Criminological Diagnosis of Collective Behavior - An Argument for Disaggregate Labeling (From Criminological Diagnosis - An International Perspective, P 31-65, 1983, Franco Ferracuti and Marvin E Wolfgang, ed. - See NCJ-90506)

• NCJ Number: 90508
• Author(s): R A Berk; L H Masotti
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 35 pages
• Sale Source: Lexington Books
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study reviews traditional views of crowds, contemporary revisions of these views, and the implications of these contemporary revisions for political and bureaucratic policy toward handling crowds.

Abstract

Dominant theories of crowd behavior have tended to focus on crowds of individuals rather than individuals in crowds. The administration of justice might be improved dramatically by making practitioners and the public more aware of the wide range of motives, actions, and consequences represented in most civil disturbances. The labeling process should be individualized and each category of participants treated differentially. Typologies of rioters might focus on individual motives, individual roles, and an examination of the consequences and actions of crowd members. Any typology, however, can be articulated only within the context of the values and distribution of political power in a society. One political and bureaucratic implication of this approach is that flexibility should be encouraged so that acceptable kinds of crowds can reflect the communities in which they occur. Secondly, intervention strategies should be developed that are efficient, humane, and targeted to the specific type of crowd. Thirdly, the order of goals for intervention should be made crowd-specific. Further, allowance should be made for different kinds of crowd participants, and meaningful categories of crowd participation should be developed. Finally, individualized justice should be implemented in sentencing rioters. Fifty-four notes are provided.