We aim to contribute to recent situational approaches to the study of interpersonal violence by elaborating the concept of trajectories. Trajectories are communicative processes in which antagonists act upon each other’s bodily and verbal actions to project a direction for the interaction to take, which is then (con) tested in the exchanges that follow. We use the notion of trajectories to gain insight in how participants turn an antagonistic situation into a violent encounter, which we contrast to interactionist and micro-sociological understandings. Using ethnomethodological and conversation analytical tools, we detail the trajectories of three violent encounters, captured on phone camera recordings to answer the question how verbal and bodily exchanges project physical violence. Methodologically, our contribution shows how bodily actions can be studied in visual data. Our cases show how antagonists move the interaction toward violence by creating a metaconflict revolving around the conditions under which the interaction will become a physical confrontation; what we call the contested projection of violence. We conclude that the concept of trajectories offers a useful analytical tool to detail the shifts and turns of the interactive process—notably it’s bodily dimensions— that characterize antagonism and violence. Substantially, our analysis raises questions about conceptualizations of the emotional dynamics (notably the role of dominance) of violence, as proposed by earlier micro-sociological and interactionist work. We therefore suggest that future studies engage with these issues in more detail and in larger datasets.

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The causes of riots have been extensively researched. Comparatively, little is known about why riots are prevented from occurring. We address this gap with a qualitative analysis of the 2021 Dutch curfew riots as a case. We video observed and interviewed 40 formal and informal guardians who were present during the riots, some of which did not escalate. The informal guardians—acting as intimate handlers—were found to have direct de-escalatory effects, operative because of their well-developed social community bounds: The rioters avoided jeopardizing these bonds of attachment, which also created a more positive image of the police through guardian-police collaborations. Our findings stress the importance of social bonds for the effectiveness of guardianship action. We discuss the generalizability of this finding for other crimes and consider practical implications for riot management.

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