In an age of 24-hour news and viral social media, the process of identifying society’s “folk devils” has not only endured — but has accelerated. Stories about youth gangs, migrants, or even online communities can now dominate headlines within hours, prompting moral panic and public anxiety. While the cultural backdrop has changed since the 1970s mugging crisis, the underlying mechanisms remain strikingly similar.
Defining The Modern Folk Devil
A folk devil is a person or group constructed as a symbolic enemy, blamed for wider social or moral decline (Cohen, 2011). In the 1970s, young Black men were disproportionately depicted as the face of mugging crime — a label that reshaped policing priorities and public sentiment (Hall et al, 1978).
Today, folk devils take on new forms, including:
Youth gangs and knife crime networks.
Migrant or refugee groups cast as security threats.
Online radicalisers, influencers, or digital subcultures.
These aren’t simply scapegoats. They’ve become focal points for public fear, media commentary, and policy reaction. Each new panic reaffirms existing boundaries between respectable society and those positioned as its dangerous others (Garland, 2001).
From Muggers to TikTok Rioters
If the 1970s panic centred on muggers, today’s version might focus on knife crime gangs or migrant boats. For instance, following a series of widely shared videos in 2023 showing young people fighting on public transport, several tabloids declared a ‘youth violence epidemic.’ However, Home Office data that year showed overall violent crime had not increased proportionately.
Similarly, sensational headlines about ‘migrants’ and ‘small boats’ have been used to symbolise social disorder and political failure — even when actual arrival numbers were consistent with long-term trends. These moments of anxiety reveal less about crime itself than about who society chooses to fear (Hall et al, 1978) .
Moral Panic-Inducing Headlines
Media, Algorithms, and Amplification
Modern media networks amplify moral panics through constant exposure and emotional engagement. Traditional outlets compete for clicks, while social media platforms promote outrage and sensationalism through algorithmic selection (Hier, 2019; Walsh, 2020).
A viral video of a fight, protest, or altercation can now become the focus of political commentary within hours. Misinformation spreads quickly, and even accurate stories may be stripped of statistical context. The repetition of shocking imagery creates the illusion of a growing threat — regardless of whether data supports it.
For professionals, this acceleration presents new challenges. Teachers, police officers, policy makers, and community leaders often face public pressure to act on perceived crises that have gained online traction, even before reliable evidence is available.
Policy Reflex and Disproportionate Impact
As with earlier moral panics, political responses to new folk devils are often swift and highly visible. In recent years, these have included:
Expanded stop-and-search powers in response to knife crime.
School-based interventions targeting gang affiliation, sometimes on minimal evidence.
Intensified border enforcement and public order rhetoric following incidents involving migrants.
Such policies, though framed as protective, often reproduce inequalities. Often disproportionately targeting racialised, migrant, or working-class communities, undermining trust between authorities and the public. Reactive measures that, prioritising reassurance over prevention, offer the appearance of control rather than addressing structural causes.
A striking example lies in policing responses to “county lines” drug networks — which, framed as tackling organised crime, often sweeps up vulnerable youth many of whom are victims of exploitation — rather than its organisers. The resulting cycle of criminalisation and exclusion mirrors earlier dynamics seen during the “mugging” panic.
Contemporary Parallels and Professional Reflection
The new folk devils of our digital age are less defined by who they are than by how quickly they can be framed as threats. Whether a viral video of a school fight, reports of ‘TikTok riots,’ or moral outrage about online subcultures, the pattern remains: a symbolic villain, a fearful public, and a political or policy response.
For professionals, the task is to break this cycle by questioning narratives before they harden into truths. Which means:
Questioning the story: Does the evidence support the scale of the claimed threat?
Tracing the amplification: How did social media or traditional outlets frame the issue?
Seeking proportionality: Are responses driven by data or by perception?
Recognising vulnerability: Who bears the brunt of fear-based interventions
Looking Ahead
The folk devils may change — from youth gangs to migrants to online extremists — but the structure of panic remains. Recognising these dynamics helps educators, officers, and policymakers to act proportionately, protecting communities without reproducing cycles of mistrust.
As Hall (and his colleagues) observed, each moral panic tells us less about the supposed deviant and more about society’s need to reaffirm order. Today’s task is not only to identify the folk devils of our time, but to ask: why do we keep needing them?
Suggested Reading
Cohen, S. (1972). Folk Devils and Moral Panics. London: MacGibbon and Kee.
Hall, S. et al. (1978). Policing the Crisis. London: Macmillan.
Garland, D. (2001). The Culture of Control. Oxford: OUP.
Hier, S. (2019) Digital Moral Panics: The Role of the Internet in Amplifying Public Anxiety’. Media, Culture & Society, 41(5), pp. 605-62S.
About the Author / Series Purpose
Written by Daniel Davis, researcher and commentator on social justice and policing.
Unpacking the Crisis: Crime, Power, and the Politics of Fear is a multi-part series examining how perceptions of crime, disorder, moral decline and media narratives shape public policy, policing practices, community relations and public trust.
Drawing on the work of Stuart Hall, Stanley Cohen, and contemporary sociological research, the series explores how institutions — from government to media to local authorities — manage public anxiety and frame “crises” around crime and disorder.
Each chapter is accompanied by a short Practitioner Brief offering applied insight, discussion prompts, and reflective tools which invite professionals across policing, education, and local governance to critically assess contemporary crises, and respond effectively in their practice.
Next: Read Practitioner Brief #2 — Identifying Modern Folk Devils
Then Part #3 — Media, Meaning, And The Manufacture Of Fear