'Keeping the Peace': Social Identity, Procedural Justice and the Policing of Football Crowds
Open accessAbstract
This paper explores the relevance of the Elaborated Social Identity Model of Crowd Behaviour and Procedural Justice Theory to an understanding of both the presence and absence of collective conflict during football (soccer) crowd events. It provides an analysis of data gathered during longitudinal ethnographic study of fans of Cardiff City Football Club—a group of supporters with a notorious history of involvement in ‘hooliganism’ within the English domestic Football Leagues. The analysis suggests that the perceived legitimacy among fans of the way they were policed affected the internal dynamics, patterns of collective action and overall levels of ‘compliance’ among the fan group. On this basis, we contend that these processes mediated both a long-term decline but also the sporadic re-emergence of collective conflict during crowd events involving the fans. The paper concludes by exploring the implications of our analysis for informing policy, practice and theory, particularly with respect to the importance of policing with consent as a route to conflict reduction in domestic football.
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- Authors
- Stott, C., Hoggett, J., & Pearson, G.
- Affiliations
- University of Liverpool (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Stott, C.
- Venue
- British Journal of Criminology
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2011-09-20
- Volume
- 52
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 381-399
- ISSN
- 0007-0955 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-3529
- OpenAlex
- W2103162232
- Semantic Scholar
- 12dfe0efbc26ebf4f60514f5e674b67ec2affb53
- Cited by
- 132
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 14.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- The British Journal of Criminology (publishedVersion)
- UWE Research Repository (UWE Bristol) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Economic and Social Research Council
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Sports, Gender, and Society
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Policing Practices and Perceptions
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Physical Education and Sports Studies
- Keywords
- football hooliganism, football fans, crowd behavior, procedural justice, social identity, collective conflict, conflict mitigation
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