Mob violence: Cultural-societal sources, instigators, group processes, and participants.

Abstract

The 1992 Los Angeles riots, which were instigated by mob violence by the police and consisted of mob violence by citizens, have once again drawn attention to this complex phenomenon. In this chapter, we examine the instigating events, background conditions, and social and psychological processes that generate mob violence, as well as the characteristics of individuals who participate in it, with a particular focus on youth. Examples from the urban riots of the 1960s in the United States will be emphasized somewhat, partly because of the relative wealth of information about them and partly because we know that the majority of the participants in them were young people. However, we also consider other examples of mob violence, including the 1992 L.A. riots, soccer violence, prison riots, revolutionary mob violence, lynchings, and "wildings," most of which involve a substantial number of youth. Of special concern, despite limited information, are the reasons for the apparently high frequency of participation by youth in mob violence and the impact of mob violence on both participating and nonparticipating youth. Recommendations for research and for policies aimed at reducing mob violence are also made.

The Roots of Evil: Social Conditions, Culture, Personality, and Basic Human Needs

“…This might develop into pleasure in harming others. The boundaries ofthe self are loosened and the usual internalized prohibitions and controls are lost, as in mobs (Staub & Rosenthal, 1994), but also progressively in individual conduct in relation to devalued others.…”

Deindividuation and antinormative behavior: A meta-analysis.

“…The aim is to explain "what forces crowd members at times to behave in uncivilized and violent ways" (Diener, 1976, p. 497). Deindividuation theory has been applied to social atrocities such as genocide (Staub, 1996;Staub & Rosenthal, 1994). More recently, the theory has been used to account for antinormative social behavior in other domains such as computer-mediated communication (Kiesler, Siegel, & McGuire, 1984;Kiesler & Sproull, 1992) and group decision support systems (Jessup, Connolly, & Tansik, 1990).…”

Evil: Understanding Bad Situations and Systems, But Also Personality and Group Dynamics

“…This is consistent with a great deal of research on and observation of how in groups, members striving for dominance and influence tend to move the group in an already-established direction. One group of social psychology research studies has referred to this phenomenon as group polarization, but the phenomenon has also been observed in mob violence (Staub & Rosenthal, 1994) and in terrorism (McCauley, 2004).…”