African Youth And Moral Panics Essay - 1062 Words

African youth and Moral Panics African youth crime and the portrayal of black youths in the media has generated substantial publicity over the years. In part because statistics show that black youths committed a disproportionate amount of crime, however the media is known to exaggerate news stories by creating moral panics. Moral panic refers to the exaggerated outburst of public concern over the morality and behavior of particular groups in society. African youths in particular are portrayed negatively in the media while the moral panic surrounding African male crime is exaggerated. This led to negative responses by society in regards to Africans since they were labelled as crime perpetuators and muggers (theft). Also, crime maps that display criminal activities within cities showed an increase in the usage of moral panics to depict the world as more dangerous in order to control African youth through police, surveillance, and other punitive measures. Moral panics portrayed black yo uths negatively through their exaggeration of African crime in media, their association with labels of mugging, and their over-representation within crime maps. Moral Panics: The construction of a negative identity As African youth and crime are at the root of moral panics it is necessary to understand why African youth crime is exaggerated and highlighted in mainstream media. In Rethinking ‘Moral Panic’ for Multi-Mediated Social Worlds, Angela McRobbie and Sarah Thornton (1995) explain thatShow MoreRelatedThe representation of youth in a clockwork orange and If....1437 Words   |  6 Pagesrepresentation of youths in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ and ‘If†¦.’ I will be investigating how youth is represented in the films A clockwork orange (1972) and If†¦. (1968) and how the films affected the views of the time and how the films influenced youths. 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