Model of collective violence—Structural and psychological antecedents of pogrom violence

Abstract

This paper proposes a multidimensional approach to collective violence. Stemming from the literature on collective violence and intergroup relations, a sociostructural model is proposed, functionally connecting the structure of intergroup relations with the variety of collective violence. Three archival databases on anti-Jewish pogroms in Poland and the Russian Empire at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries are used to demonstrate the variability of types of pogrom violence and its relations with social structure. The results are discussed in light of various intergroup threat theories.