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Relative Deprivation Revisited: A Response to Miller, Bolce, and Halligan*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Faye Crosby
Faye Crosby*
Affiliation:
Yale University
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Abstract

This article challenges some of the conclusions drawn in “The J-Curve Theory and the Black Urban Riots,” by Abraham Miller, Louis Bolce and Mark Halligan (1977). Miller et al. reject relative deprivation theory and J-curve theory as valid explanations of black urban rioting. In my argument that Miller et al. are not justified in rejecting relative deprivation theory, I shall review four versions of relative deprivation theory to show how Miller et al. misrepresent the theory and to point out methodological problems with their operationalization of theoretical variables. Because these operationalization problems are far from atypical, I conclude with a call for greater methodological rigor.

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Type
Article Commentary
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 73 , Issue 1 , March 1979 , pp. 103 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1979

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Footnotes

*

The writing of this article was supported in part by Biomedical Research Support Grant, 5-SO7-RR07015 from NIH. I would like to thank Laurie Rhodebeck for her comments on earlier drafts and Morty Bernstein for his statistical help.

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