This study explores two popular hypotheses as to the effects of the employment of excessive social control force on student demonstrators. One hypothesis suggests that experiencing social control violence will tend to radicalize students, while the other suggests that it will pacify them. A questionnaire survey of the entire student body and interviews with 233 Kent State University undergraduates measuring their attitudes toward violence, and the impact of the May 4, 1970 killings on their political outlooks indicate that radicalization is positively associated with the experience of social control violence.