During the more recent riots, rioters and looters kept in touch using social media sites. But shopkeepers in Hackney also kept track of events on Twitter, allowing them to close their shops when danger approached. Similarly, police in Leicester made use of Twitter to dispel rumours and provide accurate information whist the riots went on.

Meanwhile James Treadwell from our Department of Criminology was researching the riots from within by donning a hoodie and mingling with the rioters themselves, as he told a recent conference at Birmingham City University. The Birmingham Mail quotes James' observation that the trouble had nothing to do with race or poverty: "these young people ... realised this was their outlet to consumerism. They know they cannot hack phones or fiddle expenses, but they can put a window through.”