Conspiracy or Consensus? Reconsidering the Moral Panic

Abstract

This article considers Policing the Crisis' continued significance some three decades into the crime wave that began in the United States. Specifically, this article uses Policing the Crisis as a springboard for examining the moral panic and crisis as frameworks for understanding media coverage of crime and social responses to that coverage. Policing the Crisis was published at a transitional moment in the development of cultural studies, after which what Gramsci described as a necessary balance between economism and ideologism shifted perceptibly toward the latter or what Gramsci described as “an exaggeration of the voluntarist and individual element.” The text thus offers insight into the relationship between cultural studies and political economy of the media, at the same time illustrating a trajectory not pursued within cultural studies. To get at these issues, the article examines two overlapping areas of concern: the role of public opinion in gauging consent and the role of institutions and coercion.