Which term describes a widespread fear that crime threatens society's norms?

• A. Public perception
• B. Moral panic
• C. Police prioritisation
• D. Unrecorded crime

Answer: (B)

A moral panic is a situation where there is a widespread, amplified fear that crime is threatening society’s norms and moral values. This fear often grows because media coverage sensationalizes incidents and moral entrepreneurs frame a particular issue as a urgent threat to social order. People come to believe the threat is serious, leading to a sense of consensus and a demand for tougher laws or policing, sometimes regardless of the actual level of danger. The key idea is that the public reaction is disproportionate to the real risk and driven by concerns about maintaining social norms, not just by objective crime data.

The other ideas don’t fit this specific pattern: public perception refers to general beliefs about crime and may include fear but doesn’t inherently involve threats to social norms or a media-driven moral concern; police prioritisation is about how resources are allocated in response to crime; unrecorded crime concerns crimes not captured in statistics, not the social fear about norms.