Objective. The existence of the home advantage in sport is well known. There is growing evidence that crowd noise plays a crucial part in this phenomenon. Consequently, a quantitative study was undertaken to examine influence of crowd noise upon refereeing decisions in association football (soccer). The association between years of experience and any imbalance in refereeing decisions was also addressed.Methods. To investigate whether the presence or absence of crowd noise might influence qualified referees when assessing various tackles/challenges recorded on videotape. Binary logistic regression was used to assess the effect of crowd noise and years of experience on referees' decisions.Results. The presence of crowd noise had a dramatic effect on the decisions made by referees. Those viewing the challenges with background crowd noise were more uncertain in their decision making and awarded significantly fewer fouls (15.5%) against the home team, compared with those watching in silence.Conclusions. The noise of the crowd influenced referees' decisions to favour the home team. It is suggested that referees' decisions are influenced by the salient nature of crowd noise, the potential use of heuristic strategies, and the need to avoid potential crowd displeasure by making a decision in favour of the home team. 

We obtained indices of home advantage, based on the medals won by competing nations, for each event held at the Winter Olympics from 1908 to 1998. These indices were designed to assess home advantage while controlling for nation strength, changes in the number of medals on oVer and the performance of 'non-hosting' nations. Some evidence of home advantage was found in Wgure skating, freestyle skiing, ski jumping, alpine skiing and short track speed skating. In contrast, little or no home advantage was observed in ice hockey, Nordic combined, Nordic skiing, bobsled, luge, biathlon or speed skating. When all events were combined, a signiWcant home advantage was observed (P = 0.029), although no signiWcant diVerences in the extent of home advantage were found between events (P > 0.05). When events were grouped according to whether they were subjectively assessed by judges, signiWcantly greater home advantage was observed in the subjectively assessed events (P = 0.037). This was a reXection of better home performances, suggesting that judges were scoring home competitors disproportionately higher than away competitors. Familiarity with local conditions was shown to have some eVect, particularly in alpine skiing, although the bobsled and luge showed little or no advantage over other events. Regression analysis showed that the number of time zones and direction of travel produced no discernible trends or diVerences in performance.

Home advantage in team games is well proven and the influence of the crowd upon officials' decisions has been identified as a plausible cause. The aim of this study was to assess the significance of home advantage for five event groups selected from the Summer Olympic Games between 1896 and 1996, and put home advantage in team games in context with other sports. The five event groups were athletics and weightlifting (predominantly objectively judged), boxing and gymnastics (predominantly subjectively judged) and team games (involving subjective decisions). The proportion of points won was analysed as a binomial response variable using generalized linear interactive modelling. Preliminary exploration of the data highlighted the need to control for the proportion of competitors entered and to split the analysis pre-and post-war. Highly significant home advantage was found in event groups that were either subjectively judged or rely on subjective decisions. In contrast, little or no home advantage (and even away advantage) was observed for the two objectively judged groups. Officiating system was vital to both the existence and extent of home advantage. Our findings suggest that crowd noise has a greater influence upon officials' decisions than players' performances, as events with greater officiating input enjoyed significantly greater home advantage.

There have been many examples of contentious points decisions in boxing. Professional boxing is scored subjectively by judges and referees scoring each round of the contest. We assessed whether the probability of a home win (and therefore home advantage) increased when bouts were decided by points decisions rather than knockouts. Overall, we found that bouts ending in points decisions had a significantly higher proportion of home wins than those decided by a knockout, though this effect varied across time, and controlling for relative quality of boxers was only effective when using more recent data. Focusing on these data, again the probability of a home win was higher with a points decision and this effect was consistent as ''relative quality'' varied. For equally matched boxers (''relative quality'' = 0), expected probability of a home win was 0.57 for knockouts, 0.66 for technical knockouts and 0.74 for points decisions. The results of the present study lend general support to the notion that home advantage is more prevalent in sports that involve subjective decision-making. We suggest that interventions should be designed to inform judges to counter home advantage effects.

This paper examines social and demographic predictors of debt problems, whether debt problems tend to occur in combination with other problems and which people tend to experience long-rather than short-term debt. Data were extracted from a survey of 5,611 adults' experiences of civil justice problems, throughout England and Wales. Being in receipt of benefits and long-term illness or disability were the strongest predictors of debt, with long-term ill or disabled respondents also being more susceptible to long-term debt. We highlight the importance of advice interventions that recognise the link between civil justice problems and health, illness or disability. N.J. Balmer et al.

Over recent years there has been increasing policy concern in the UK about whether citizens are equipped with sufficient legal ‘know-how’. In January 2006, the Department for Constitutional Affairs, now Ministry of Justice, announced a Public Legal Education and Support Task Force to develop and promote the case for a national strategy. This comes after UK government strategies have recently been developed for both consumer education and financial capability. Drawing on empirical data, this article explores whether there is indeed a lack of awareness and confidence among the population of England and Wales in regard to legal issues. The results from the English and Welsh Civil and Social Justice Survey, a large-scale face-to-face survey representative of the population, illustrate the case for targeted as well as general public legal education initiatives.

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In common with a number of other developed western states, the UK has seen significant growth of consumer debt over the past three decades. In tandem, there has been an associated increase on the demand for debt advice. Using data from the English and Welsh Civil and Social Justice Survey, this article explores how debt problems are experienced across the population and goes on to contextualize the distinct nature of debt problems and their relationship to other problems of everyday life. Findings reaffirm the increased vulnerability to debt problems experienced by socially excluded groups, such as lone parents, those with a long‐term illness or disability and the people with no academic qualification. Results go further to demonstrate that vulnerability is not constant but is also influenced by broader economic and social factors; in particular, findings demonstrate how problems directly associated with the economic downturn increase vulnerability to unmanageable debt and financial difficulty. Given this relationship, and the prolonged longevity of debt problems compared with other problem types, we would expect to see an increase in the experience of debt problems as the effects of the recession become fully apparent, and for some time thereafter. Discussion focuses upon the policy relevance of findings to frontline debt counselling and advice services operating within an increasingly tighter financial environment. Specifically, emphasis is placed upon potential benefits of offering debt counselling and advice as part of an array of other social welfare advice services, and even working across sectors to get better penetration into hard to reach groups.