Riots arise from passion, but looting is a crime of opportunity, experts say

In a 2011 interview with the British Guardian newspaper, criminologist John Pitts told the newspaper that it often comes down to income and unemployment among deprived youth.

“Much of this was opportunism, but in the middle of it there is a social question to be asked about young people with nothing to lose,” Pitts said.

The 2011 London riots were touched off by the death of Mark Duggan, a black man who was shot and killed by police during an operation aimed at stemming gun crime. Firearm ownership is tightly controlled in the United Kingdom. It’s a theme many in the U.S. can relate to with the recent spate of high-profile incidents involving black men and police officers.

Timothy Parsons, a former chief inspector with the city of London police, said in an interview with The Washington Post this week that an analysis of the arrests after the London riots showed the vast majority of the city’s looters in 2011 were prior criminals.