John Drury

Articles by: John Drury

English riots 2011: New research shows why crowd behaviour isn’t contagious

9th September 2017

Dr John Drury, University of Sussex

ANALYSIS: Previous understandings of crowds have treated their behaviour as if it is contagious. Analysing the English riots of 2011, Dr John Drury of Sussex University argues that the spread of rioting was based more on an anti-police identity and a feeling of power after a weak police response to initial unrest.

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John Drury
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Dr John Drury completed my his degree at the University of Sussex, and his MSc and PhD at the University of Exeter. He has also studied and worked at the University of Amsterdam, the University of Abertay Dundee, and the Trust for the Study of Adolescence. He came back to Sussex in 1998, where he is currently Reader in Social Psychology. His work on mass emergency behaviour has been used by the emergency services, the Department of Health, and Birmingham Resilience.