Citation

Wanderer JJ. Am. J. Sociol. 1969; 74(5): 500-505.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1969, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/224683

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

While certain variables do not correlate with the presence or absence of riots in American cities, they do correlate with riot severity. Such variables are more influential in determining the severity of a riot, once it has begun, that they are in determining the outbreak of that riot. The Index--a Guttman-type scale developed from materials describing disorders in 1967--suggests that the events that constitute riots and civil-criminal disorders are not bizarre, non-patterned, or randomly generated. On the contrary, employing the properties of Guttman scales, we may predict the sequence of events for levels of riot severity.