ABSTRACT
In the middle of the summer of 2011, an extraordinary whirlwind of public disorder swept briefly through London and a number of other English towns and cities. The child expressing antisocial behaviour is seen as unconsciously seeking a suitably containing response which will recognize their growing potency but will also provide the next appropriate level of response and containment. Delinquency brings excitement and thus secondary gain which usually brings more risk. Some participants may be taking a lead, perhaps implicitly “crying havoc”, which was the signal given to the military in the Middle Ages to direct troops to “pillage and chaos”. Trouble attracts the troubled, however, and public disorder will hold a magnetic power for some of those who feel disordered on the inside. The wearing of hoodies seems to feed straight into this fantasy—combining the effect of anonymity and uniformity with the imagined power of the magic cloak of invisibility.
