophiles or terrorists. Both exist but not in the ways that we think. It is far easier to see abuse that is not right on our doorsteps and even easier to project our denials onto a convenient pariah.
The technique of scapegoating comprehensively pervades the media, judiciary and law enforcement. Though there are numerous cases of justified sentencing of child molesters and rapists, there is also a tragic quota of those wrongfully accused. If the individual is guilty, a remorseless witch hunt results in a regression towards vigilantism and the herd mentality, often destroying all that goes before it. The net result - so beneficial to those protected by the Establishment - leaves society with a situation far worse than the one that preceded it.Miscarriages of justice are intermingled with genuine abuse all of which produce an exponential footprint of trauma that engulfs the communities and feeds media sensationalism.
Examples of high profile ritual or familial abuse claims and from around the world including The Orkney Islands, The Pitcairn Islands, The Isle of Lewis, Rochdale child abuse case, Cleveland cases of sexual abuse in the UK and the Christchurch Crèche case in New Zealand; the separate cases of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and Martensville ritual abuse: the Shieldfield child abuse scandal and countless others. It is precisely because in some cases the abuse was present that the methods used by police and the judiciary ensured that innocent men and women took the fall for predators ensconced in the community and in connected positions of power.
The high profile but rare cases of violent sexual abuse and sometimes murder which have been committed play a part in giving undue credence to such crimes making them appear much more common than they are. 5 This has led to sensationalisation of the issue thereby increasing the “fear factor” and parental paranoia that is leading to restrictions on natural child development. as well as civil liberties. In combination with other social factors, the erosion of childhood has led to “a drastic decline in children’s outdoor activity and unsupervised play…” 6 This is partly due to the so-called litigation and “claims culture” which has produced so much alienation and social fragmentation in modern America and which is now spreading across Europe. We are now living in a world where parents and adults alike are becoming wary of even talking to a child that is not their own or tending to a minor injury in the school-ground lest they be accused of inappropriate “touching.” 7 The well promoted obsession with lone child molesters is out of all proportion to the cases reported. So, let us get this in proportion and look at an example which paints a rather different picture.
Last year over 100 children in the UK alone were killed on the roads, more than 6,000 were injured and 1,000 seriously, leaving them disfigured or disabled for life. Over 40,000 children ran away from home with Britain having one of the worst records of child poverty in Europe. Among 100,000 and 200,000 people under eighteen, experience homelessness each year. How many children in the UK have been killed by the lone child molester in around three decades? Seven. 8
This serves as another reminder that sexual crime can always provide an infinite variety of scapegoats and condemnations while ignoring the core reasons for why these offences take place. We might equally say that recognized offenders were expert in covering up their crime coupled with the fact that the age of the victim invariably ensures that the molestation is not reported adding difficulties for definitive data.
While the lone child molester and “stranger danger” gets enormous coverage in the press, the less sensationalist yet far more disturbing trend is the incidence of abuse that occurs not from the lone paedophile but from the Establishment and within the family unit. According to Mary Marsh director for the National Society For the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC): “Over the last 30 years, hundreds of children have been beaten, starved, burned, suffocated, poisoned, shaken, strangled or stabbed to death by their parents”9 She believed the child abuse killings were a “national disgrace” her belief drawn from the statistics which suggest that more children die in the home than in the street. Yet still the lone child molester threat continues to pervade popular culture holding parental sensibilities to ransom with 63 percent of parents believing most child murders occur outside the home. 10
NSPCC’s poll found that 70 percent of parents were “more concerned for their children’s safety after the deaths of Soham schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.”11 Cases such as these allow newspapers to milk the fears of all parents who in turn campaign for legislation that adds to the overreaction for a predator that is statistically already within the home and our so beloved institutions of power and influence. Yet so far it seems, neglect, rape and physical violence represents an overall increase far above sexual abuse. More than three children die each day in America as a result of child abuse or neglect. 12
Time after time, statistics confirm that there is a much higher incidence of physical abuse as oppose to sexual and emotional abuse with neglect often well into double figures. In the same NSPCC study, this form of abuse is seven times more prevalent than sexual abuse. Indeed, it seems the younger the child the greater the risk of murder (infanticide) for those aged under five. The US fairs no better. The number of homicides of children under age 5 has increased over the past two decades, albeit with a modest decline in the last few years, according to government figures. The number of infanticides of children age 1 and younger is also increasing since the 1990s. Infant sexual abuse (nepiophilia) is also an increasing problem within the family. The effects of sexual abuse on those of pre-verbal age are relatively unknown. Research suggests evidence that the foetus can be highly sensitive to external stimuli of a positive or negative nature. We can also then surmise that the infant will be equally sensitized to the intent and physical effects of sexual abuse.
A toddler’s brain has twice as many connections among its 100 billion neurons as the brain of a fully matured adult. 13 It is a crucial process of connecting within an intricate and complex system, housing neural circuits of learning that is highly dependent on external stimuli. The parents and the environment can directly effect whether or not the child inherits damaged circuits and the surfacing pathologies, however slight, or creative ones that lay down a healthy foundation for the future. When infants and children are exposed to unhealthy social encounters from others which include stress and anxiety, then the brains do not wire themselves properly in the “emotional centres,” which leads to negative cognitive reactions. If we then take the trauma associated with infant abuse, we can imagine the damage inflicted on the neurology of a developing baby and the future generational line.
A leading expert in the field of sexual abuse of the infant child, Dr. Bruce Perry at the Baylor College of Medicine, believes the development of the cerebral cortex can be reduced by as much as 20 percent by abuse with many brain structures remaining under-developed. Instead of dense neural clusters as by-products of creative learning, there are effectively “holes” sourced from trauma, stress and anxiety. Perry indicates that the human brain has a variety of ways by which it can store or “recall” experience right across the board of motor, vestibular, emotional, social and cognitive applications. The body locks in these memories that, according to Perry, are non-cognitive and pre-verbal: “It is the experiences of early childhood that create the foundational organisation of neural systems that will be used for a lifetime.” 14
Of these neural patterns, instead of laying down stable and proper functional platforms for further learning, the imprinting shock of abuse lays down trauma and anxiety related to psycho-sexual development during the general mapping process. This then leads to a greater propensity for widespread damage in biological life of an emerging infant with natural personality development prone to severe disruption.
With the long term effects of child abuse covering a wide range of psychological problems and the proven tendency toward substance abuse and difficulty with close relationships, 15 we can tentatively conclude that the effects may be a form of emotional fall-out that has a very long legacy indeed.
Staying with the UK, a Home Office report from 1999 became yet another research study to be added to the growing body of respected research confirming the real risk from sexual abuse comes not from isolated child molesters but from relatives, family friends and siblings. The research also found: “…that only one in five men jailed for molesting children was likely to be caught re-offending, compared with re-conviction figures of 50 percent for non-sexual offenders within two years of the original crime.” 9
This serves as another reminder that sexual crime can always provide an infinite variety of scapegoats and condemnations while ignoring the core reasons for why these offences take place. We might equally say that recognized offenders were expert in covering up their crime coupled with the fact that the age of the victim invariably ensures that the molestation is not reported adding difficulties for definitive data.
While the lone child molester and “stranger danger” gets enormous coverage in the press, the less sensationalist yet far more disturbing trend is the incidence of abuse that occurs not from the lone paedophile but from the Establishment and within the family unit. According to Mary Marsh director for the National Society For the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC): “Over the last 30 years, hundreds of children have been beaten, starved, burned, suffocated, poisoned, shaken, strangled or stabbed to death by their parents”9 She believed the child abuse killings were a “national disgrace” her belief drawn from the statistics which suggest that more children die in the home than in the street. Yet still the lone child molester threat continues to pervade popular culture holding parental sensibilities to ransom with 63 percent of parents believing most child murders occur outside the home. 10
NSPCC’s poll found that 70 percent of parents were “more concerned for their children’s safety after the deaths of Soham schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.”11 Cases such as these allow newspapers to milk the fears of all parents who in turn campaign for legislation that adds to the overreaction for a predator that is statistically already within the home and our so beloved institutions of power and influence. Yet so far it seems, neglect, rape and physical violence represents an overall increase far above sexual abuse. More than three children die each day in America as a result of child abuse or neglect. 12
Time after time, statistics confirm that there is a much higher incidence of physical abuse as oppose to sexual and emotional abuse with neglect often well into double figures. In the same NSPCC study, this form of abuse is seven times more prevalent than sexual abuse. Indeed, it seems the younger the child the greater the risk of murder (infanticide) for those aged under five. The US fairs no better. The number of homicides of children under age 5 has increased over the past two decades, albeit with a modest decline in the last few years, according to government figures. The number of infanticides of children age 1 and younger is also increasing since the 1990s. Infant sexual abuse (nepiophilia) is also an increasing problem within the family. The effects of sexual abuse on those of pre-verbal age are relatively unknown. Research suggests evidence that the foetus can be highly sensitive to external stimuli of a positive or negative nature. We can also then surmise that the infant will be equally sensitized to the intent and physical effects of sexual abuse.
A toddler’s brain has twice as many connections among its 100 billion neurons as the brain of a fully matured adult. 13 It is a crucial process of connecting within an intricate and complex system, housing neural circuits of learning that is highly dependent on external stimuli. The parents and the environment can directly effect whether or not the child inherits damaged circuits and the surfacing pathologies, however slight, or creative ones that lay down a healthy foundation for the future. When infants and children are exposed to unhealthy social encounters from others which include stress and anxiety, then the brains do not wire themselves properly in the “emotional centres,” which leads to negative cognitive reactions. If we then take the trauma associated with infant abuse, we can imagine the damage inflicted on the neurology of a developing baby and the future generational line.
A leading expert in the field of sexual abuse of the infant child, Dr. Bruce Perry at the Baylor College of Medicine, believes the development of the cerebral cortex can be reduced by as much as 20 percent by abuse with many brain structures remaining under-developed. Instead of dense neural clusters as by-products of creative learning, there are effectively “holes” sourced from trauma, stress and anxiety. Perry indicates that the human brain has a variety of ways by which it can store or “recall” experience right across the board of motor, vestibular, emotional, social and cognitive applications. The body locks in these memories that, according to Perry, are non-cognitive and pre-verbal: “It is the experiences of early childhood that create the foundational organisation of neural systems that will be used for a lifetime.” 14
Of these neural patterns, instead of laying down stable and proper functional platforms for further learning, the imprinting shock of abuse lays down trauma and anxiety related to psycho-sexual development during the general mapping process. This then leads to a greater propensity for widespread damage in biological life of an emerging infant with natural personality development prone to severe disruption.
With the long term effects of child abuse covering a wide range of psychological problems and the proven tendency toward substance abuse and difficulty with close relationships, 15 we can tentatively conclude that the effects may be a form of emotional fall-out that has a very long legacy indeed.
Notes
1 p.9 Folk Devils and Moral Panics the Creation of the Mods and Rockers by Stanley Cohen, (1973) published by Paladin.
2 Research and Development Statistics (RDS)Home Office UK, Crime in England and Wales, 2004/2005 http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/
2 Research and Development Statistics (RDS)Home Office UK, Crime in England and Wales, 2004/2005 http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/
3 ‘Megan’s Law,’ was passed after seven year-old Megan Kanka was raped and murdered by a paroled convict who had moved onto her street in New Jersey in 1994. Photos and addresses of all high-risk, Class 3 sex offenders are to be posted on the Internet.
4 “Moral Panics and the Social Construction of Deviant Behavior: A Theory and Application to the Case of Child Ritual Abuse”, by Jeffrey S. Victor, Social Perspectives Autumn 1998
5 There is evidence that child abductions are on the rise in England and Wales: From The Independent, May 2006, ‘Indypedia’: 1985 - 102 1990- 208 1995 - 355. This also includes family kidnappings and not necessarily those by strangers. 2000/01 --- 546 2005/0
6 ‘Play on’ By Jenny Cunningham, 3rd January 2002, spiked-online.com
6 ‘Play on’ By Jenny Cunningham, 3rd January 2002, spiked-online.com
7 ‘Protection risks doing more harm than good.’ By Sandra Dick, January 18 2005, The Scotsman.
8 Research and Development Statistics (RDS) Home Office UK, http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/
9 ‘Home Office Report says: Most child sex attacks committed by relatives, family friends.’ Agence France Presse, 1999. BBC News, 13 October, 2002.
9 ‘Home Office Report says: Most child sex attacks committed by relatives, family friends.’ Agence France Presse, 1999. BBC News, 13 October, 2002.
10 ‘NSPCC steps up campaign on child abuse killings’ 14 October 2002, nspcc.co.uk/ The “fear-mongering” methods by which organizations like NSPCC alert the public to these dangers is also under scrutiny by some commentators.
11 Child murder rate 'a national disgrace' BBC News,13 October, 2002.
12 Ibid.
13 Nation Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse (NCPCA) 1996 Annual Fifty State Survey: […] 25 states provided the following breakdown for reported cases: 62percent involved neglect, 25percent physical abuse, 7percent sexual abuse, 3percent emotional maltreatment and 4percent other. For substantiated cases, 31 states gave the following breakdowns: 60percent neglect, 23 percent physical, 9percent sexual, 4percent emotional maltreatment and 5percent other.
14 ‘The Long Term Neurological and Developmental Effects of Sexual Abuse on Infant Children’ Mike Earl-Taylor and Lindsay Thomas, March 2003 (quoted from science in Africa.co.za
15 Trauma, Violence, and Abuse: A Review Journal. January 2000, by Bruce Perry Vol. 1, Number 1. Sage Publications, Inc. 
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