In understanding that moral panic analysis should be connected to some of the major themes in contemporary sociological and cultural theory, especially risk theory, discourse analysis, and moral regulation. There is considerable merit in seeing moral panics as an extreme form of a much wider, more diffuse, and less volatile process of moral regulation. However, better specification is required of the scope of moral regulation and its boundary with moral panics. This paper focuses on the origins and development of moral regulation, and its application to moral panics, and tracing it through the work of Corrigan and Sayer (1985), Hunt (1999), and Hier (2002; 2008). Three dimensions for differentiating issues are also explored: moral order, social control, and self-regulation. The summary presents arguments in the light of a review of the challenges facing moral panic analysis. Table and references