Moral Entrepreneurship as a Form of Cultural Framing: Reassessing the Role of Anslinger in Cannabis Criminalization

• In Event: Historical Perspectives on Crime, Culture, and Ethnicity

Abstract

Moral entrepreneurs argue that social problems are urgently in need of attention. While cases of moral entrepreneurship often involve exaggerations of the empirical basis of a problem, the messaging involved seeks to capture the attention of the public in pursuit of the entrepreneur’s aims. We position this messaging as an instance of cultural framing and use the case of U.S. cannabis criminalization via historical analysis of archetypal moral entrepreneur H.J. Anslinger’s Papers supplemented with 9,707 nationwide newspaper articles from before and after Anslinger’s emergence to make several contributions. First, we highlight elites’ framing role as sponsors who build on existing momentum, such that Anslinger magnified existing cannabis legal frames rather than innovating. Second, we show how a counter-frame vacuum was created, with Anslinger discounting alternative frames through multiple outlets, strengthening the case for federal prohibition. Third, while we confirm that Anslinger acted to consolidate power in his role with the Federal Bureau of Narcotics as typical for the moral entrepreneur, we show how this occurred just as rigorously through channels outside the public media. Together, our analyses demonstrate the importance of framing in the social construction of law by interrogating classic conceptions of moral entrepreneurs.

Authors

• Mike Vuolo, The Ohio State University

• Brian C. Kelly, Indiana University

• Joy Kadowaki, University of Dayton

• Maria Orsini, The Ohio State University