... Devils And Moral Panics'. Cohen, a sociologist, coined the phrase 'moral panic' within this tome, to describe the phenomenon that he witnessed of over dramatization by the media and politicians of deviant behaviour, causing a public reaction which was out of all proportion to the conduct of the deviants. It may be suggested that the concept has become a useful addition to the vocabulary of sociology and used by sociologists and criminologists to describe incidences of similar behaviour. Cohen discusses: 'Societies appear to be subject every now and then, to periods of moral panic. A condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylised and stereotypical fashion by the mass media...sometimes the object of the panic is quite novel and other times it is something which has been in existence long enough, but suddenly ...

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