Aim: What causes social order to break down into a riot? Do Now: What is “mob mentality?”

How do groups interact? Cooperation: interaction in which individuals or groups combine efforts to reach a goal Conflict: interaction aimed at defeating an opponent. Social exchange: a voluntary action performed in the expectation of getting a reward. The basis is reciprocity, the ideas that you should do for others as they have done for you. Coercion: interaction in which individuals or groups are forced to behave in a certain way. It is the opposite of social exchange. The key element is domination.

Mob: emotional crowd ready to use violence for a specific purpose Riot: episode of largely random destruction and violence carried out by a crowd. Riots are usually precipitated by a “spark” but have various underlying causes. Contagion Theory: theory stating that members of crowds stimulate each other to higher and higher levels of emotion and irrational behavior Emergent Norm Theory: theory stating that norms develop to guide crowd behavior Convergence Theory: theory that states that crowds are formed by people who deliberately congregate with like minded people

Events leading up to the riot: Inmates staged a peaceful sit-down strike against the revocation of privileges Protest was broken with violence by prison authorities “The Hole” was used frequently A clique of middle level administrators ran the prison as they saw fit “The Snitch Game,” threats of violence from guards and inmates and sexual assaults destroyed inmate solidarity A few extremely violent “hardcore” cliques controlled the inmate population

The Riot: Various groups of inmates attacked guards and held them hostage, beating and sodomizing them Other groups tried to protect the guards Various inmates labeled as “snitches” were killed and mutilated Competition between the groups for quantity and quality of killings Some inmates tried to avoid the violence or protect fellow inmates A Black Muslim minister and his followers saved many intended victims who joined forces for self protection Fires were set and mass chaos erupted Three inmates attempted to transform the riot into a protest of prison conditions The riot ended after the final hostages were released and the prison was retaken

Questions How can we compare the riot to other readings from this course? What social issues must be addressed in order to prevent future riots in different situations?