Isolation, Powerlessness, and Violence: A Study of Attitudes and Participation in the Watts Riot

It is found that racial isolation is strongly associated with a willingness to use violence under two subjective conditions: when isolated individuals feel a sense of powerlessness in the society and when such isolated individuals are highly dissatisfied with their treatment as Negroes.

Abstract

The hypothesis that isolated individuals are more prone to extremism is tested, using a sample of Los Angeles Negroes interviewed shortly after the Watts riot. It is found that racial isolation (low degrees of intimate white contact) is strongly associated with a willingness to use violence under two subjective conditions: (a) when isolated individuals feel a sense of powerlessness in the society and (b) when such isolated individuals are highly dissatisfied with their treatment as Negroes. Ideal types of the most and least violence-prone are developed from the cumulative effects of the three independent variables (isolation, powerlessness, and dissatisfaction).