| Abstract [eng] |
Sociological and criminological theories illuminated to the role of the mass media in deviance amplification process in the middle of 20th century. British criminologist Stanley Cohen was among the first to draw attention how the mass media is manipulating public fear of illicit drugs users. Another British criminologist Jock Young has developed a theoretical model which theoretically explains the connection between the public reaction to deviance and deviance amplification. He called this explanation the deviance amplification spiral model. J. Young argued that the mass media creates public fear of illicit drugs which exerts pressure upon legislator, police and courts to take action against illicit drugs use. This study is based on S. Cohen's moral panic and J. Young's deviance amplification theories. It is grounded in the analysis of data collected in four sociological investigations: (1) Vilnius University students attitudes survey; (2) qualitative content analysis of the readers' comments in the news portal delfi.lt; (3) qualitative and quantitative content analysis of the Lithuanian Parliament's plenary meeting stenographs and (4) expert interviews. The main thesis: the drugs fear is one of the factors of psychoactive substances criminalization in present-day Lithuania. Vilnius University students attitudes survey results show that the most of the respondents are convinced that illicit drugs problem is very widespread in present-day Lithuania, and the most effective way of solving this problem are tough measures against drug users, dealers and traffickers. Qualitative content analysis of the comments by readers of news portal delfi.lt readers highlighted two symptoms of the moral panic: illicit drugs users were conceived as 'folk devils' and villains; the illicit drugs problem was presented as that of irresistibly spreading disease. According to findings of qualitative and quantitative content analysis of the Lithuanian Parliament's plenary meeting stenographs the parliamentary discussion was dominated by the 'control and punishment' rhetoric on drugs in the year 2007–2008. Expert interviews disclose new aspects of deviance amplification and confirm the impact of the fear of illicit drugs on the psychoactive substances criminalization in present-day Lithuania. |
