Youth crime and delinquency Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Youth crime and delinquency - Essay Example It magnifies the deviant attitude of a supposedly deviant group and distorting in their image in the public causing further consequences for the group. Perhaps the most popular and most detailed study of deviancy amplification and media can be found in Stanley Cohen’s book Folk Devils and Moral Panics 1972. To begin with Cohen analyzed the relations of Mods and Rockers in 1964. Mods were the original people from which particularly diverse groups such as skinheads and casuals evolved in the 1970s. They were distinctive in their ways and followed soul music, wore ex-army coats and rode motor scooters. The Rockers on the other hand favored leather jackets, motorbikes and listening to rock and roll music. (Cohen, 1972) In 1964 a fight broke out among these two groups. As a result of these fights some of the youth were arrested. The journalists reporting this incident for the newspapers decided to make this tail a little spicier by distortion and exaggeration. The newspapers stressed on the fact that this had actually been a fight between the Mods and the Rockers who hated each other and had caused the violence. (Cohen, 1972) The journalists’ distortion had produced a new wave in the youngsters of Britain. Now they had created rivalry between the Mods and Rockers which was inexistent previously. The youth had now to select between the two groups and this led to a rivalry which took shape because of the media. The preceding incident had taken place on the Easter Sunday. Then when the Whitson Bank Holiday came the newspapers created propaganda for the meeting and battles of Mods and Rockers. Although the Mods and Rockers did end up arriving in huge numbers they were unsure of why they had gathered. The huge audience gathering had actually been the result of the massive propaganda by the newspapers. Although nothing significant happened the media reported scenes of violence and brawls. (Cohen, 1972) Following the newspaper alerts and predictions the government