Public applause reflects societal endorsement of punitive actions against youth.

Evidence

On a number of occasions spectators were observed cheering the police when they made an arrest and when boys were bundled into a police van, the type of remark one heard was ‘that’ll teach them a lesson’, or ‘put them in Lewes for a few nights, that’ll show them’. — Cohen, Stanley, Folk devils and moral panics, 664

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Cohen, Stanley, Folk devils and moral panics: the…, 664
• XREF: connects to: Images of deviance serve to justify societal norms and values. — Cohen, Stanley, Folk devils and moral panics: the…, 335