Closely intertwined with the folk devil is the moral panic that subsequently arises with public fear. For Cohen, a moral panic typically takes its starting point in big newspaper headlines where the folk devil is pointed out, yet, as this volume demonstrates, today it may as well arise from a grass-root level, in social media, through political discourses or from already-existing local myths or social structures. In Cohen’s original study, it was gangs of ‘aimless youth’ in the UK that caused a moral panic to erupt: the mods and rockers. Subjected to long and negative media coverage, the panic escalates, demanding political action and changes to the law. By labelling this spiral of actions a moral panic, Cohen does not indicate that the issue does not exist or that it is based on hysteria or illusion. Rather, he points out that the extent of the problem has been exaggerated, that facts are distorted and the problem acutely angled. Some moral panics rise and then subside quickly as the media turns to other issues, whereas other moral panics soon become permanent and institutionalized.To illustrate this process, Cohen invites us to consider the difference between two scenarios, both of which take place in a quaint seaside resort town on the east coast of England during a Bank Holiday. In the first scenario, the holiday spirit is severely disturbed by the eruption of violent clashes between youth groups. Windows are broken, guns are fired, and beach huts and dance halls are wrecked. Newspapers report of gangs ‘hell-bent for destruction’, scream-ing mobs, attacks, siege, and innocent holiday makers desperately fleeing town.