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The Moral Panic of Madeleine McCann Part 4

How useful is the Moral Panic thesis as a tool for helping us to understand what has happened?
Moral Panic helps people to understand what has happened in a specific situation because it makes us feel empathy.  In the case of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, many people felt compassion for the parents and family, and the majority of people who followed the case would have personally known a three-year-old child, at some stage in their lives.  Moral Panic teaches people to be more cautious when in specific environments, for example, stranger danger, not leaving children alone in a foreign environment and not jay-walking.  It gives people a sense of anxiety, and if people have seen someone do something, and it has a negative outcome, then the chances of other's doing that same thing are meagre.





Is the Moral Panic thesis still relevant?
The question 'is the Moral Panic thesis still relevant?' is very subjective from person to person, and is all up to personal views.  I believe that Moral Panic will always be relevant, as long as there is an event that causes a group of people to have a feeling of anxiety, it will always be around and will be hard to get rid of.  People interpret moral panic in various ways, and people will act differently according to moral panic.

Here are a few advantages and critiques of the moral panic thesis:

Advantages:
- Helps people feel empathetic towards the situation
- Makes people learn from other's mistakes, by awakening that little bit of anxiety


Critiques
- How people interpret the moral panic thesis in the years to come
- It is easy to get an interpretation from the moral panic thesis

Conclusion
The moral panic of Madeleine McCann was a worldwide phenomenon through the media's responses, as well as the public's responses of her disappearance.  The moral panic thesis, in the case of Madeleine McCann, is convincing, as the surveillance over children has increased, as well as the growth of technology. 

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