Folk Devils and Moral Panics

by Stanley Cohen

Published 29 August 1972
A classic sociology book of the 1970s, this book offers an account of the social reaction to deviant behaviour, using a detailed case study of the Mods and Rockers phenomenon which hit Britain in the 1960s, but also paying attention to the general processes which generated other "folk devils" such as Teddy Boys, Hell's Angels, football hooligans, skinheads and punks. The book's conclusion is as applicable today as it was when first published: "More moral panics will be generated and other, as yet nameless, folk devils will be created ...our society as presently structured will continue to generate problems for some of its members - like working class adolescents - and then condemn whatever solution these groups find."