This paper formulates and tests a causal model of racial violence in the public schools using data from a sample of 119 American cities. The results tend to support three conclu sions regarding the outbreak of school disorders during the latter 1960s. First, the data suggest that the causes of school disorders are rooted in the community-at-large as well as in the schools. Second, the results show that the most direct and immediate school factor is the extent to which urban school systems are racially desegregated. Finally, the data do not support riot theories based on the assumption of social marginality. Rather, the results appear most consistent with interpretations which stress their parapolitical character.
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