'''Kepanikan moral''' adalah rasa [[ketakutan]] yang menyebar dalam sejumlah besar orang bahwa suatu [[kejahatan]] sedang mengancam ketertiban masyarakat.<ref>{{cite web|title=Panics and Mass Hysteria|url=https://sites.google.com/site/formsofcollectivebehavior/panics-and-mass-hysteria|website=FormsOfCollectiveBehavior|accessdate=10 November 2015}}</ref><ref name = Jones>see also: Jones, M, and E. Jones. (1999). ''Mass Media.'' London: Macmillan Press</ref>
[[Media]] adalah pemain kunci dalam penyebaran kebenciankepanikan moral. Pelaporan fakta saja sudah cukup untuk menciptakan keresahan, kegelisahan, atau kepanikan.<ref name=cohen>{{cite book | last = Cohen | first = Stanley | author-link = Stanley Cohen (sociologist) | title = Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers | doi=10.4324/9780203828250 | url=https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203828250 | isbn= 9781138834743 | publisher = Paladin | year = 1973 }}</ref> [[Stanley Cohen (sosiolog)|Stanley Cohen]] mengatakan bahwa kepanikan moral terjadi ketika "suatu kondisi, situasi, orang, atau sekelompok orang, muncul dan didefinisikan sebagai ancaman bagi nilai atau kepentingan masyarakat." Contoh kepanikan moral adalah kepercayaan akan adanya penculikan anak-anak oleh [[pedofilia|pedofil]] predator,<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Hesselink-Louw | first1 = Anne | last2 = Olivier | first2 = Karen | year = 2001 | title = A criminological analysis of crimes against disabled children: the adult male sexual offender | url = | journal = CARSA | volume = 2 | issue = 2| pages = 15–20 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520262065 |title=Sex Panic and the Punitive State |last=Lancaster |first=Roger |publisher=University of California Press |year=2011 |isbn=9780520262065 |location=Berkeley |pages=4, 33–34, 76–79.}}</ref><ref name=Extein>{{cite news |last1=Extein |first1=Andrew |title=Fear the Bogeyman: Sex Offender Panic on Halloween |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-extein-msw/fear-the-bogeyman-sex-off_b_4161136.html |accessdate=26 November 2014 |work=Huffington Post |date=25 October 2013}}</ref> kepercayaan akan adanya [[Kekerasan dalam ritus Satanik|kekerasan akan perempuan dan anak-anak dalam ritus kultus Satanik]],<ref name="Goode">{{cite book |title=Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance |last2=Ben-Yehuda |first2=Nachman |publisher=Blackwell |year=2009 |isbn=9781405189347 |edition=2nd |location=Oxford |pages=57–65 |author-link2=Nachman Ben-Yehuda |last1=Goode |first1=Erich |author-link1=Erich Goode |origyear=1994}}</ref> [[Perang Melawan Narkoba]] di Amerika Serikat,<ref name=cohen>{{cite book | last = Cohen | first = Stanley | author-link = Stanley Cohen (sociologist) | title = Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers | doi=10.4324/9780203828250 | url=https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203828250 | isbn= 9781138834743 | publisher = Paladin | year = 1973 }}</ref><ref name="DR">{{cite web |url=http://www.thersa.org/action-research-centre/current-projects/drugs-commission/drugs-report |title=Drugs Report |date=March 2007 |publisher=[[Royal Society of Arts]] Action and Research Centre |accessdate=24 November 2014}} [http://www.rsadrugscommission.org.uk/pdf/RSA_Drugs_Report.pdf Pdf.]</ref> serta masalah kesehatan umum lainnya.
