Lably
Skip to content

Riot

Violent public disturbance

  • 10 min read
  • 3 chapters
Open battle between striking teamsters armed with pipes and the police in the streets of Minneapolis, June 1934.
Photographer not credited · Public domain

Learn it on Lably

Riots often occur in reaction to a grievance or out of dissent. Historically, riots have occurred due to poverty, unemployment, poor living conditions, governmental oppression, taxation or conscription, conflicts between ethnic groups (race riot) or religions (e.g., sectarian violence, pogrom), the outcome of a sporting event (e.g., sports riot, football hooliganism) or frustration with legal channels through which to air grievances.

Individuals may attempt to lead or control a riot, but riots typically are conducted by disorganized gatherings of people. Mob actions are frequently "chaotic and exhibit herd behavior". A body of evidence suggests that riots do not exhibit irrational, herd-like behavior (sometimes called mob mentality), but actually follow inverted social norms.

Police forces often have difficulty dealing with a riot. They may use tear gas or CS gas to control rioters. Riot police may use less-than-lethal methods of control, such as shotguns that fire flexible baton rounds or rubber bullets to injure or otherwise incapacitate rioters, thus breaking up a riot or allowing easier arrest.

Classification

Food riots may occur due to food shortages caused by harvest failures, incompetent food storage, hoarding, poisoning of food, or attacks by pests like locusts. If members of the public become desperate from such conditions, they may attack shops, farms, homes, or government buildings to loot staple foods like bread, grain or salt. T. S. Ashton, in his study of eighteenth century food riots among colliers, noted that "the turbulence of the colliers is, of course, to be accounted for by something more elementary than politics: it was the instinctive reaction of virility to hunger." Charles Wilson noted, "Spasmodic rises in food prices provoked keelmen on the Tyne to riot in 1709, tin miners to plunder granaries at Falmouth in 1727." In the 1977 Egyptian Bread Riots, hundreds of thousands of people rioted after food subsidies stopped and prices rose.

A police riot is a term for the disproportionate and unlawful use of force by a group of police against a group of civilians. This term is commonly used to describe a police attack on civilians or provoking civilians into violence.

A political riot is a riot for political purposes or that develops out of a political protest.

A prison riot is a large-scale, temporary act of concerted defiance or disorder by a group of prisoners against prison administrators, prison officers, or other groups of prisoners. It is often done to express a grievance, force change or attempt escape.

In a race riot, race or ethnicity is the key factor. The term had entered the English language in the United States by the 1890s. Early use of the term referred to riots that were often a mob action by members of a majority racial group against people of other perceived races.

In a religious riot, the key factor is religion. Historically, these riots could involve groups arguing who possesses the primate of orthodoxy. The rioting mob targets people and properties of a specific religion, or those believed to belong to that religion.

Sports riots such as the Nika riots can be sparked by the losing or winning of a specific team or athlete. Fans of the two teams may also fight. Sports riots may happen as a result of teams contending for a championship, a long series of matches, or scores that are close. Sports are the most common cause of riots in the United States, accompanying more than half of all championship games or series. Almost all sports riots in the United States occur in the winning team's city.

Sign in to keep reading

2 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in Politics and government

European UnionSupranational political and economic unionUnited NationsGlobal intergovernmental organizationCommunismPolitical and socioeconomic ideologySocialismPolitical philosophy emphasising social ownership of productionNazismGerman fascist ideologyMarxismPolitical philosophy
Source and licence. Adapted from the Wikipedia article “Riot” (this version, 2026-07-19) by its contributors, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Lablypedia has left out its tables, references and most pictures, and linked it to other Lablypedia articles.