Abstract

This article examines the agency of a group previously neglected by historians: the so-called ‘folk devils’ of historical moral panics. Orthodox studies of moral panics foreground the role of the mass media in creating folk devils, along with the responses of agents such as the police and the courts. This article takes a different approach, by examining the lived experience of folk devils themselves. It focuses on the London ‘Hooligan’ scare of 1898. Using the example of John D’Arcy, an eighteen-year-old from South London, who came to embody the Hooligan threat following his conviction for murder, it explores how a prominent folk devil and his family sought to negotiate, and refute, his demonisation by a sensation-hungry press. Two letters written by D’Arcy in prison enable us to give voice to a Hooligan for the first time. These demonstrate D’Arcy’s understanding of, and his attempt to refute, his demonisation, and his subsequent representation of himself as a humble, pious penitent. This study offers a new perspective on the class dynamics of late Victorian society, by showing how the D’Arcys, in alliance with the prominent prison visitor Katharine Parr, Irish Nationalist MPs and the medical officer at Parkhurst convict prison, effectively mobilised the rhetoric of moral reformation as they strove to free John from the stigma attached to him during an episode of moral panic.

中文翻译：

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重新调查1898年的伦敦“流氓”恐慌*

摘要

本文研究了历史学家先前忽略的一个群体的代理人：所谓的历史道德恐慌的“民间魔鬼”。正统的道德恐慌研究突出了大众媒体在制造民间魔鬼中的作用，以及诸如警察和法院之类的特工的反应。本文通过考察民间魔鬼自身的生活经历，采用了不同的方法。它以1898年伦敦的“流氓”恐慌为重点。以约翰·达西（John D'Arcy）为例，他来自伦敦南部，现年18岁，他在谋杀定罪后就体现了流氓的威胁，并探讨了一位杰出的人恶魔和他的家人试图通过渴望引起轰动的媒体来谈判和驳斥他的妖魔化。D'Arcy在监狱里写的两封信使我们首次向流氓发出声音。这些证明了达西对他的妖魔化的理解以及他的反驳尝试，以及他随后对自己的谦卑虔诚的pen悔。这项研究通过展示D'Arcys如何与著名的监狱探访者Katharine Parr，爱尔兰国民党议员和Parkhurst定罪监狱的医务人员结成联盟，有效地调动了维多利亚时代的言论，为晚期维多利亚社会的阶级动态提供了新的视角。道德改革，因为他们竭力使约翰摆脱道德上的恐慌发作时受到的污名。