Moral Panic Scenarios

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Pages: 4

street around police presence.“They resent the injustice they have suffered and the indignity of the situation in which they have found themselves… they realize they have endured because they live where they live and they are who they are (Fassin, 2013, 5)”.

The idea of “Moral Panic” on the streets

Blacks are perceived and targeted as the explanation as to why structural problems exist within larger institutions such as schooling, health care and illness as well as incarceration and crime. They are seen as being apart of a cultural dysfunction and are considered outsiders. They are visualized as being societal pollution to be removed from the streets into a confined arrangement, like prison. Black bodies are stereotyped as being dangerous,
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In Jones’ ethnography, Shaunte describes being attacked by another female in her racialized, marginalized community. The attacker was arrested, then released without any remedial methods put in place to prevent a future incident from occurring. The police did not deem this incident as important and because of this Shaunte states that she would never confide in the law again. “Because they [the police] see it as Black-on-Black crime. So they’re not going to do nothing (Jones, 2010, 42).” Shaunte is aware that the police are careless about the crime that happens on the streets in her neighbourhood. She mentions that if her attacker approaches her again, she will not press charges, but instead “go and beat her up (Jones, 2010, 42)”. Both Jones’ and Fassin’s ethnographies analyze the mistrust in police enforcement on a street level for racialized youth. Jones mentions that “the combination of poverty and segregation tends to concentrate crime, violence, and other social ills in poor communities of colour *Jones, 2010, 3)”. This concentrated crime not only refers to how members in that community negotiate problems but also how the police negotiates issues with individuals