make no mistake. While the trouble will be greatest in black inner-city neighborhoods, other places are 
also certain to have burgeoning youth-crime problems that will spill over into upscale central-city districts, 
inner-ring suburbs, and even the rural heartland…They kill or maim on impulse, without any intelligible 
motive…The buzz of impulsive violence, the vacant stares and smiles, and the remorseless eyes…they 
quite literally have no concept of the future….they place zero value on the lives of their victims, whom 
they reflexively dehumanize…capable of committing the most heinous acts of physical violence for the 
most trivial reasons…for as long as their youthful energies hold out, they will do what comes “naturally”: 
murder, rape, rob, assault, burglarize, deal deadly drugs, and get high. 
3 Folk devils are the embodiment 
of evil and center stage of the moral panic drama. They have no redeeming qualities so it is easy for the 
population to fear and hate them. 
Second, the police or other law enforcement officials (prosecutors or even the military) are essential 
for propagating the moral panic since they are responsible for upholding and enforcing codes of conduct 
and expectations of the citizens. They are expected to protect society from the folk devils by detecting, 
apprehending, and punishing their evil ways. Furthermore, the moral panic can offer law enforcement 
legitimacy as moral crusaders and protectors. Law enforcement has a purpose to defend society and rid it of 
the folk devils which threaten their safety and well being. 
Third, the media are particularly powerful in creating and advancing the moral panic. Generally, news 
media coverage of folk devils is often skewed and exaggerated. The media coverage often displays the folk 
devils as much more threatening to society than they really are. Journalists feed public anxiety and fear, 
which heightens the moral panic. Media influences policy in two ways: 
(1) they select the “important” issues (agenda setting), 
(2) they problematize policy by attaching meaning to it. In this way, the frame and construct the 
narratives. 
Agenda setting is the way the media draw the public’s eye to a specific topic. Framing refers to a type 
of agenda setting in a prepackaged way and narratives are about the story that is told. Said another way, 
framing focuses on the broad categories, segments, or angles through which a story can be told. Frames 
include factual and interpretive claims that allow people to organize events and experiences into groups. 
Narrative construction involves decisions by storytellers that determine the specific characters, plot, causal 
implications, and policy solutions presented. Narratives are pictures that the public already accepts and 
embraces (See Table 1 for examples of criminal justice frames and narratives). Journalists and reporters are 
taught to tell stories through first-hand accounts and experiences people have because audiences care about 
these human experiences and their stories more than they care about abstract societal issues. In theory, then, 
journalists and reporters are the gatekeepers to the information and they choose how they organize and 
present ideas to the public. This helps us create social meaning from events or actions (See Table 2 for 
framing techniques). 
4 
Table 1: Criminal Justice Frames and Examples of Narratives 
3. Dilulio. (1995). https://www.weeklystandard.com/john-j-dilulio-jr/the-coming-of-the-super-predators 
4. Crow, D.A., & Lawlor, A. (2016). Media in the policy process: Using framing and narratives to understand policy influences. Review of 
Policy Research. 33(5): 472-495 
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