Moral Panics and Judicial Devils. Victims, Public Opinion and Criminal Justice

In this article, we intend to develop some connections observed in Argentina between criminal justice and certain extrajudicial actors from the application of the concept of moral panics. In this sense, we point out that in order to address moral panics we should take two components into account: a significant worry about the behavior of certain types of people or group, which becomes a hostility towards those defined as a threat. Then we propose a weak application of the concept of moral panic to analyze its link to the events associated with criminal justice. Thirdly, we mention that society’s alleged loss of trust in justice, along with various sources of outrage, bases upon indignation. We also formulate the notion of judicial devils in order to provide some contact points between moral panics and criminal justice. Finally, we seek to explore whether judicial devils constitute a ‘real’ problem for society, or if they are a construction carried out by sectors and institutions motivated by particular interests.