NCJ Number
191549
Journal
Crime, Law and Social Change Volume: 32 Issue: 2 Dated: 1999 Pages: 147-168
Date Published
1999
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This discussion of school shootings and public fear focuses on the role of the media and other groups and argues that the recent school shootings have resulted in a moral panic.
Abstract
Moral panics typically focus on evildoers or supposed evildoers who come to be defined as the enemy of society. Recent shootings at schools around the country have resulted in widespread fear and panic among both students and parents, prompting varied responses to make schools safer. However, empirical data suggest that schools remain extremely safe places for children despite the recent shootings. In addition, school violence is lower today than it was several years ago. Politicians use isolated serious incidents to distract attention from other issues and to receive support by proposing increasingly punitive approaches as a simple solution to a complex problem. The media in an era of peace and prosperity use school shootings to excite the imagination and prey on the fears of the public. The interactions between the media, politicians, and the public regarding the school shootings involve a continuous cycle that encourages the imposition of punitive directives on juveniles. This focus on juvenile violence overlooks the far larger numbers of children killed each year by adult parents or guardians. The analysis concluded that school shootings and all violence were serious, but that society should be careful before creating unsupported or unsubstantiated social problems so that it will avoid future moral panics and misguided policy. Figure, notes, and 64 references (Author abstract modified)