Bio: (1942–2013) British sociologist and criminologist. He taught at Durham and Essex Universities and the London School of Economics and was the Director, from 1980 to 1996, of the Institute of Criminology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 

He applied principles of symbolic interactionism and labelling theory to criminology. His book Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972), based on his PhD research, examined subcultural groups such as ‘mods’ and ‘rockers’ to understand how moral panic and social control by police and the media defined and punished crime and deviance. He examined how media labelling can amplify deviance, using the clashes between mods and rockers in 1960s Britain as a case study. Cohen showed that minor incidents were exaggerated by sensationalist media reporting, creating public fear and portraying youths as dangerous “folk devils.” This moral panic led to increased attempts at social control, which ironically drew more attention to the subcultures and made them more popular, sometimes escalating disorder. Cohen argued that such exaggerated reactions do not simply report deviance but help to create and intensify it, illustrating the paradox of social control.

In Visions of Social Control (1985), Cohen applies Michel Foucault's theory to further emphasize the importance of state power in social control. In States of Denial (2001), he researches reactions and denials of atrocities, and other egregious violations of human rights.

Main works

Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972);

Psychological Survival: the Experience of Long Term Imprisonment (1972); 

Escape attempts: the theory and practice of resistance in everyday life (1976); 

Social Control and the State: Historical and Comparative Essays (1983);

Visions of Social Control (1985);

Against Criminology (1988); 

States of Denial (2001).