RELIGIOUS MORAL PANIC AND ITS SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES

Abstract

This paper analyzes the phenomenon of religious moral panic, seen as a specific type of general sociological concept of moral panic. The first section presents the general characteristics of this phenomenon. The second section is a discussion about the causes of its origin, which consists of pointing out and observing the key factors that contributed to it. Within the third section, we pointed out the general consequences that the phenomenon of religious moral panic left on society. The final section contains a legal analysis of the characteristics of actions that are connected to the inciting and expansion of moral panic, in terms of recognizing their illegality and the specific offenses that are associated with them. Among the general conclusions, it was emphasized that incitement and spreading of religious moral panic, in addition to ethical impropriety, also delves deeply into the domain of illegality, because such behavior is legally associated with numerous and diverse crimes. In this regard, it was suggested to make parallel efforts towards raising awareness among citizens about the moral inadequacy of such acts, as well as about legal mechanisms for their prohibition and stipulated legal consequences for the perpetrators.