
Penny Dreadfuls, Juvenile Crime, and Late-Victorian Moral Panic - Avawelles
http://mimimatthews.com/2015/11/16/penny-dreadfuls-juvenile-crime-and-late-victorian-moral-panic/
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jchaps
Well, I'm glad we're not experiencing polarizing battles over moralization of
popular fiction and the deleterious content of entertainment that young men
consume. That must have been exhausting.

Thankfully, with the advent of modern communication, people can be informed
that they are engaging in a moral panic and reacting emotionally to
sensationalism by the more rational and wise leaders of our age.

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oldmanjay
Every generation needs their war on teenage boys. Luckily for those brave
warriors it's not too difficult to whip up a teapot tempest over bugaboos like
penny dreadfuls or video games.

Of course, since it seems unlikely that the core warrior premise of media
driving behavior is actually true, the core warrior desire of media censorship
is not a price I'm willing to pay.

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anon4
It's time we have a moral panic over moral panics.

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Zikes
I'm pretty sure we're already there.

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stevetrewick
_" We are quite sure it is not to the interest of the nation that the rising
generation should be nourished on the literary fare enclosed within the covers
of a ‘Penny Dreadful.’ Yet we do not very well see how the reading of the
people is to be supervised by the police. Reform, we fancy, must be left to
that best of all detectives — public opinion.”_

Not an attitude the current government or judiciary would appear to share.

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rhema
[https://bklyn.newspapers.com/search/#query=penny+dreadful](https://bklyn.newspapers.com/search/#query=penny+dreadful)

I like looking at the original responses. The Brooklyn Newspaper archive is a
great way to investigate 1850-1925 history.

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jhallenworld
Well I'm going to have to read these now :-)

[http://halfpennydreadfuls.com/penny-
dreadfuls/stories](http://halfpennydreadfuls.com/penny-dreadfuls/stories)

