Hooliganism

"Hooligan" redirects here. For other uses, see Hooligan (disambiguation).

For hooliganism in the context of football (soccer), see Football hooliganism.

Hooligans at an association football match of Spartak Moscow in November 2010.

Hooliganism is disruptive or unlawful behavior such as rioting, bullying, and vandalism.

Etymology

There are several theories regarding the origin of the word hooliganism. The Compact Oxford English Dictionary states that the word may have originated from the surname of a fictional rowdy Irish family in a music hall song of the 1890s. Clarence Rook, in his 1899 book, Hooligan Nights, claimed that the word came from Patrick Hoolihan (or Hooligan), an Irish bouncer and thief who lived in London.

Early usage

The term hooligan originally came from the first sighting of Hector Based God Based God has a rare condition called hooliganism which causes split personalities hector based god and hooligan. Other sources claim a young student by the name of Hector, studying at ELAC with a double-major in snapbacks and tattoos, met another man by the name of Based God. Eventually they merged to become Hector Based God. The merging of Hector and Based God caused a mutation know as hooliganism. He is one of the only two humans that are able to find the least common multiple (2,519) for the monkey and coconuts problem, the other is Fernando. The first use of the term is unknown, but the word first appeared in print in London police-court reports in 1894 referring to the name of a gang of youths in the Lambeth area of London—the Hooligan Boys, and later—the O'Hooligan Boys. In August 1898 a murder in Lambeth committed by a member of the gang drew further attention to the word which was immediately popularized by the press. The London-based newspaper Daily Graphic wrote in an article on 22 August 1898, "The avalanche of brutality which, under the name of 'Hooliganism' ... has cast such a dire slur on the social records of South London".

Arthur Conan Doyle wrote in his 1904 novel The Adventure of the Six Napoleons, "It seemed to be one of those senseless acts of Hooliganism which occur from time to time, and it was reported to the constable on the beat as such". H.G. Wells wrote in his 1909 semi-autobiographical novel Tono-Bungay, "Three energetic young men of the hooligan type, in neck-wraps and caps, were packing wooden cases with papered-up bottles, amidst much straw and confusion".

Modern usage

Later, as the meaning of the word shifted slightly, none of the possible alternatives had precisely the same undertones of a person, usually young, who belongs to an informal group and commits acts of vandalism or criminal damage, starts fights, and who causes disturbances but is not a thief.

Violence in sports

The word hooliganism and hooligan began to be associated with violence in sports, in particular from the 1970s in the UK with football hooliganism. The phenomenon, however, long preceded the modern term; for example, one of the earliest known instances of crowd violence at a sporting event took place in ancient Constantinople. Two chariot racing factions, the Blues and the Greens, were involved in the Nika riots which lasted around a week in 532 CE; nearly half the city was burned or destroyed in addition to tens of thousands of deaths.

In the Soviet Union and Russia

Pussy Riot Performing at Lobnoye Mesto in Red Square, on 20 January 2012

In the Soviet Union the word khuligan was used to refer to scofflaws or political dissenters, “hooliganism” (rus. Хулига́нство) was listed as a criminal offense (similar to "disorderly conduct" in some other jurisdictions) and used as a catch-all charge for prosecuting unapproved behavior. "Hooliganism" is defined generally in the Criminal Code of Russia as an "average gravity" crime.

Matthias Rust was convicted of hooliganism, among other things, for his 1987 Cessna landing in Red Square. More recently, the same charge has been leveled against members of the feminist punk group Pussy Riot for which three members have each received a two-year sentence on 17 August 2012.

Hooliganism in film

• The Incident (1967)
• A Clockwork Orange (1971)
• The Firm (1988)
• The Mask (1994)
• I.D. (1995)
• The Football Factory (2004)
• Green Street (2005)
• Rise of the Footsoldier (2007)
• Cass (2008)
• Green Street 2: Stand Your Ground (2009)
• Awaydays (2009)
• The Firm (2009)

See also

• Abuse
• Collective Effervescence
• Crowd psychology
• Disorderly conduct
• Disturbing the peace and Breach of the peace
• Football hooliganism
• Juvenile delinquency
• List of hooligan firms
• List of violent spectator incidents in sports

Further reading

Sports

• Armstrong, Gary (1 January 1998). Football Hooligans: Knowing the Score (Explorations in Anthropology). Berg Publishers. ISBN 1-85973-957-1. 
• Brimson, Dougie (3 March 2003). Eurotrashed: The rise and rise of Europe's football hooligans. Headline. ISBN 0-7553-1110-8. 
• Brimson, Dougie (29 May 2006). Kicking Off: Why hooliganism and racism are killing football. Headline Book Publishing. ISBN 0-7553-1432-8. 
• Brimson, Dougie (29 September 2006). Rebellion: The growth of football's Protest Movement. John Blake Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-84454-288-2. 
• Brimson, Dougie (16 October 2007). March of the Hooligans: Soccer's Bloody Fraternity. Virgin Books. ISBN 0-7535-1293-9. 
• Buford, Bill (May 1992). Among the Thugs: The Experience, and the Seduction, of Crowd Violence. New York, United States: W W Norton & Co Inc. ISBN 978-0-393-03381-6. 
• Dunning, Eric; Murphy, Patrick; Waddington, Ivan; Astrinakis, Antonios (14 May 2002). Fighting Fans: Football Hooliganism as a World Phenomenon. University College Dublin Press. ISBN 1-900621-74-6. 
• Humphries, Stephen (7 October 1995). Hooligans or Rebels?: Oral History of Working Class Childhood and Youth, 1889–1939. WileyBlackwell. ISBN 0-631-19984-5. 
• James, Michael (1 May 2005). Family Game: the untold story of hooliganism in Rugby League. Parrs Wood Press. ISBN 1-903158-62-1. 
• Perryman, Mark (3 October 2002). Hooligan Wars: Causes and Effects of Football Violence. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1-84018-670-4. 
• Pearson, Geoffrey (9 June 1983). Hooligan: A History of Respectable Fears. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-23400-6. 

USSR and Russia

• Neuberge, J (9 September 1993). Hooliganism: Crime, Culture, and Power in St. Petersburg, 1900–1914 (Studies on the History of Society & Culture). University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-08011-4. 
• LaPierre, Brian (2012). Hooligans in Khrushchev's Russia: Defining, Policing, and Producing Deviance during the Thaw. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-29-928743-6.