When asked about witnessing a large disorder or even any form of disorder most members of the public describe it as seeing a “riot”. What is a riot and is that what they are actually witnessing? This essay will start with the legal definition of a riot contrasting it to the common garden belief of rioting. From this it will be shown that there are more deep-rooted reasons for genuine rioting referring to ideologies and how social observers namely Rudé 1959 and Burke 1790 have identified these ideologies in relation to rioting. The three constructs of these ideologies will be examined and contrasted and compared each in turn. It will then further explain these ideologies in practice by using notable events in history and how they contrast and compare This is really repeating.