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- war
- terrorism
- insurgency
- lynching in the United States
- gang
collective violence
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What is collective violence?
Collective violence refers to violent acts engaged in by a large group of people responding to a common cause. Criminologists categorize collective violence as a number of people using force against others, unlike individual violence, where one person directs injurious force against another.
Acts of collective violence do not arise from madness, but from ordinary life issues, where normal people feel compelled to take action. Collective violence includes riots and youth gang fights, coups, rebellions, revolutions, terrorism, and war. These actions can be spontaneous, such as social unrest, or organized, like coups.
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Who are usually involved in acts of collective violence?
Acts of collective violence involve large groups reacting to a shared trigger and can range from spontaneous to organized. Participants are typically ordinary individuals who believe they must take action themselves.
Situational collective violence is unplanned, triggered by immediate circumstances. Organized collective violence is planned but unauthorized, like lynching. Institutional collective violence is carried out by legal authorities, such as a country at war or police suppressing a riot.
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What are some common examples of collective violence in history?
Collective violence involves large groups reacting to a common cause, ranging from spontaneous riots to organized events like coups, terrorism, and war.
Examples of collective violence:
* Pogroms Mob attacks against a minority group, particularly Jews in the Russian Empire, often incited by false rumors and enabled by discriminatory policies.
* Riots Public disturbances involving violence, often stemming from grievances, protests, or hate. Examples include race riots in Memphis and New Orleans in 1866, where whites attacked newly freed African Americans.
* Terrorism The use of violence to achieve political aims, as seen with the Jewish Zealots attacking those suspected of colluding with Roman authorities. It has been employed in anticolonial conflicts and by extremist groups.
* Civil War A war between opposing groups of citizens within the same country, often driven by economic inequality or a desire for independence.
* The Holocaust The mass murder of Jews, considered a genocide, perpetrated by the German Nazi regime.7 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
Why does collective violence happen in societies?
Collective violence arises from a breakdown in established social norms, often fueled by racial, ethnic, or religious discrimination and unequal access to social goals. When people become frustrated with economic and political institutions, they may prefer the breakdown of law and order.
Several factors can contribute to the intensity of collective violence. These include shared historical experiences, memories, and sacrifices; economic, political, and cultural discrimination; and mass literacy, which allows historical and cultural narratives to reach a wide audience.
Criminologists divide collective violence into situational, organized, and institutional types. Revolutions, unlike coups and rebellions, can cause radical changes in governmental institutions and bring about basic changes in society as a whole.
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How can collective violence affect communities and individuals?
Collective violence, a byproduct of mass action, arises from the breakdown of established norms, leading to spontaneous and less inhibited behavior. Social unrest, an elementary form of collective violence, often stems from racial, ethnic, or religious discrimination, causing frustration due to unequal access to social goals. When dissatisfaction with economic and political institutions peaks, people may prefer the breakdown of law and order, leading to riots where acts of violence gain legitimacy among participants and observers.
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What are some ways to prevent or reduce collective violence?
Collective violence is a multifaceted issue that requires comprehensive strategies for prevention and reduction. Effective approaches often target the underlying causes of violence, such as social inequalities, ethnic tensions, and weak state institutions.
Violence prevention programs that focus on young people and involve families, schools, and communities have proven successful. These programs should target all children, not just those considered at risk, and should include committed teachers and parent training.
Addressing grievances and promoting economic stability can also reduce the likelihood of collective violence. Furthermore, fostering strong social structures and establishing effective means of communication can help prevent the escalation of tensions into violence. By focusing on these key areas, societies can take meaningful steps toward preventing and reducing collective violence.
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collective violence, violent form of collective behaviour engaged in by large numbers of people responding to a common stimulus. Collective violence can be placed on a continuum, with one extreme involving the spontaneous behaviour of people who react to situations they perceive as uncertain, threatening, or extremely attractive. Riots and random youth gang fights are examples of spontaneous collective violence. At the other extreme are the organized forms of collective violence. These include coups, rebellions, revolutions, terrorism, and war.
Defining collective violence
Criminologists divide violence into two major types: individual violence and collective violence. Individual (or personal) violence is injurious force directed by one person against others. It includes making physical attacks and destroying another’s property. In contrast, collective violence consists of a number of persons directing injurious force against others. Acts of collective violence do not spring from madness, perversion, or intentional criminality; they spring from everyday life and mundane issues, and the people who commit these acts are normal people who become convinced that the time has come to take matters into their own hands.
Generally speaking, collective violence can be divided into three categories:
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- Situational collective violence is unplanned and spontaneous. Something in the immediate situational environment triggers a group to violent action. For example, in a barroom brawl, one group of patrons interprets messages sent by another group as a form of disrespect and feels it necessary to retaliate physically.
- Organized collective violence is planned violent behaviour. It is also unauthorized or unofficial and lacks government approval. Lynching is an example of organized collective violence.
- Institutional collective violence is carried out under the direction of legally constituted officials. Examples include a country fighting a war, a state’s national guard putting down a riot, or a SWAT team attacking a barricaded suspect.
Within the context of collective behaviour, situational collective violence can be understood as spontaneous behaviour, and organized collective violence and institutional collective violence can be combined into the category of organized collective behaviour.
Examples of collective violence
Compared with conventional, everyday behaviour, collective behaviour is less inhibited, more spontaneous, more open to change, less structured, less stable, and generally shorter lived. One by-product of mass action can be collective violence. The specific forms of collective violence are described below.
Riots
The most elementary form of collective violence is referred to as “social unrest.” The significance of social unrest is that it represents a breakdown of established routines and behaviours and substitutes a preparation for new collective action. Social unrest is not a new phenomenon; it is most likely a characteristic of urban society. Often, tensions exist in any given social environment. These tensions may be a result of racial, ethnic, or religious discrimination and prejudice that are operant in society. People become frustrated when they realize there is unequal access to the desired social goals (success, wealth, health, sense of self-fulfillment, and the like). There are instances when people will engage in various methods of adaptation. In extreme cases, riots may occur.
When groups of people become dissatisfied and frustrated with existing economic and political institutions, there may come a point when the breakdown of law and order is preferred to their preservation. During the chaos of a riot, many emergent forms of behaviour occur that might not occur otherwise. Acts of violence take on new meaning; they are now viewed as legitimate by the performers and the active witnesses.
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Gang violence
Youths have formed groups, usually within their own age cohorts, from the beginning of human history. Some groups engage in what would be described as “normal” or socially acceptable behaviours. Other groups, however, may engage in behaviours that are harmful or even criminal. Youth gangs have existed since at least the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe. Descriptions of youth gangs in England during this period note that gangs committed various forms of theft and robbery, along with extortion and rape. Gangs found great amusement in breaking windows, demolishing taverns, and assaulting the watch.
In the United States, youth gangs have existed since at least the Revolutionary era. As the number of youth gangs slowly increased in American cities, certain characteristics remained constant. Gangs were typically organized along ethnic or racial lines, and the time spent in a gang was generally restricted to one’s youth, as former gang members moved into the mainstream blue-collar workforce. Gang violence was more likely to occur because of some chance meeting of rivals; however, some fights were organized as a form of either retaliation or intimidation.
Beginning in the 1980s, gangs in the United States took on a new focus. They were far more violent than in the past, as the primary motive of “turf protection” was replaced with the goal of attaining wealth through control of the illegal drug market. Drug money fueled an urban arms race, and gun violence in American urban centres such as Los Angeles and Chicago became endemic. With the shift of the U.S. economic structure from blue-collar industry to white-collar service professions, the traditional exit path from gang life evaporated. Former youth gang members were now in their 20s and 30s and still participating in gangs. The foundation of youth gangs had transformed from the relatively unstructured, spontaneous group, engaged in random, relatively short-lived forms of violence, to a more organized and structured criminal enterprise.