Revisiting the Effectiveness of Alcohol Controls at Football Matches

This article was downloaded by: [Paulo Gajanigo] On: 24 September 2011, At: 07:52 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Policing and Society Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/gpas20 ‘‘On the Lash’’ –– revisiting the effectiveness of alcohol controls at football matches Geoff Pearson a & Arianna Sale b a Management School, University of Liverpool, Chatham Street, Liverpool, L69 7ZH, UK b Department of Sociology, University of Milano Bicocca, Milan, Italy Available online: 06 Feb 2011 To cite this article: Geoff Pearson & Arianna Sale (2011): ‘‘On the Lash’’ –– revisiting the effectiveness of alcohol controls at football matches, Policing and Society, 21:2, 150-166 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2010.540660 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and- conditions This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. 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Policing & Society Vol. 21, No. 2, June 2011, 150Á166 ‘On the Lash’ revisiting the effectiveness of alcohol controls at Á football matches Geoff Pearsona* and Arianna Saleb aManagement School, University of Liverpool, Chatham Street, Liverpool L69 7ZH, UK; bDepartment of Sociology, University of Milano Bicocca, Milan, Italy (Received 20 January 2010; ﬁnal version received 19 July 2010) It has long been assumed that the problem of ‘football hooliganism’ is linked to levels of alcohol consumption by crowds of football supporters. As a result a number of laws and policing strategies have been developed that aim to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed by fans. This article is based primarily upon a 15-year ethnography of English football supporters and the effectiveness of social control policies upon them, and supported by interviews with police officials from the UK and Italy. Its conclusion is that alcohol restrictions are ineffective at reducing the level of drunkenness amongst fans, partly as a result of police under- enforcement. Furthermore, a by-product of a number of the restrictions is that the level of risk for violence between rival groups of fans is often increased. This article concludes that we need to revisit the use by police and football authorities of alcohol controls to reduce crowd disorder and look to other methods of reducing the problem of football hooliganism. Keywords: football; hooliganism; alcohol; regulation Introduction The focus of this article is the relationship between regulations limiting access to alcohol and crowd behaviour, specifically the kind of ‘violence’ and ‘disorder’ among football crowds that has been labelled ‘football hooliganism’ since the mid-1960s (Dunning et al. 1988, Stott and Pearson 2007). There has been considerable academic dispute about the causes of crowd disorder involving football supporters (Dunning et al. 1991, Dunning 1994, Armstrong 1998, Giulianotti, 2000, Frosdick and Marsh Downloaded by [Paulo Gajanigo] at 07:52 24 September 2011 2005, Stott and Pearson 2007) and this paper does not intend to re-cover old ground or engage in these debates. Instead it will focus on the effectiveness of the institutional responses to one specific factor that has been identified by police, politicians, local authorities, football authorities, the media and some (although certainly not all) academics as being significant in influencing football crowds to become disorderly. In the UK there has long been an established correlation between alcohol consumption and violence and disorder (Department of Health and Social Security [DHSS] 1981, Shepherd 1989, p. 1045, Lipsey 1997, p. 245). Many studies have noted the disproportionately high number of those arrested for disorder or admitted to accident and emergency departments with injuries gained from fighting who have been consuming alcohol. Marsh and Kibby (1992, p. 38) also point out that *Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] ISSN 1043-9463 print/ISSN 1477-2728 online # 2011 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/10439463.2010.540660 http://www.informaworld.com Policing & Society 151 50% of all offences of violence or disorder in the UK occurred at the traditional pub or club closing time on Friday and Saturday, and Hobbs et al. (2003, p. 41) note how instances of crime and disorder rise with the numbers of licensed premises. However, the correlation between alcohol consumption and violence does not necessarily mean that there is a direct psychopharmacological causational link between alcohol consumption and violence (Gibbs 1986, p. 133, Marsh and Kibby 1992, p. 37, Lipsey et al. 1997, p. 246) and there is still considerable dispute as to whether alcohol consumption in and of itself influences individuals to become violent. As Lipsey et al. (1997, p. 277) point out, ‘the causal issue is still cloudy and uncertain’: ‘ ... there is no broad, reliable, ‘‘main effect’’ of alcohol on violence (...) if alcohol has any causal effects on violence, they almost certainly occur only for some persons and/or some circumstances’ (p. 278). Some studies have for example shown that when alcohol is consumed, particularly by males, this increases the likelihood of them perceiving the behaviour of others as insulting or challenging, and that alcohol increases the likelihood of them responding to this perceived hostile behaviour aggressively (Pernanen 1976, Pihl 1983, Gibbs 1986), but research shows that the connection between alcohol consumption and violence is far more complex than a simple chemical outcome. Situational factors such as crowd ‘congestion’ and ‘clustering’ around alcohol outlets (Tuck 1989) may lead to competition and goal blocking, invasions to personal space and stress. These have been strongly implicated in the aetiology of anger, aggression and violence especially when the emergence of adaptive orderly behaviour, which usually aids flow in crowded areas, is affected by drunkenness (Moore et al. 2008). Moreover, learned social ‘expectations’ of what happens when involved in social drinking (Deehan 1999, p. 8, Hobbs et al. 2003) play a key role in leading to these ‘peaks’ of violence we see around alcohol consumption. ...Although there is no direct and obvious tie between violence and the use of alcohol, there is a complex but powerful link between many incidents of public violence and the social process of collective drinking. This link is built around cultural understandings of the connections between rowdy and violent group drinking, the construction and projection of an empowered masculine identity, and the symbolic rejection of respectable social values. (Tomsen 1997, p. 100) We should also not simply assume that because social drinking can result in violence on an individual basis this will necessarily be reflected in the type of major crowd Downloaded by [Paulo Gajanigo] at 07:52 24 September 2011 disorder that has largely been associated with ‘football hooliganism’. The effect of alcohol consumption upon football crowds is therefore clearly a complex one but how (and indeed if) intoxication of fans increases the likelihood of major disorder is not the primary concern of this paper. Instead the authors intend to assess whether alcohol controls at football matches achieve their immediate aim of reducing fan alcohol consumption. It will also investigate whether some of these alcohol controls, and the manner of their enforcement by the police, have the potential to create situations where disorder is more likely irrespective of alcohol consumption. Much of the official discourse about the causes of (and solutions to) football ‘hooliganism’ has focussed on the apparent link between alcohol and violence, and alcohol consumption is seen as a significant causal factor in instances of football- crowd disorder. For example, the 1977 Report of the Working Group on Football Crowd Behaviour concluded that, ‘nearly all those who gave evidence were firmly of the view that a strong relationship exists between alcohol and violence and that a 152 G. Pearson and A. Sale good deal of the disturbances associated with football is due to the amount of alcohol consumed before, during and after matches’ (McElhone Report 1977, p. 5).1 This connection was reiterated in the Parliamentary debates for the Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol etc.) Act 1985, with the Home Secretary stating, ‘There is widespread agreement that alcohol is a major contributory factor in violent and disorderly behaviour in football grounds’ (HC Deb, 3 July 1985, col. 333). Furthermore, media and official responses to acts of ‘hooliganism’ involving English supporters often focus on the effect of alcohol consumption upon those involved. If we take the example of one of the largest incidents

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