August riots

"The August riots in England - Understanding the involvement of young people" (pdf)

October 2011
Prepared for the Cabinet Office
by NatCen, Britain’s largest independent social research organisation

Contents:
The Research Team 2
Acknowledgements 3
Executive Summary 4
1 Introduction 9
1.1 Study aims and objectives 9
1.2 Overview of our approach 9
1.3 About this report 11
2 What happened? 13
2.1 Tottenham 13
2.2 Peckham 15
2.3 Clapham Junction, Battersea 17
2.4 Salford 19
2.5 Birmingham 21
2.6 Unaffected areas 23
3 Who was involved? 25
3.1 Watchers 26
3.2 Rioters 27
3.3 Looters 27
3.4 Non-involved 28
3.5 Moving between different types of behaviour 28
4 Why did young people get involved (or not)? 30
4.1 Motivators of involvement: what were the benefits? 31
4.2 Factors which facilitated or inhibited involvement 33
4.3 Making choices 48
5 Summary of key findings 53
5.1 Next steps 54
Technical Appendix 55
Figures
Figure 1.1 – Research design 10
Figure 3.1 – A typology of involvement 25
Tables
Table 4.1 – Factors affecting decision-making of young people 34