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

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).