Violent Mobs of Looters After a Disaster?

If you read prepper/survivalist forums on social media, or read the latest apocalypse fiction novel, you might expect that in the aftermath of a major disaster you will be fighting a running gun battle against mobs of crazed looters intent on killing you and stealing your last can of beans. While these stories may make for entertaining fiction... they are just that Fiction! 

You can always find examples of lawlessness in any community, but in the wake of a major disaster crime rates go down and communities come together to help each other survive, recover, and rebuild. This is shown in most every study that has looked at the human interactions in a community following a disaster. The following sources give some examples of what these studies have concluded:

“In the wake of an earthquake, a bombing or a major storm, most people are altruistic, urgently engaged in caring for themselves and those around them, strangers and neighbours as well as friends and loved ones. The image of the selfish, panicky or regressively savage human being in times of disaster has little truth to it. Decades of meticulous sociological research on behaviour in disasters, from the bombings of World War II to floods, tornadoes, earthquakes and storms across the North American continent and around the world have demonstrated this.” (Facing History And Ourselves, 2017)  

“Panic behavior is classically described as very disoriented behavior,” says Drexel University historian Scott Gabriel Knowles, who studies disasters... Studying the trope of the panicked populace goes back to the fearful days of the Cold War. The federal government paid for researchers to look at how people behave before, during, and after a disaster. “Their general notion was that people would fly to pieces, that people would panic, they would fight, they would loot,” says Knowles. “And that society was basically one missile warning away from total chaos. The sociologists found again and again and again and again that that was just completely wrong, that people are mostly pro-social in a disaster and they don't panic. They help each other, they seek out information.” (Simon, 2020)

“According to a report from Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware, looting is rare — an exception to the rule of communities’ pro-social responses to disaster. Despite fears to the contrary, disaster triggers altruism and cooperation while suppressing criminal behavior. Disasters do not drive otherwise functional communities to descend into a dystopian “hellscape”... Crime in a community following disaster predictably tracks slightly below crime before the disaster.” (Welter, 2012)

“Narratives about "looting", though they never withstand scrutiny, tap into animating myths about human civilisation being only a few hot meals away from total breakdown...  contrary to a conventional myth, human society does not collapse into a Hobbesian state of nature in the event of disaster. On the contrary, people tend to pull together and become more cooperative – a certain baseline communism takes over.” (Seymour, 2013)

“Researchers have found—at least in the immediate aftermath of disasters—that community resilience and unity, strengthening of social ties, self-help, heightened initiative, altruism, and prosocial behavior more often prevail. In short, when things are at their worst, disaster-stricken communities tend to rise to the occasion.” (Auf der Heide, 2004)

“When disasters strike communities, people largely pull together. In the wake of devastating events like earthquakes, big fires, or hurricanes, they look for ways to support one another, protect what remains, and re-establish a sense of normalcy.” (Frailing, 2016)

“It is commonly assumed that the social contract is tenuous at best and that major natural disasters and other crises trigger mass disruption, disorder, and social breakdown. While there were well-documented instances of brutal hijacking, rioting, and looting in New Orleans after the deep flooding caused by the hurricane, there were many more reports of altruism, cooperativeness, and camaraderie among the affected population. The overall cooperative, prosocial, and altruistic individual and community response following Hurricane Katrina was similarly observed after the Asian tsunami of December 2004, and the July 7, 2005, terrorist bombings in London,27 and may have been reflected in the transient 40% to 60% drop in the homicide rate in New York City after September 11, 2001... it is well documented that natural and man-made disasters are followed by increases in altruistic behavior and social solidarity.” (Binu Jacob, 2008)

"In circumstances of extreme stress such as during natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy, we hear moving accounts of people going out of their way to help others. Hurricane Sandy has led to a flourish of supportive tweets and Facebook messages directed to people on the East Coast. The tsunami in Asia a couple of years ago led to a huge influx of financial support to help afflicted areas. Many who lived in New York City during 9/11 remember that, for a few days afterward, the boundaries and class divisions between people dissolved: people greeted each other on the street and were more considerate, sensitive to each other, and gentle than normal." (Seppala, 2012)

“Cases of looting are many times not as rampant as news reports suggest, according to a large body of research, said Kathleen Tierney, a professor of sociology and director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder. In fact, looters make up only a small fraction of those affected by the disaster, and the majority of people act altruistically, she said... The media reports of looting might also present a skewed view of reality. "There is considerable research evidence going back to the times that disasters first started to be studied, which was more than 50 years ago, that looting is not a major problem in disaster situations," Tierney said. In fact, a recent study found that many reports of looting after Hurricane Katrina were based on secondhand accounts, and that there was likely no looting in the traditional sense, according to the researchers of this 2008 study published in the journal Disaster Prevention and Management.” (Rettner, 2010)

"When disasters strike communities, people largely pull together. In the wake of devastating events like earthquakes, big fires, or hurricanes, they look for ways to support one another, protect what remains, and re-establish a sense of normalcy. But both anecdotes and systematic evidence tell us that there are some exceptions. A few people in disaster areas turn to anti-social activities, including crime. News reports often feature instances of looting in the wake of disasters that force many residents away from their homes and businesses. However, determining whether looting has actually occurred can be difficult. Physical damage caused by the disaster itself may give a false appearance that looting has happened." (Scholars Strategy Network, 2016)


Now this does not mean that you should fail to take any precautions against crime and violence after a disaster. In a previous post, Readings on Martial Law and Citizens in a Revolution (https://cascadiasurvivalist.blogspot.com/2022/02/readings-on-martial-law-and-citizens-in.html) we discussed another view violence and looting in the aftermath of a major disaster. It may be that you will want to incorporate some of this information into your preparedness planning, but the idea that you will need to wear heavy body armor and maneuver like an infantry squad just to walk down the street just doesn't seem to be supported by real-world facts.

----- References -----

Facing History And Ourselves. (2017, August 29). Who We Are, Or Could Be, In Times of Crisis. Retrieved from Holocaust and Human Behavior, Chapter 12: https://www.facinghistory.org/holocaust-and-human-behavior/chapter-12/who-we-are-or-could-be-times-crisis

Simon, M. (2020, March 18). Mass Panic Is Unlikely, Even During a Pandemic. Retrieved from Wired Magazine: https://www.wired.com/story/coronavirus-mass-panic-unlikely-pandemic/

Welter, K. (2012, November 5). The Myth of Disaster Looting. Retrieved from Next City: https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/the-myth-of-disaster-looting

Seymour, R. (2013, November 15). The Real Story of 'Looting' After a Disaster Like Typhoon Haiyan. Retrieved from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/15/looting-typhoon-haiyan-philippines-new-orleans-haiti

Auf der Heide, E. (2004). Common Misconceptions about Disasters: Panic, the “Disaster Syndrome,” and Looting . Retrieved from CDC: https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/emergency_response/common_misconceptions.pdf

Frailing, K. (2016, February 25). Understanding Crime in Communities After Disaster: A Research Brief. Retrieved from Journalist's Resource: https://journalistsresource.org/politics-and-government/crime-disaster-hurricane-earthquake-research/

Binu Jacob, A. R. (2008, Sep-Oct). Disaster Mythology and Fact. Retrieved from National Institutes of Health: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2496928/

Seppala, E. (2012, November 6). How the Stress of Disaster Brings People Together. Scientific American, pp. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-stress-of-disaster-brings-people-together/.

Rettner, R. (2010, March 3). Post-Disaster Looting: Loose Morals or Survival Instincts? Retrieved from Live Science: https://www.livescience.com/6146-post-disaster-looting-loose-morals-survival-instincts.html

Scholars Strategy Network. (2016, February 25). Understanding crime in communities after disaster: A research brief. Retrieved from Journalists Resource: https://journalistsresource.org/politics-and-government/crime-disaster-hurricane-earthquake-research/