Are Brits more likely to riot?

One of the reasons I wanted an inquiry into the riots was to try to avoid headlines like today’s. Information will out — what matters is how it’s presented. The Daily Mail’s front page today (followed up by its rivals) says that those imprisoned for the riots hail from 44 different countries. The most striking line comes from the story:

“Prison statistics revealed that 14 per cent — about one in seven — of those jailed for burglary, robbery, theft, criminal damage and disorder during the riots were born abroad.”

So, 14 per cent of the imprisoned rioters were foreign-born. But given that 34 per cent of Londoners were born abroad, you could argue that — statistically — Brits were three times as likely to riot than immigrants. Except even this would be misleading, because you’d need to judge those imprisoned against the communities where the riots broke out (where, I suspect, immigration is even higher than that 34 per cent).