There are five basic theories outlined in the book. These theories provide the framework for understanding the events that are discussed in later chapters. The first theory is presented is the Irrational and Rational approaches. Irrationality was the theory that people do not understand the consequences of their actions when in large groups or crowds. Rationality, discussed by Turner and Killian, is the belief that people that come together in groups begin to develop an emergent norm. This is the expectation that something violent may occur, but in a calculated manner. Psychologists such as Freud, Pareto, and LeBon all researched about irrationality. However, I do not think the point was well argued. It also seemed like this theory did not explain any of the collective violence in the later chapters. There is one exception though. The chapter on riots could be seen in light of this theory.
There were several examples of different riots in American and British history. In the earlier days of the Industrial Revolution in the U.S., riots were so common that the time was named the “riot era”. This is an example of Rationality in rioting. It is obvious that people who were being mistreated in factories planned on rioting and disrupting their boss in order to make their point. This makes the theory of Rationality a little more believable. This example of rioting contrasts with the riots of the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. The examples provided by the authors do not support this theory at all. Most of the more recent riots have taken place in urban areas with extremely high poverty. In this case the people are just as violent and motivated, but they have no cause. There is generally no reason for these kinds of riots except for the fact that people are unhappy. This provides support for the Irrationality theory.
The second theory discussed was possibly the most useful theory is the theory. This is the theory of Frustration-Aggression, or Relative Deprivation. This theory deals with trying to explain uprisings and violent action due to a person’s social standing. The theory has a few requirements. It says that a person first sees their place in society and is unhappy with it, because he or she sees the others around them living in better conditions. This leads to frustration. If a person remains in these conditions, or if they worsen, the frustration becomes worse. The theory then says that when a person is exposed to these conditions for an extended period of time, this could lead to aggressive behavior. This is especially true when a large group of people begin to feel the same way about their place in society.
This theory can be extremely useful for understanding revolutions. The book gives three good examples of revolutions that began from peasant uprisings. I feel that the book well in illustrating the causes of all three peasant revolutions as they apply to Relative Deprivation. The Russian Revolution of 1917 was started by thousands of peasants who’d had enough of living in poverty while the government continued to live well. The eventual overthrow of the government was then a direct result of the feeling of frustration that led directly to aggressive behavior.
The third theory discussed was about the effect of social attachments. This theory deals with the influence of a person’s interaction with society on their potential for membership in violent groups. This theory, explained by William Kornhauser, says that people who have no attachments to society are more likely to join a group in order to have a sense of belonging. I found this theory to be especially useful in dealing with cult membership. This theory could also be applied to militias and hate groups as well though. The example about the Heaven’s Gate cult makes a clear connection between cults and the social attachment theory. Also the Branch Davidian cult example makes a good case for the same theory. But while the thory of social attachments is good for explaining cult membership, it does not do much for militias and hate groups. These two forms of collective violence have a lot in common with terrorism.
The fourth theory is Smelser’s Structural Strain theory. There are many factors that must be present for this theory to work. The main factors of this theory are structural conduciveness, structural strain, generalized beliefs, precipitating factors, and mobilization for action. Structural condusiveness is simply a society’s government. Structural strain is any given problem that a society faces that the public must deal with. Generalized belief refers to people’s behavior and what is considered the norm. A precipitating factor is an event that triggers an episode. Mobilization for action It was presented in a clear fashion, but the theory itself seemed confusing. It was also difficult to apply to any of the forms of collective violence. This theory could possibly be applied to revolutions if the reader bothered to outline all of aspects of the theory. Still the theory of Frustration-Aggression seemed to better explain how revolutions begin. It would have been helpful for the author to directly apply this theory to an example of collective violence in order make it less confusing as a whole. Although it was clearly stated, it was difficult to put to use at all.
The fifth theory is the theory of Resource Mobilization. This theory has a few basic elements. It says that collective action is more likely when a group’s resources are mobilized, such as time, money, and communications. This theory can be used to explain a few forms of collective violence.
Terrorism is one form of collective violence that can be used with this theory. There are four basic forms of terrorism that are discussed in the chapter: transnational, state, vigilante, and insurgent. All of these kinds of terrorism require the mobilization of vast resources in order to have a successful operation. Even state terrorism uses the resources of the people in order to keep down the population. The KKK is a good example of how this theory applies to vigilante terrorism as well. But for any kind of terrorism to take place, it takes a lot of planning and time. People can not organize without several resources. This theory emphasizes the importance of those resources. I feel that this theory is the most important to look at, especially considering the events on September 11.
This theory is the most important because it could provide some of the ways to stop terrorism for good. By looking at the roots of this theory, the police and law enforcement would be able to look at the causes and roots of terrorism. Overall, this book gives the reader a good look at the different forms of collective violence and some possible reasons as to why it occurs.
