Rioting - What Causes It And How Do The Reasons Interplay

Rioting is caused by a number of reasons but common amongst them all is dissatisfaction and frustration. What other derived or core reasons exist for such violent and destructive behaviour?

To understand what causes rioting we must understand what lies at the core of the concept of rioting. Rioting is, put simply, violence and damage to personal and public property in a disorganised and unrestrained way. Rioting leads to property and life damage. Scores of peoples' health, belongings and safety are destroyed by indiscriminate acts of destruction.

The question we must then ask is what could cause such lawlessness, such violence; what could possibly motivate or drive someone to do something as atrocious as this?
At the core of rioting is the fact that it is essentially frustrations expressed violently. The conditions before a riot usually show injustices or inequalities of some form being perpetrated. Oppression of any kind - solely economic, social, racial or a mix of all of them - can cause rioting. 

Another interesting point to note is that every riot shall have a tipping point. A trigger which sets off mass rage and a collective feeling of the sentiment 'enough is enough'. That is when all the pent-up rage, despair and hope mix and form a violently explosive reaction which spills in horrific ways onto the streets and into society. 

As we have discussed, socio-economic, cultural and racial factors are huge determiners in rioting, but other aspects do exist which may either be derived from these or be wholly determiners in their own stead. 

Since rioting is an outpour of emotions in a sense, the emotional factor cannot be dismissed. People participating in riots may not believe or may not care that what they are doing is wrong. After all, in their defence, there are rather few peaceful revolutions. Using violence as a means to get their point across may seem more like a revolution, a revolt against the odds rather than mere rioting. 
As we are on the topic of emotion and collective societal mindset; when a community- any community, racial, economic, social - is oppressed and subjugated for a period of time, there is a very real possibility that hatred against their oppressors festers in their hearts and thus they see rioting as a way to exact revenge or vent their hatred and anger.

But, as we saw in class when we were discussing the Los Angeles Riots, not all participating in the riots were from oppressed classes. how does that fit into the factors discussed. Well, none can deny that lawlessness is psychologically attractive. Nobody likes to follow rules- whether in school or society. The freedom from rules and the freedom to do what one wants is much more powerful motivator than we can imagine. Another psychological trait would be mob mentality. 'If everyone else is doing it, why shouldn't I?' It is just much easier to do what the crowd is doing, be free from culpability, and frankly go with the flow of things. 

If all these reasons weren't enough cause for rioting, there are quantifiable gains to be made. In rioting, there is a rather high opportunity for profit as there is an incentive to loot and no real consequence for said action. 

I realise that in discussing the multitude of causes it may seem that rioting may be justified. It is not. Violence is never okay. The driving factor behind all this is to understand what drives scores of people to commit such violence and, frankly, atrocious actions; to understand the thought process behind the seemingly mindless violence brought upon society.