Riots

Abstract

A riot is an unruly collective act of violence that is temporary, discontinuous from everyday routines, and results in damage to persons or property of either the participants or targets of the collective actor. Although most social scientists have an intuitive sense of what constitutes a riot, the edges of the definition are fuzzy and it can be difficult to determine whether or not some events are actually “riots.” For example, it is agreed that a riot is a collective act. That is, more than one individual must be involved and at least minimally coordinate action in order for a riot to occur. Two people acting together, however, would not constitute a riot, even though it is a collective act of violence. Thus, the lower limit for participation, damage, and duration to define a riot is difficult to establish and has led many sociologists to analyze events more ambiguously referred to as “civil disorders” or “collective violence.” For most, however, unless there are at least 30–50 people involved, the events last more than a few moments, and there is action that could result in property damage or injury requiring medical attention, a riot has not occurred.

Protest on the Fly

“…As such, it happens in a "blink," to use Gladwell's (2005) Porta and Reiter (1998) and McCarthy and McPhail (1998) (Snow et al 2013). Even though "most social scientists have an intuitive sense of what constitutes a riot," Myers (2013Myers ( :1124 notes that "the edges of the definition are fuzzy," often making it "difficult to determine whether or not some events are actually 'riots.'" However, the question of whether there were moments of spontaneity in the sit-ins is bypassed by attributing spontaneity to students' accounting practices.…”

“… 8. We place riots in quotation marks because it is not always clear that the collective actions to which the term is applied should be labeled as such. Even though “most social scientists have an intuitive sense of what constitutes a riot,” Myers (2013:1124) notes that “the edges of the definition are fuzzy,” often making it “difficult to determine whether or not some events are actually ‘riots.’” Additionally, the term is sometimes used as a political label for contentious, unruly collective action engaged in by a challenging group or focuses attention on one segment of participants and implies something demeaning about them. Such concerns have been noted in relation to the “ghetto riots” of the 1960s in the United States (see Feagin and Hahn 1973: fn 4, vi–vii).…”