Any spares? I’ll buy or sell: An ethnographic study of black market ticket sales ALESSANDRO MORETTI A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement of the University of Greenwich for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2017 DECLARATION “I certify that the work contained in this thesis, or any part of it, has not been accepted in substance for any previous degree awarded to me, and is not concurrently being submitted for any degree other than that of Doctor of Philosophy being studied at the University of Greenwich. I also declare that this work is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise identified by references and that the contents are not the outcome of any form of research misconduct.” Signed: Date: Alessandro Moretti 31.03.2017 ___________________________ _______________________ Alessandro Moretti Darrick Jolliffe 31.03.2017 ___________________________ _______________________ Professor Darrick Jolliffe ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank, first and foremost, my family, and in particular my mother Giuliana, who has been immeasurably supportive, patient, and strong in all these years. Thank you to my friends, at home and abroad, who have always believed in me. I am grateful for the valuable inputs of my supervisor, Professor Darrick Jolliffe, and his ability to keep me motivated. One research participant deserves a special mention: thank you to “The Chameleon”, who is now a friend more than he is a tout. Finally, a special thank you to Lorna, without whom I would never have completed this work. iii ABSTRACT This thesis contributes to the limited knowledge on ticket touting and ticket touts. Building on the previous research, mainly produced before online touting, this work offers new insight into the backgrounds, motivations, experiences and justifications of individuals belonging to the “deviant” world of black market ticket sales. An ethnographic approach was adopted, consisting of participant observation, interviews, and observations in the field. Through the specific method of verstehen (Weber, 1949) the researcher experienced the “pleasure, excitement and fear” of criminality (Ferrell, 1998) to glean and present a more reliable understanding and appreciation of touting than that currently available. This research bridges a key gap in the literature on entrepreneurial deviance, of “crime as work” (Ruggiero, 2000), locating professional ticket touting within the context of both legitimate and illegitimate opportunities that are exploited by entrepreneurs in the “zones of ambiguity” (Hornsby and Hobbs, 1997). The results of the research offer a detailed understanding of the real methods employed by touts to acquire and resell tickets, and identify the methods commonly debated in the media and in parliamentary discourse, such as bots, as distractions, or as “engineered moral panics” (Atkinson, 1997). iv CONTENTS DECLARATION ......................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................ iii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ iv CONTENTS ................................................................................................................. v TABLES AND FIGURES ........................................................................................... ix 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Background and aims ..................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Where does ticket touting ‘sit’ in criminology? .............................................................. 4 1.3 Is touting deviant? .......................................................................................................... 8 1.4 Prior literature and research on ticket touting ............................................................ 10 1.5 Structure of the thesis ................................................................................................... 16 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................... 20 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 20 2.2 Earliest forms of touting: History and Theory ............................................................. 20 2.2.1 From the Colosseum to Elizabethan Theatre: up to the late 1600s ................................ 20 2.2.2 (Neo)classical criminology: economic greed central to early forms of touting ............. 22 2.3 Development of the deviant entrepreneur: History, Law and Theory ......................... 25 2.3.1 “Scalping” train tickets in the US .................................................................................. 25 2.3.2 Mayhew’s Victorian Britain: up to the late 1800s ......................................................... 26 2.3.3 WWII and its aftermath: up to the 1990s ....................................................................... 29 2.3.3.1 Black Market Britain ............................................................................................................ 29 2.3.3.2 Streetwise entrepreneurs ...................................................................................................... 31 2.3.3.3 Upper-level drug dealers ...................................................................................................... 33 2.3.3.4 Low-level drug dealers ......................................................................................................... 35 2.3.3.5 Cigarette smugglers .............................................................................................................. 36 2.3.3.6 Ticket touts ........................................................................................................................... 37 2.3.4 First legal developments in the UK ............................................................................... 39 2.3.4.1 The CJPOA 1994 and other provisions ................................................................................ 39 2.3.4.2 The government’s enduring free-market stance ................................................................... 40 2.3.4.3 The Hillsborough Tragedy and criminal football touts ........................................................ 41 2.3.5 The works of Sugden and Atkinson ............................................................................... 44 2.3.5.1 Sugden’s Scum Airways (2002) ........................................................................................... 45 2.3.5.2 Atkinson’s (1997) study of scalpers ..................................................................................... 50 2.3.6 Structural criminology: economic need and dissatisfaction as explanations ................. 54 2.3.6.1 The ‘informal’ economy of ‘legitimate’ black market activity ............................................ 58 2.3.6.2 Institutional theory and “outsiders” as entrepreneurs ........................................................... 60 2.4 The modern touting problem: History, Law and Theory ............................................. 62 2.4.1 Origins and growth of the problem ................................................................................ 63 2.4.1.1 How tickets are bought online, in theory ............................................................................. 63 2.4.1.2 How tickets were first resold online and the black market of resale .................................... 63 2.4.1.3 How tickets are resold online today ..................................................................................... 64 v 2.4.1.4 The reality of purchasing tickets in 2017 ............................................................................. 66 2.4.2 Recent legal developments ............................................................................................ 66 2.4.2.1 The new Consumer Rights Act 2015 ................................................................................... 66 2.4.2.2 The 2016 Waterson report .................................................................................................... 69 2.4.3 Ruggiero’s “urban bazaar”: both need and greed .......................................................... 73 2.4.3.1 New criminal opportunities? ................................................................................................ 75 2.4.3.2 Neutralisation of “dirty work” .............................................................................................. 78 2.5 Concluding thoughts .................................................................................................... 81 3 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................. 83 3.1 Overview ...................................................................................................................... 83 3.2 Ethnography ................................................................................................................. 87 3.2.1 Theoretical background ................................................................................................. 87 3.2.2 What is ethnography? ...................................................................................................