Crowd Dynamics and the Prevention and Control of Collective Disorders

See, among others, Smelser N. J. : The Theory of Collective Behaviour , New York Free Press, 1963; Tilly C. , “The changing place of collective violence”, in Richter M. , Essays in Theory and History, Cambridge, Mass., 1970.

See for example Mannheim H. , Comparative Criminology , Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1970, vol. 2, pp. 636–70; Young Kimball , Handbook of Social Psychology , London, Kegan Paul 1946, p. 387; Cromwell P. F. Lewis R. L. , “Crowds, Mobs and Riots: A sociological analysis,” Police (16), Sept. 1971, p. 30.

Rude G. , The Crowd in History: A study of popular disturbances in France and England 1730–1844, John Wiley & Sons, 1964, p. 3.

Some theorists use the term “diffuse crowds” as opposed to “compact crowds” in order to describe such phenomena. Those unaggregated collectives may exhibit similar psychological behaviour as the crowd. However, in seeking to define the formal properties of a crowd “one should not be distracted by analogous processes in larger collectives”. ( Lang K. Lang G. E. , Collective Dynamics, New York, 1961, p. 114.)

Mannheim , op. cit. p. 644.

Klapp Orrin E. , Currents of Unrest: An introduction to collective behaviour, New York, 1972, p. 40.

Koestler Arthur , The Ghost in the Machine, Pan Books, London 1975, pp. 250–7.

Cannetti Elias , Crowds and Power, Penguin Books 1973, p. 71.

Goffman Erving , Interaction Ritual, New York 1967.

Lang K. Lang G. E. , op. cit., p. 111. See, as well, Lang L. Lang G. E. , “Collective Behaviour: Theory and the escalated riots of the sixties”, in Shibutani T. (ed), Human Nature and Collective Behaviour (papers in honour of Herbert Blumer), Prentice Hall Inc. 1970, pp. 94ff.

Klapp O. E. , Currents on Unrest: An introduction to Collective Behaviour, Holt, Reinhart and Winston Inc. New York, 1972, Chapter 3, pp. 37–8.

Cromwell P. Lewis L. , loc. cit. p. 30.

Lang K. Lang G. E. , Collective Dynamics, New York 1961, p. 111.

Milgram S. Toch H. , Collective Behaviour, Crowds and Social Movements, in the Handbook of Social Psychology by Linzey Aronson , 1969, p. 517.

Smith Mike Way Ken , Soccer violence: What lies beyond the aggro? Psychology today, March 1977, p. 22.

Soccer Hooliganism: A preliminary report to the Minister of Sport by a Birmingham Research Group (The Harrington Report), Bristol, John Wright & Sons Ltd. 1968, p. 18.

Miller N. E. Dollard J. , Social Learning and Imitation, published for the Institute of Human Relations by Yale University Press, 1941, p. 224.

Turner R. H. Killian L. M. , Collective Behaviour, Prentice Hall Inc. 1957, p. 105.

Couch Carl J. , Collective Behaviour: An examination of some stereotypes in Readings in Collective Behaviour by Evans Robert R. (ed) 1969. R. McNally & Co. Chicago, pp. 109–110. C. J. Crouch is questioning the traditional explanations of crowd misbehaviour. His views are in line with those of Tilly, Rude and others.

Many writers consider that the increased emotional arousal taking place in crowds is related to a reduction of reasoning processes. G. D. Martin sees the crowd as a device for indulging in a kind of temporary insanity by all going crazy together ( Martin G. D. , The Behaviour of Crowds, New York, 1920, p. 6).

See Hulbert , op. cit. p. 18.

Several members of the Birmingham research group have commented on the likelihood of a heightened state of suggestibility, similar to that seen in light states of hypnotic trance in fans packed tightly together and under the influence of rhythmic chanting and crowd emotion. They refer to a small boy who ran impulsively on to the field and when brought back by the police his expression suggested that he was not fully aware of the surroundings and could have been in a mild trance. They conclude that a state of marked over-excitement commonly knowd as “mass hysteria” can easily occur amongst fans watching a particularly tense game and influence them to behave collectively in a disinhibited way. (Harrington Report, op. cit. p. 18.)

Milgram S. Toch H. , Collective behaviour, crowds and social movements in Aronson Lindzey (ed), Handbook of Social Psychology, 2nd edition, vol. 4, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1969.

Toch H. , Violent Man: An inquiry into the psychology of violence. Pelican 1972, p. 247.

Smith-Way , loc. cit., pp. 20–1.

Strecker Edward A. : Beyond the clinical frontiers, (a psychiatrist views crowd behaviour), Norton Co. Inc., New York 1940, p. 56.

Miller N. E. Dollard J. , op. cit., pp. 223ff.

Turner-Killian , op. cit., p. 105.

See Momboisee R. : Riots, Revolts and Insurrections , C. C. Thomas, U.S.A. 1967, especially Chapter 3: Inciting a mob. On this see as well Methvin E. H. : The Riot Makers , Tom Stance Ltd., 1970; Boehme Lillian R. : Cart Blanche for Chaos , New Rochelle, New York, 1970 and Deane-Drummond Anthony : Riot Control, Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies, 1975, pp. 27–49.

It seems that for some people participation in crowd violence offers a feeling of “dionysian release”. There are numerous reports by rioters of a sense of almost orgiastic release during riots. Those reports are so widespread that Dr. John Spiegel of the Lemburg Center for the study of violence has characterized riots as “Roman Holidays” or “Carnivals”. See Bowen Don R. Masotti Louis H. , Civil Violence: A theoretical overview in Riots and Rebellion Civil Violence in the Urban Community, by Massotti Louis H. Bowen Don R. (eds), Sage Publications Inc. U.S.A., 1968, pp. 16–17.

Klapp O. E. , op. cit., pp. 49–51.

Cohen Stanley : Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The creation of the mods and rockers, Paladin, 1973.

Harrington Report, op. cit., p. 19.

Cohen S. , op. cit.

The types of crowd participants or crowd components described may be different or in different proportions in any particular crowd. This is what makes generalizations, descriptions and predictions of crowd behaviour extremely difficult.

Smith-Way , loc. cit., p. 20.

Cahagan J. , Interpersonal and group behaviour , Essential Psychology by Peter Herriot (general editor) Methuen, 1975, Chapter 7: The Crowd, pp. 123–134.

Momboisse Raymond M. , op. cit., p. 16. For the similar concept of rumour as information or misinformation process in crowds see Momboisse Raymond M. , ibid, pp. 57–65. See as well, Allport G. Postman L. , The Psychology of Rumour, New York, 1947.

Rowan John , The Structured Crowd, Davis-Poynter Ltd., London 1978, pp. 33ff. The cautious group includes people with strong interests in the kind of action initiated by others, but who would not act because of fear of the law. As soon as this constraint is lifted by the lawless and the suggestible, they will take action.

Toch Milgram , op. cit., pp. 562ff. Seargent Slater of the Metropolitan Police has studied catastrophe theory (a branch of applied mathematics) and applied it to crowd control. (Unpublished paper in the Scotland Yard library.)

This configuration of factors is sufficient to explain the lowering of inhibitions in crowd circumstances and the fact that normally law abiding individuals behave criminally in crowds. Theories attempting to explain these phenomena as the result of evolutionary regression brought about by the disappearance of the concious personality or super-ego substitution have rightly been criticized as either incorrect or impossible to prove or disprove.

Killian Turner , op. cit., pp. 143–54.

The data collected on the criminal records of offenders show that in football and political circumstances a relatively lower percentage of the offences studied were committed by persons with previous convictions than in the control sample. The difference was more marked with regard to political crowds. ( Trivizas E. , Offences and offenders in football crowd disorders, BJC, July 1982, p. 276.)

Trivizas E. , The criminology of crowds, Ph.D thesis, University of London 1979.

For historical details in relation to this section and other related preventive measures, see Williams David , Keeping the Peace, the police and public order, Hutchinson & Co. Ltd., 1967, pp. 59ff.

Only extreme measures like the imposition of curfews may prevent spontaneous crowd gatherings. For bans on crowd gatherings and curfews in U.S.A. and the legal and other problems involved, see Bassiouni M. C. , op. cit.

Nicol A. G. L. , 1980.

Gibbens T. C. N. , Teenage riots around the world, New Society, August 6, 1964.

See, for example: Violence and vandalism in football matches and crowd gatherings in West 'Yorkshire, Yorkshire 1977, Ingham R. : Towards some recommendations in football hooliganism in Ingham, R., et. al., Football Hooliganism, Inter-action Imprint, London 1978.

Hancox P. D. Chief Inspector Morgan J. B. Chief Superintendent , The Use of CCTV for Police Control at Football Matches, (West Midlands Police Experiment), Police Research Bulletin, No. 25, Summer 1975.

Morris D. , The Naked Ape, Triad Mayflower, 1977, Chap. 5.

Wilcox A. E. (former chief constable of Hertfordshire) quoted by Kenneth Sloan, op. cit., p. 20.

Trivizas E. , op. cit., p. 151.

Hulbert , op. cit., p. 121.

Coates Joseph F. Wit Humour : A neglected aid in crowd and mob control, in Crime and Delinquency, April 1972, pp. 184ff.

Coates J. F. , ibid.

Inspector Carter, unpublished paper in the Scotland Yard library.

Hulbert J. , op. cit., pp. 8ff.

Deane-Drummond A. , Riot Control, Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies, London, 1975, p. 73.

Leslie James infers that from the suggestion of an effective debriefing of the police involved (Leslie James, loc. cit., p. 150, see as well Scarman Report, op. cit., para. 201, p. 48).

Hulbert J. , op. cit.

Drummond Deane , op. cit. On the same issue Simon Field in a recent Home Office research study comments that “the use of methods of crowd control which are technically more effective in the short term, carried significant risks. Ultimately, riot control depends on the restoration of the moral rather than physical authority of the police …” (Simon Field, “Urban disorders in Britain and America: A review of research” in “Public Disorder: A review of research and a study in one inner city area” by Simon Field and Peter Southgate, Home Office Research Study No. 72, H.M.S.O., March 1972.