Culture: violence and the media

Teddy Boys caused a wave of moral panic throughout Britain in the 1950s and were seen as a real threat to society. As a result the media released countless reports which only seemed to confirm peoples worst fears: Teddy Boys were violent and out of control, some newspapers even went as far as to suggest that they were psychotic.

However, newspaper reports of Teddy Boy violence were exaggerated, and what they failed to report was that the fighting was mainly territorial between rival Teddy Boy gangs, and rarely directed towards outsiders.