The State

Many of the individual and social problems that are characterized as moral panics are, in reality, illustrations of a breakdown in the legitimacy of the state. Drawing on an appraisal of the work of Stuart Hall, one of the key thinkers in moral panics, this instalment in the Moral Panics in Theory and Practice series gathers together a number of examples of the dissolution of the state—from internet pornography to internet radicalization, the 2011 Tottenham riots, and patient safety—and explores these case studies through the lens of moral panic ideas.