'Keeping the Peace': Social Identity, Procedural Justice and the Policing of Football Crowds

Abstract

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 reemergence 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.

Police legitimacy among immigrants in Europe: Institutional frames and group position

“…Officer activity can also bolster, or undermine, the claim police make to speak for and represent the policed (Stott et al 2011). Policing perceived as unfair can create a sense that the values of police and those of the policed are in conflict; this, in turn, can serve to convince the latter that the police cannot claim to represent 'people like them'.…”

Obeying the Rules of the Road: Procedural Justice, Social Identity and Normative Compliance

“…Following recent research on procedural justice and social identity in London (Bradford, 2014) and Australia -as well as cognate approaches that have examined group level processes and identity formation in wider policing contexts (e.g. Stott et al, 2012;Blackwood et al, 2013) -we assume that policing has an active and formative association with the identity judgments of people exposed to police activity. We proceed on the basis that procedural fairness can strengthen identification with the group the police represent, which in turn can motivate legitimation of group authorities (i.e.…”

Ten seasons of the football banning order: police officer narratives on the operation of banning orders and the impact on the behaviour of ‘risk supporters’

“…Although this preventative function was emphasised, the order also allowed risk supporters to be dealt with quickly as it gave 'police forces the power to begin to manage their hooligan problem without 11 The UKFPU is managed by the Home Office. 12 For an overview of similar approaches please see Stott et al, 2012. having to pursue lengthy court cases that still might not achieve a conviction' (FIO, area 5).…”

“…In these cases, the actions of the police serve to antagonise supporters and lead to an escalation of relatively low level disorder into serious rioting. In contrast where 'low-profile public-management' styles of policing are used there is greater fan acceptance of the legitimacy of the police and as a consequence, no large-spread rioting (also see, Stott, Hoggett and Pearson (2012) for an overview of the use of such policing models in relation to crowd management in the context of domestic football). Despite the claims of Stott and…”