ABSTRACT
The word ‘scandal’ sometimes refers to a scandalous offence, to a transgression that invites a judgement of moral opprobrium. Equally scandal can refer to the response of condemnation that greets such a transgression. The study of scandals thus has two principal aspects: the incidence and aetiology of transgressions, and the responses to their disclosure. Often in talk about scandals the two are conflated (Tiffen 1999: 8–11). But there is no necessary symmetry between offence and response. The gravity of the offence is not a good guide to the intensity which the public and political response will acquire. It is the beginning of wisdom in the study of scandals to realize that the dynamics of reaction are separate from and only loosely connected with the nature of the transgressions.
