Reflections on Why Riots Don't Happen

• In Event: Poverty, Inequality and Despair as Criminogenic

Abstract

In contrast to much of the literature in the field of public disorder, rather than focusing on the nature and aetiology of riots, this paper investigates why riots don’t happen. During times of widespread disorder there are some locations that, whilst apparently sharing many of the features of the places where significant disorder is occurring, do not fall prey to rioting themselves. Why? Focusing in particular on two locations which saw early signs of disorder during the 2011 English riots but which did not experience full-scale rioting, this paper, seeks to analyse the factors that might help explain their relatively peacefulness.

Author

• Tim Newburn, London School of Economics and Political Science