Moral Panic and the Social Construction of Fear: Media Narratives and the Criminalization of Foreign Youth Street Groups

This article, building on the classic concept of moral panic as developed in particular by Stanley Cohen, analyses contemporary discourse on the phenomenon of youth street groups in Italy: informal collectives, often with a migrant background, portrayed as a threat to social order. The analysis focuses on how the media have amplified the so -called “baby gang” phenomenon through alarmist narratives that reinforce the perception of youth as out of control and socially dangerous. This symbolic construction disproportionately targets migrant youth, onto whom collective anxieties and insecurities are projected. Drawing on recent data, media representations, and legal developments, the article shows how these groups have been constructed as new folk devils at the centre of a moral panic that legitimises populist penal policies and crimmigration processes. The study contributes to the international debate on the social construction of fear and the criminalisation of migrant -background youth.