Everything about Folk Devil totally explained
A
folk devil is a person or group of people who are portrayed in
folklore or the
media as outsiders and
deviant, and who are blamed for
crimes or other sorts of social problems. (compare
scapegoat)
The pursuit of folk devils frequently intensifies into a mass movement that's called a
moral panic. When a moral panic is in full swing, the folk devils are the subject of loosely organized but pervasive campaigns of hostility through gossip and the spreading of
urban legends. The mass media sometimes get in on the act or attempt to create new folk devils to create controversies. Sometimes the campaign against the folk devil influences a nation's politics and
legislation.
The concept of the folk devil was introduced by
sociologist Stanley Cohen in
1972, in his study
Folk Devils and Moral Panics, which analysed media controversies concerning
Mods and Rockers in the
United Kingdom of the
1950s. The basic pattern of agitations against folk devils can be seen in the history of
witchhunts and similar manias of persecution; in many predominately
Protestant countries, there's history of
anti-Catholicism in which many Catholics were seen as folk devils;
minorities and
immigrants have often been seen as folk devils; in the long history of
anti-Semitism, which frequently targeted
Jews with allegations of dark, murderous practices, such as
blood libel; or the Roman
persecution of Christians that blamed the military reverses suffered by the
Roman Empire on the Christians' abandonment of
paganism.
More recent folk devils have included the
McCarthyite persecution of alleged
Communists;
Satanists and allegations of
Satanic ritual abuse; blaming
video games and violence,
Goths, and other youth
subcultures or musical genres for the
Columbine massacre.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Folk Devil'.
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