Looking at Hate Crime and Moral Panic Today

¶ … moral panic, especially with regard to those who are transgender in the society. The Moral Panic of Transgender The Grassroots Model describes moral panic as that which arises from a society's spontaneous reaction to what the society perceived to be morally deviant behavior. The deviance is perceived to be a danger to the society's moral fiber and this creates a lot of stress, which can lead to anger. This stress may not have an avenue to be expressed directly (Social Context Moral Entrepreneurs, n.d.).

When the displacement of these anxieties happens, there may be direction of the same to the social deviants as they are regarded as the cause of all this. Kai Erickson, in her book 'the Wayward Puritans', demonstrates this when she relates how the people of Massachusetts Bay Colony went back to witch-hunting as a way to direct the anxiety that arose from social deviance. The transgender issue is one that has been responsible for raising moral panic. It has raised panic over a wide portion of the population.

The fear of it has also been responsible for creating anxieties and some of these have been directed towards those who assign themselves the title. Moral entrepreneurs are those people who come up with moral crusades and dedicate themselves to keeping them going. They are considered to force their morals on the rest of the society. For them, moral deviance is often considered evil and something that must be done away with.

Some view them as being self-righteous, even though they themselves consider their stand to be one of zeal and righteousness (Social Context Moral Entrepreneurs, n. d.) The moral crusades that the moral entrepreneurs are focused on changing how society feels about certain things and these crusades are sometimes geared towards changing the existing legislation, policies and creating awareness of the threat they believe the 'deviants' pose to society.

Moral entrepreneurs are thus perceived as those who create their own rules and morals, which they try to get others to adhere to, either by persuasion or force. In the issue of transgender individuals, moral entrepreneurs can be found on both sides of the divide. Some of them campaign for the recognition of this group of people and the upholding of their rights.

These groups not only aim to gain acceptance for the community, but an understanding that they, too, are 'normal.' On the other side of these are the moral entrepreneurs who stand against the transgender issue and see it as evil and one that society must shun. These mostly come from religious groups in society. Thus, the transgender issue qualifies as an issue arousing moral panic in the society. Case Example: U.S. Marine Killing a Transgender Individual In this case, Lance Cpl.

Joseph Scott, who was a United States Marine, was accused of having murdered a transgender woman, Jennifer Laude, in Olongapo City. This was a crime considered to have been motivated by moral panic. The marine, in this case, had hired the woman for sex. However, during the course of their interactions, he had discovered that the said woman was a man. The marine experienced moral panic because he had perceived the person who had performed oral sex on him to be a woman.

Then he discovered that it was a man. He thus lashed out from repulsion and disgust. In the ensuing fight, he choked Jennifer, and then apparently drowned her in the toilet bowl (U.S. PDF Document, n. d.). The story as reported by CNN had the marine claiming that he only wanted to revive the woman with the toilet water. This incident demonstrates the issue of moral panic arising from the situation.

The marine clearly had no intention of getting intimate with a transgender individual and it was clear that this individual did not reveal their status to the marine at their initial stages of interaction. Nevertheless, it demonstrates panic that.