Violent and Antisocial Behaviours at Football Events and Factors Associated with these Behaviours

42 Pages·2017·0.37 MB·English

Violent and Antisocial
Behaviours at
Football Events and
Factors Associated
with these Behaviours
A rapid evidence assessment
Lucy Strang, Garrett Baker,
Jack Pollard, Joanna Hofman
For more information on this publication, visit www.rand.org/t/RR2580

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III
Preface
This report presents the findings of a study on the public interest through research and
the types of violent and antisocial behaviour analysis. This report has been peer reviewed
that may take place at football matches, and the in accordance with RAND’s quality assurance
factors that are associated with such behaviour. standards.
The report has been prepared for Qatar For more information about RAND Europe or
University, to inform that country’s preparations this document, please contact:
towards hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, but
Christian van Stolk
is intended to be of interest and relevance to
RAND Europe
practitioners, policy-makers, academics and
Westbrook Centre
people interested in the field of sport spectator
Milton Road
safety in general.
Cambridge CB4 1YG
RAND Europe is an independent not-for- United Kingdom
profit policy research organisation that aims Tel. [phone]
to improve policy and decision making in [email protected]

i
Summary
Football is the world’s most popular sport, picture about the depth and breadth of the
with millions of fans annually watching evidence regarding violent and antisocial
professional football on their television or at behaviour at football matches.
public viewing places such as fan zones, or
This report observes the key antisocial and
attending matches in person. The vast majority
violent behaviours that may be witnessed
of football matches pass without antisocial
in relation to football events, such as verbal
or violent behaviour occurring and many fans
abuse, destruction of property, acts of
have never witnessed such incidents first-
vandalism and assault, while also noting that
hand. However, negative behaviour at football
football environments can foster positive
matches is still a widely recognised and much-
behaviours and social dynamics. In addition,
publicised issue that has garnered international
it is important to acknowledge that definitions
media attention for decades. Despite this
of antisocial behaviour are to some degree
widespread attention, violent and antisocial
subjective and contextual.
behaviour at football matches remains an issue
that needs to be better understood. The report then presents findings from the
literature review on the factors which may drive
To this end, RAND Europe was commissioned
violent and antisocial behaviour in football
by Qatar University to provide a critical
fans. These include:
assessment of previous research into
these issues. This took the form of a rapid • The influence of alcohol, which the
evidence review that was built on rigorous and evidence suggests may be a contributing
systematic methodological approaches, the factor to such behaviour, although the
parameters of which were tightly defined to causal relationship between alcohol and
allow for the examination of available evidence hooliganism is unclear.
within existing time constraints. This review
• Internal and external or relational
addresses the following research questions:
psychological factors, such as rushes of
1. What violent and antisocial behaviour takes adrenaline and a sense of meaning gained
place at football matches? through these behaviours, and capacity to
self-regulate emotions.
2. What factors are associated with such
behaviour? • Sporting rivalries, which have been shown
to increase aggression in fans.
In addition to answering these research
questions, we also hope to produce a clearer
ii Violent and Antisocial Behaviours at Football Events and Factors Associated with these Behaviours
• Socio-political factors, such as violent or antisocial behaviour by fans at
unemployment, repression by state agents football events. Rather, multiple factors are
and ethnic-nationality tensions. often in play simultaneously.
• Spatial factors, particularly given that large Our review found that the quality of the
numbers of football fans may travel to a identified literature varied significantly, and the
football tournament host city without the research team rated only a handful of studies
intention of attending a match, but rather as being very high quality. In addition, we do
will congregate in public spaces and fan not have enough studies that are longitudinal
zones. in nature to allow us to make any inferences
about trends over time regarding antisocial and
• Situational and atmosphere-related factors
violent behaviour. There are clearly numerous
including the day of the week on which the
avenues for future research in the field that
match is held, the match venue, the kick-off
might address the evidence gaps identified
time, crowd size and the size of support
in this report. In particular, more rigorous and
groups in attendance.
reliable analysis of the factors driving violent
• Reaction to play, for example a team’s and antisocial behaviour, including using
performance on the pitch and their style of comparison groups, which give researchers
play, as well as fans’ expectations of their insights into how behaviour may differ in
team. different circumstances, is needed here. Of
particular relevance to this research study,
It is important to acknowledge, however, that
fan behaviour at international football events
while the identified studies consider specific
specifically requires wider and more rigorous
factors driving fan behaviour, the available
analysis, given the different characteristics of
evidence supports the notion that no single
international and domestic tournaments.
factor can be found to be responsible for
iii
Table of contents
Preface III
Summary i
Table of contents iii
List of tables iv
Acknowledgements v
1. Introduction 1
1.1. Objectives 1
1.2. How the evidence review was conducted 2
1.3. Studies included in the review 2
1.4. Quality of reviewed literature 2
1.5. Structure of this report 3
2. Violent and antisocial behaviours of football fans 5
2.1. What is the available evidence on football fan behaviours? 5
2.2. Key messages 6
3. Factors behind violent and antisocial behaviour of football fans 7
3.1. What impact may alcohol and illicit drugs have on fan behaviour? 7
3.2. What impact may psychological factors have on fan behaviour? 9
3.3. What impact may sporting rivalries have on fan behaviour? 11
3.4. What impact may socio-political factors have on fan behaviour? 13
3.5. What impact may spatial factors have on fan behaviour? 14
3.6. What impact may situational and atmosphere-related factors have on fan behaviour? 16
3.7. What impact may fan reaction to play have on fan behaviour? 18
3.8. How are factors interlinked? 18
4. Discussion 21
References 23
Annex A. Methodology 27
Methods 27
Inclusion criteria 28
Search terms 28
Databases searched and numbers of studies found 28
Annex B. Data extraction template 31
iv Violent and Antisocial Behaviours at Football Events and Factors Associated with these Behaviours
List of tables
Table 1. Data extraction template – Part 1 31
Table 2. Data extraction template – Part 2 31
Table 3. Data extraction template – Part 3 32
v
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Professor Baruch from RAND Europe for their thoughtful
Mariam AlMaadeed of Qatar University, for feedback on early drafts of the report.
her support during the research process.
The views presented in this report are the
In addition, we would also like to thank the
authors’ and remaining errors are also our own.
quality-assurance reviewers Elta Smith and Ben