Mob Mentality?

Understanding different crowds results in better approaches to policing, which could greatly reduce violence, tension and police costs.

21:25 25 October 2016

Crowds can be complex; while some are subdued, others can be violent. Having a deeper understanding of the different types of crowds can help police device approaches that can reduce tension, violence and police cost.

 

Keele University's Clifford Stott rejects the view that crowds are inherently threatening. He said: "The language of pathology that we use about the crowd, the idea that people become bestial in crowds, robs people of the meaningful nature of that behaviour,"

 

The study of crowds has many practical implications. In the past, the British police contain crowds through a tactic known as containment or kittling. They may cordon off a crowd and prevent them from leaving for a period until it is safe to disperse them.

 

Although the tactic has been ruled lawful by the European Court of Human Rights, psychologist Professor Steve Reicher believes it is a terrible way of dealing with the threat of disorder. When enclosed together, this sense of identity among the demonstrators becomes reinforced.

 

"Every group has notions of right and wrong and it is always possible to enrage people by trampling on their notions of legitimacy," argues Prof Reicher.

 

"When there is kettling, the irony is that often the activists don't like it but they're used to it. It's people who've never experienced it before - and who suddenly find themselves being treated as if they're the sort of people their mothers warned them against - who are absolutely outraged."