This article explores the moral panic that emerged in New York City in 1989 after a young woman was attacked while jogging in Central Park and raped by seven youths. From this event, the term “wilding” became the stylized term to describe sexual violence committed by a group of urban teenagers. Wilding became a crime associated with urban culture and a word that was generally racially biased due to being introduced to describe Black and Latino lawbreakers. Wilding was initially used by the media to stylize information television and soon became another synonym for youth violence that in turn contributed to fear of crime and moral panic. This study refined the comprehension of youth in society by integrating research on race, class, and fear of crime, especially as those phenomena became stylized in the media. The analysis indicates that the wilding phenomenon satisfies the classic criteria of moral panic insofar as young Black and Latino males were seen as a menace and targeted by the criminal justice system. Even though the threat of wilding was stylized and greatly exaggerated in the media with regards to the jogger in Central Park, wilding resonated in the public imagination as a stark criminal stereotype affixed to young Black and Latino males. In summary, social interventions that ignore the roots of violence while creating coercive forms of control and scapegoating unpopular people are the legacies of moral panic, becoming embedded in the social order long after the initial wave of public anxiety has subsided. Moral panic over wilding represents a mental product that is transformed and transmitted into determining what is socially thinkable. Methodological and conceptual limitations of the study are presented. References