Breaking the chain: Confronting issueless college town disturbances and riots

Abstract

Law enforcement agencies and institutions of higher education have confronted increasing numbers of violent and destructive campus riots and disturbances over the past decade. Problematic is the fact that these riots typically have no underlying cause, other than students’ quest for excitement. Responding to gaps in the empirical literature about these events, this study used data from two waves of surveys to systematically examine those involved in a recurring problem event in a college town that was subject to a police crackdown. The analyses drew on survey responses from over eight hundred event participants in 2002 and 2003, and the results revealed that increased enforcement had a significant effect on crowd composition, including the gender and race of participants, repeat visitors, out-of-town participants, and perceptions about the subjects' overall experience. Implications for law enforcement and community strategies to decrease the size and destructiveness of such problem events are outlined.

Introduction

Municipal and university police departments in college towns have often had to respond to large gatherings of young people who generate numerous citizen complaints about under-aged drinking, disorderly conduct, driving under the influence (DUI), and other order maintenance offenses-sometimes on a large scale. In the past few decades, however, police were increasingly confronting large groups of college-aged crowds engaging in behavior that could only be described as confrontational, disruptive, and prone to large-scale property destruction and violence without any underlying reasons for the unrest or riotous behavior (Frost, 2004). McCarthy, Martin, McPhail, and Cress (2002) found that the number of these disturbances on college campuses had increased substantially over the past decade. Unlike the campus riots¹ of the 1960s and 1970s, however, there were no underlying themes of political protest or social unrest. Instead, these riots and disturbances were issueless—a combination of annual problem events that drew large crowds and became destructive or violent (Way, Ruddell, & Thomas, 2004), celebratory riots associated with sporting events (Lanter, 2004, Snow et al., 1981, Young, 2002), or spontaneous disturbances that occurred for no particular underlying reason that Marx (1970) labeled beer riots.

This study examined interventions that responded to a recurring problem event in the city of Chico, California, home of the California State University, Chico. In this case, Halloween celebrations posed public safety challenges for the campus community and the city. As the event grew in size during the late 1990s and early 2000s, there was an attendant increase in assaults and near-riotous behavior. The university, city council, and police, among others, developed tactics to decrease the size of Halloween crowds, and to increase levels of public safety-both on the campus itself, and in the surrounding neighborhoods.

The challenges to both campus and municipal law enforcement agencies in confronting these events are numerous. Police and university administrators are concerned about the potential for escalation of violence or injury at these events. Specifically, officials worry about violence directed at fellow participants, bystanders, or increasingly at the police who respond to these events. In a recent incident at Washington State University, for example, twenty-three officers were hospitalized for injuries stemming from a riot after the university banned alcohol from fraternity functions (Johnson, 2004).

The size and volatility of some of these events also contributed to increased risks of property damage: in Maryland in 2001, for instance, rioting students and other college-aged persons caused property damage upwards of $500,000 (Lanter, 2004). Troubling is the fact that these riots often occurred in the neighborhoods adjacent to college campuses, and included a diverse mix of students and nonstudents who are attracted to the event. While university and city administrators often desire to bring together “town and gown,” these activities strain relationships between community stakeholders as city taxpayers pay the costs of enhanced law enforcement to control these events. Although the neighborhoods adjoining universities are most often the site of these events, property destruction on a smaller scale has occurred at college athletic events throughout the nation within the past several years—mostly associated with the outcomes of sporting events (Frost, 2004). Students from a variety of colleges have engaged in riots if their sports teams win—or if they lose (Arney & Lanter, 2003, Lanter, 2004, Young, 2002).

As the prevalence of these issueless disturbances has increased, there is a corresponding demand for police, university officials, and student organizations to develop effective responses to these events. In addition to the possibility of violence or property destruction, there is a substantial direct cost to these events. Both university and municipal governments deploy more officers during events that might escalate into riots, pay for damage to police equipment or city property, and sometimes rely upon assistance from allied agencies or neighboring jurisdictions. There are also opportunity costs to responding to these events as the planning and other resources used to control such activities could be used for crime prevention or targeted enforcement of other offenses.

In addition to the violence or property damage associated with issueless disturbances, there is considerable concern amongst both municipal and university police departments about damaging the positive relationships that they have established with students throughout the year (Ruddell, Thomas, & Way, 2003). Tensions might also be felt between university students and long-term community members who will reside in these towns long after the students have graduated. Williams and Nofziger (2003, p. 130) observed how “college towns often develop a love/hate relationship with its student population…(and students are) seen as a source of conflict and disorganization.” Yet, media accounts of these events typically have not distinguished between the vast majority of students who do not participate in disruptive behavior, leading some students to express concern about the economic value of their college degrees from institutions plagued with these riots (Hoover, 2002, University of New Hampshire, 2003).

University administrators are also concerned about the damage that these events have on the reputation of their college (Hoover, 2002). In some cases, universities and municipal governments have worked together to end the size and destructiveness of issueless disturbances (Thomas, Way, & Ruddell, 2003). In fact, as the number of these events increased, there has been considerable concern in higher education, including riot summits at the University of New Hampshire, Ohio State University, and a seminar on sportsmanship and fan behavior hosted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 2003 (National Collegiate Athletic Association, 2003, Ohio State University, 2003, University of New Hampshire, 2003).

One outcome of the three national riot summits in 2003 was a greater awareness of the problem of issueless student riots. The Ohio State University (2003, p. 28) report found that many of these college disturbances had become long-term traditions. Specific police responses to these problem events varied by jurisdiction, and were somewhat contingent upon the nature of the problem (e.g., the type of the event), the history of the university and community, and the influence of law enforcement, community, and university stakeholders. While typically the most successful approaches balance both community and law enforcement responses, one emerging strategy that seems to be effective in reducing the size and destructiveness of these problem events is to break the institutional memory of these activities for the participants—to effectively end the tradition of these disturbances.

Breaking the institutional memory involves disrupting the expectations of the participants so they will be less likely to return to previous patterns of the unwanted behavior—in this case, engaging in riots or disturbances. A number of police agencies have labeled this strategy “breaking the chain” and this study examined how one college town confronted an annual problem event that had escalated to the point where the community, university, and law enforcement agencies decided to downsize celebrations that were attracting large crowds. Unlike other scholarly work, however, extensive self-report information about crowd participants was collected, including perceptions from respondents about media campaigns to discourage attendance, as well as law-enforcement responses.