The Social Psychology of Crime by Laurence Alison David Canter

Author:Laurence Alison, David Canter [Laurence Alison, David Canter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781840144970
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2000-08-22T00:00:00+00:00

The Football Hooliganism Phenomenon

The word hooliganism is today synonymous with football, yet when one looks for a precise definition of ‘football hooliganism’ difficulties arise.

There is a tendency for the term to be used indiscriminately to cover any misbehaviour at or around football grounds, or when in transit to a match. Trivizas (1980) suggests that hooliganism is a “label covering a wide range of heterogeneous offences and other forms of misbehaviour” (p.278). Part of the problem with defining football hooliganism stems from the fact that there is no statutory offence by that name (Melnick, 1986). Trivizas (1980) attempted to overcome this problem by identifying the type of offences for which arrests were made in football crowds. The 10 offences that he identified were mainly public order and violence related offences, with a smaller number of dishonesty offences. This supports the popular perception of football hooliganism and provides a useful means of conceptualising the term, albeit from a legal standpoint.

Prior to World War One, attacks on referees and players were the most prevalent forms of misbehaviour at football matches, whilst today inter-group fighting is the most frequent occurrence, (Dunning, Murphy, & Williams, 1988). Thus, although the problem has always existed, it appears that today the individuals involved tend to be associated with established hooligan groups who fight against rival groups, the violence being premeditated and organised in nature. Preliminary discussions with police intelligence officers substantiated this trend. All references to police intelligence officers refer to a centralised UK police intelligence group tasked with examining this type of organised crime. Football hooligan groups are organised for one primary purpose, to fight each other. The leaders are known to communicate regularly amongst themselves to organise venues for the battles. One point of interest is the common joining of the groups, particularly when the national team is playing. This highlights the bizarre nature of such people who will fight each other one day only to join forces the next. The rules of combat specify that violence is preferred against another hooligan group first, any opposing fans second, and the police as a last resort. An examination of the actual number of arrests and ejections from football matches in recent years (1987–1993), compared with the total attendance figures for the same period, revealed that troublemakers comprised less than 0.05% of those ejected and or arrested from football grounds each season, (personal communication police intelligence, 1994). However this does not include arrests involving ‘hooligans’ travelling to and from the ground. Preliminary discussions with intelligence officers confirmed that planned violence will not be at or near the venue of the match, rather it tends to be at a distant public house or railway station. In addition, Canter, Comber and Uzzell, (1989), present graphical evidence which shows a steady increase in arrests outside football grounds, and a decrease in arrests within grounds, between the years 1975 to 1985. The move away from violence within football grounds is seen as a direct result of increased surveillance within grounds.

Intelligence officers confirmed

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.