Policing Football Social Interaction and Negotiated Disorder

by O'Neill, Megan

• ISBN13: 9781403941183
• ISBN10: 1403941181
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-04-03
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This book presents a critical portrait of the British police through a detailed ethnography of their work at football matches. Megan O'Neill not only sheds light on a topic of intense media interest, football hooliganism, but also presents the police in a totally fresh perspective. By using the work of Erving Goffman, she demonstrates how the police are a far from unified force. Their informal interaction "teams" divide them operationally and socially.

Author Biography

Megan O'Neill is Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Salford, UK

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Part I
Introduction: Football, Policing and the Excitement of Mundane Sociology	3	(15)
The interpretive framework	4	(3)
Research methods	7	(7)
Overview of chapters	14	(4)
Chapter 1 Previous Research	18	(27)
Football literature	18	(14)
Policing football	32	(7)
Studies by police officers	39	(3)
Summary	42	(3)
Chapter 2 Government Reports and Football Legislation	45	(14)
Government reports	45	(6)
Football legislation in England and Wales	51	(1)
Football-related legislation in Scotland	52	(1)
Summary	53	(6)
Part II
Chapter 3 Uniformed Police Constables	59	(37)
Performance: front	61	(3)
Performance: dramatic realisation and idealisation	64	(5)
Performance: maintenance of expressive control	69	(2)
Typologies the police employ	71	(3)
Rules of engagement	74	(8)
Teams	82	(4)
Regions	86	(7)
Summary	93	(3)
Chapter 4 Mobile Constables, Detectives and Football Spotters	96	(36)
Performance: Mobile Support Units	98	(2)
Performance: detectives	100	(2)
Typologies used by the Mobile Support Units	102	(3)
Typologies used by the detectives	105	(3)
Rules of engagement: Mobile Support Units	108	(3)
Rules of engagement: detectives	111	(3)
Teams: MSUs and detectives	114	(6)
Regions: MSUs	120	(5)
Regions: detectives	125	(3)
Summary	128	(4)
Chapter 5 Senior Officers	132	(22)
Performance	134	(2)
Typologies	136	(3)
Rules of engagement	139	(4)
Teams	143	(3)
Regions	146	(4)
Summary	150	(4)
Chapter 6 Women Police Constables	154	(15)
Previous research on WPCs	154	(6)
WPCs at football	160	(4)
The underlying police community	164	(3)
Summary	167	(2)
Chapter 7 CCTV Operators and Stewards	169	(20)
CCTV operators	170	(5)
Stewards	175	(5)
'Real' police work and 'real' police	180	(4)
Summary	184	(5)
Part III
Conclusion: The Big Implications of Small Teams	189	(12)
Implications for interaction	190	(4)
Implications for the occupational culture	194	(4)
Implications for Goffman	198	(3)
Notes	201	(4)
Bibliography	205	(10)
Index	215