Looting in Civil Disorders: An Index of Social Change

Outbreaks of looting have increasingly become one of the core concerns of communities which have undergone large-scale civil disorders in America within the past several years. Most current press reports of such outbreaks have as one of their central themes the occurrence of looting, and frequently depict looters in action. Even after-accounts of the civil disturbances or editorial polemics often emphasize stories of plunder to illustrate the "breakdown of law and order.