Regulating Anti-Social Behaviour and Disorder among Football Spectators

Abstract

Incidents of anti-social behaviour and public disorder at and around British football matches have been well documented in the media since the late Victorian period (Dunning et ah, 1988) and more recently have been the focus of a plethora of academic studies across a range of disciplines including in particular Sociology, Law, Psychology and Criminology (Frosdick and Marsh, 2005; James and Pearson, 2006; Stott and Pearson, 2007: 37–58; Hopkins, 2013). Since 1924, nine official enquiries have been commissioned by various government departments to examine the regulation and management of sports stadiums, crowds and crowd disorder, each repeating and endorsing the recommendations of its predecessors (see in particular Popplewell, 1986; Taylor, 1990). Despite growing political concern about the impact that football-related disorder was having on society as a whole (Pearson, 1998), it was not until the 1980s that specific legislation was introduced with the aim of reducing instances of football-related anti-social behaviour and violence. A combination of direct governmental action through legislative interventions coupled with the police’s interpretation of how both general and football-specific measures should be interpreted have framed the state’s response to football-related disorder.