The Folk Devil Next Door

Abstract

In Folk Devils and Moral Panics Stanley Cohen (1972) documents the sensitivities that began to coalesce around youthful drug use during the 1960s. Groups like the Mods and Rockers, he notes, were identified by particular events (such as demonstrations) or particular disapproved forms of behaviour (such as drug-taking or violence) and occupied a constant position as folk devils, providing ‘visible reminders of what we should not be’ (1972: 2). Although finding little evidence of such behaviour himself, Cohen noted that the Mods’ use of amphetamines or ‘purple hearts’ gave rise to ‘one of the first big scares about drug use among juveniles’ (1972: 112). Writing some 30 years later, in the introduction to the third edition of his book, Cohen reflected that psychoactive drugs had proved to be a remarkably consistent source of moral panics. Like many commentators, he was particularly struck by the reaction to the ecstasy related death of Leah Betts, noting: ‘The warning was symbolically sharpened by Leah’s respectable home background: father an ex-police officer, mother had worked as a drug counsellor...Leah was the girl next door’ (2002: xiii).

It is clear from the rates of drug use, smoking and, especially, drinking among adolescents that these activities are not confined to the margins of adolescent life. Of the three activities, drug use is most commonly associated with social disadvantage. From reviewing recent studies however it is evident that no specific personality type, family background, socio-economic grouping or environmental situation categorically predicts drug use. contrary to common stereotypes, adolescents using recreational drugs are found predominantly among the young, studious, employed and relatively affluent (British Medical Association, 2003: 17).