本研究主要探討街頭抗議暴力產生的影響因素。政治機會結構的開放與否，爲街頭抗爭事件的多寡以及抗爭中暴力行爲是否出現提供了一般性的解釋架構，但卻無法對特定抗爭行動中暴力發生的可能性作一有力的解釋。本文指出由抗議活動中的主要參與者－抗議民眾、警察、抗議目標－的特性、作爲、與互動所共同構成的「抗議情境」是導致抗議活動中集體暴力發生的主要因素。以1997年至2006年的台視新聞影音資料中的501個街頭抗爭事件爲分析資料，二元邏輯迴歸的結果顯示：針對企業、人數中等的群眾（100-999人）、以集會爲主要方式的街頭抗議行動，增加了集體暴力發生的可能性；高組織程度與以勞資關係爲訴求的抗議行動則較不容易產生暴力；若將現場作爲納入觀察，則發現，抗議群眾對媒體發言的安排、警察的舉牌行爲，兩者與是否發生暴力事件也有著高度的相關。

While the transition to a more liberal and democratic political structure in Taiwan has the potential to reduce occurrences of violence during collective protests, it does not account for the occurrences of violence during individual demonstrations. Assuming that the political opportunity structure in a democratic society is relatively stable, this paper argues that the logic of violence in collective protests is found in the characteristics, actions, and interactions of the three major parties (protestors, police, and protest targets) that constitute the context of any given demonstration. Using data from Taiwan Television’s News Audiovisual Database for 501 protest events between 1996 and 2006, the results of multivariate analysis indicate that the most potent mix for violence is a medium-sized group of protestors (100 to 1,000), a rally with minimum organizational structure, enterprises as target, and strong police intention and intervention for crowd dispersal.