In 13 recorded violent disturbances between 1991 and 1992, the police clashed with groups of young men on residential streets, and public areas were mobbed. This study by Anne Power and Rebecca Tunstall examined the characteristics of these serious disorders. The riots took a different course in different areas, but shared many features, which this report evaluates. All the areas where the riots happened were lowincome areas with long-standing social problems and poor reputations. Most had been built to re-house slum clearance families in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Unemployment levels were far above the national average and even above the average for some of the most problematic estates in the country