Crowd research and public order policing

Crowd research has a tradition of more than a century and has since seen a couple of approaches. Early views of crowds were rather negative. Some assumed that the crowd would change a person's behaviour into something different from being normal and rational. Others suggested that the aggregation of persons with a specific personality would be the cause for specific behaviour.

While information on those groups is very valuable, there are quite a number of  questions that had not been answered. For example, why are there no incidents despite the presence of 'known troublemakers' or 'why do peaceful housewives support activists by filling cans with sand so that they can be used as missiles against the police?'

A big step forward in crowd research was made when the context a crowd is placed came into consideration. Elements of that context might be the weather and the infrastructure but most importantly context refers to other groups that the crowd interacts with or sub groups within the crowd. At football games, for example there are per definition at least two groups. At demonstrations, there is protest and counter protest. And of course, the police are context, too .

During the event groups interact verbally or non verbally – but those actions have an effect on people's behaviour. Whether you want it or not, just by being present you communicate, interact with others and influence them. The good thing is if you are conscious of this processyou can deal with it. You can shape the form and the way of interaction.

The escalation of violence is connected with two aspects:

Firstly there is a connection between violence and the cognitive processes of decision making and cost-benefit analyses: Individuals seem to avoid unnecessary risks or try to reduce risk. They rather operate in groups or flee from situations they seem unable to win. Violence is observed more often when people disguise themselves so that they cannnot be responsable for their actions.

Secondly, violence is higher the more antagonistic the relationships between different groups are and the more an ‘us versus them’ situation develops. Police measures can have an effect on this; in particular collective interventions can lead to more explicit ingroup- versus-outgroup behaviour and to more individuals behaving violently. In theory, this relates to changes of social identity that may occur as a result of intergroup interaction, as it is proposed by the ESIM, the Elaborated Social Identity Model of crowd behaviour. The ESIM suggests that people in a crowd situation do not lose their personal identity but they shift to their social identity.

Social Identity refers to the identity that people have as a members of a specific group. Social Identity describes what is important to them, what relations they have with other groups. But Social Identity is not stable, it may change during the interaction process with an outgroup.

But groups do not start being a collective whole. The process towards collective action depends on the interaction groups have with other groups around.  Social Identity may become negative when out-group behaviour is perceived as illegitimate.  That means changes of attitudes may take place in the course of an event - people may increasingly engage in violent actions against another group.

 The following process may take place:

• The out-group is viewed a the enemy

• The individual becomes part of the system them versus us

• The crowd participants become more and more closely bound together, social cohesion increases

• People one did not like so much before are now part of the group

• The influence of agitators rises

• The final result: We are the good – the others are the bad ones and all action taken against them is good

Once such a situation has developed it is difficult to be handled. In most cases police can only refer to strong coercive methods which may end the situation but may have very negative effects. There may be material damage, injuries and in the future those who have been in the event will be influenced by their experiences form the past.