Stanley Cohen (sociologist)

Professor Stanley Cohen is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics.

Life

He grew up in South Africa and was an undergraduate at the University of Witwatersrand. He came to London in 1963, worked as a social worker, then went to LSE where he completed his Ph.D. From 1967, he lectured at the University of Durham and in 1972 became Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex. In 1980, he moved with his family to Israel, where he was Director of the Institute of Criminology at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He also worked with human rights organisations dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He came to LSE as a Visiting Professor in 1994, and in 1996 was appointed Professor of Sociology.

Work

A leading writer on criminology, he is credited with coining the term moral panic in his 1972 study ("Folk Devils and Moral Panics") of the popular UK media and social reaction to the Mods and Rockers phenomenon of the 1960s. This book is widely regarded by British Criminologists as the most influential work in the field in the last forty years, although some would dispute this claim and argue that the concept is rather simplistic in that it ignores the complex causes and motivations for the original act. It includes the Deviancy Amplification Spiral. Cohen suggests the media overreact to an aspect of behaviour which may be seen as a challenge to existing social norms. However, the media response and representation of that behaviour actually helps to define it, communicate it and portrays it as a model for outsiders to observe and adopt. So the moral panic by society represented in the media arguably fuels further socially unacceptable behaviour. He was also a member of the National Deviancy Conference [Hopkins Burke, R. (2001) An Introduction to Criminological Theory, Cullompton: Willan pg.154 ]

Publications & Articles

1970s

*Cohen, S. (ed) (1971) "Images of Deviance" Harmondsworth: Penguin
*Cohen, S. (1971) "Directions for Research on adolescent group violence and vandalism", "British Journal of Criminology", 11(4): 319-340
*Cohen, S. (1971) "Protest, unrest and delinquency: convergences in labels or behaviour?" Paper given to the International Symposium on Youth Unrest, Tel Aviv 25-27 October
*Cohen, S. (1972) "Folk Devils and Moral Panics", London: MacGibb and Kee
*Cohen, S. (1972) "Breaking out, smashing up and the social context of aspiration" In: Riven, B. (ed) "Youth at the Beginning of the Seventies", London: Martin Robertson
*Taylor, L. & Cohen, S. (1972) "Psychological Survival: the Experience of Long Term Imprisonment", Harmondsworth: Penguin
*Cohen, S. (1979) "The punitive city: notes on the dispersal of social control", "Contemporary Crises", 3(4): 341-363

1980s

*Cohen, S. (1981) "Footprints on the Sand: A Further Report on criminology and the sociology of deviance in Britain" In: Fitzgerald, M., McLennan, G. & Pawson, J. (eds) "Crime and Society: Readings in History and Theory", London: Routledge and Kegan Paul pg.240
*Cohen, S. (1985) "Visions of Social Control: Crime, Punishment and Classification", Polity Press
*Cohen, S. (1988) Against Criminology. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books

1990s

*Cohen, S. (1991) "Talking about torture in Israel", "Tikkun", 6(6): 23-30, 89-90
*Cohen, S. (1993) "Human rights and crimes of the state: the culture of denial", "Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology", 26(2): 97-115

References

External links

* [http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/sociology/whoswho/cohen.htm Page at LSE site]
* [http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/mannheim/publications/cohen2.htm Stan Cohen: Folk Devils and Moral Panics]
* [http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/mannheim/publications/cohen1.htm Stan Cohen: States of Denial: knowing about atrocities and suffering]