Violence, Spectatorship, Crowd Behaviour, and Sport

Question 1

Definition of Violence

Answer 1

The use of excessive force that causes or has the potential to cause harm or destruction

Question 2

Why is Violence used as Deviant Over Conformity to the Sport Ethic

Answer 2

• Coaches may expect players to use violence
• Violence often attracts media attention – increase ratings
• Players may not like violence, even though most accept it as part of the game
• Violence may be related to insecurities in high performance sports – status and identity regularly reaffirmed via actions on field
• Physicality creates drama and excitement, strong emotions, and special bonds among all athletes, male and female
• Expressions of violence are related to gender, but not limited to men

Question 3

Environemental reasons Why crowd violence occurs

Answer 3

1. Crowd size
2. Composition of crowd
3. Meaning and importance of event
4. History of relationship between teams
5. Crowd control strategies at event
6. Alcohol consumption by spectators
7. Location of event
8. Motivations for attending the event
9. Importance of teams as sources of identity for spectators

Question 4

What 2 theories explain the relationship between fan identification and agression (croud violence)?

Answer 4

1. Self-esteem maintenance hypothesis
2. Psychosocial model

Question 5

What is the Self-esteem maintenance hypothesis?

Answer 5

• Wins by team enhance social identity and self-esteem for both highly- and lowly-identified fans
• Lowly-identified fans are less sensitive to loss
• Highly-identified fans are unable to dissociate as team is part of their social identify
• More likely to engage in out-group derogation as a means of restoring damage to their positive identity and lowered self esteem

Question 6

What is the Psychosocial model?

Answer 6

• Identification leads to successive feelings of group solidarity => de-individuation => dehumanisation of the opposition
• This primes highly-identified fans for aggression (alcohol can contribute to ‘priming’)
• Group aggression will only take place if a leader instigates the action

Question 7

Describe deindividuation and describe how this can lead to violent behaviour in sport

Answer 7

A state characterised by:
* A loss of self-awareness
* A sense of diffused responsibility
* Decreased concern about how others may evaluate one’s behavior

This results in the abandonment of normal restraints and inhibitions => fans demonstrate increased responsivity to situational forces