Fan Violence

Dongwoo Seo

Group 1

SOC 101

3/13/11

Fan Violence

        

         When we thought about the fan of something or someone, we may have ever thought it was a group of people who liked or loved the above thing commonly and cheered up this thing. Especially, in the sports, there are myriad fans that cheer their team and wish their team got victory, and this participation in the sports fan experience is very meaningful for a significant portion of the membership of any society. However, sometimes, there are some conflicts or riots between fans of each team; it may be included in Fan violence. Then, what is Fan violence? , According to “Sociology of Sports”, written by Lewis, Jerrym, it showed “Fan violence refers to violence committed by fans before, during, or after a formally organized sporting event (Lewis, 2007)”. It means destructive behaviors among sports fans occurred by people who strongly have an exaggerated desire of victory of team. Indeed, it may be possible that they have a hostile feeling when they see other team’s fan because they must think that they are interfering to get victory of our, and it will be come out or revealed more easily if they get drunk by the alcohol. Moreover, Fan violence includes many aggressive behaviors.  In the book named “Sociology of Sports”, it also stated “This violence includes vandalism, throwing missiles, fighting with other fans and the police, and disrupting play on the court or field (Lewis, 2007)”. Actually, our group thinks that Fan violence are related to social issue especially with brawls and vandalism which means that having a conflicts or riots in public place and breaking down public ware. For example, “The Boston Red Sox defeated the New York Yankees to make it into the World Series. The victory came after the Red Sox had lost the first three games of the American Champion Series. The celebrating Red Sox fans, many of them college students, got into conflicts with the police near the street side of Fenway Park’s Green Monster (a high wall in left field). During the fighting, a young female college student, who was a bystander, was killed by a gas pellet fired by a police officer (Lewis, 2007)”. Our group thinks that this example is really important for studying fan violence because it showed that Fan violence especially in riots occurred by not only a desire of winning but also a celebrating of victory which may make fans charged up. Throughout the following paragraphs, we will discuss how Fan violence can be explained by sociological perspective, and how it is related to our socialization and has a societal influence.

             Actually, In the North America, there are many fans among all of types of sports. According to “Factors precipitating fan violence: a new comparison of professional soccer in Britain and North America.", written by AlanRoadburg, it said that Fans in North America had spread their sporting loyalties over a number of different teams in a number of different activities such as ice hockey, American football, baseball, basketball and soccer; as a result, if fans made a violence in specific sports; it would affect entire fans who love sports and sportsmanship ,which means expresses an aspiration or ethos that the activity will be enjoyed for its own sake, with proper consideration for fairness, ethics, respect, and a sense of fellowship with one's competitors in fans, as badly. However, Fan violence actually can affect to the sports athlete as getting perceived or realized that they must play safely for other players by the observing from the fan violence; as a result, entire sports match would be played out with manner and sportsmanship. Thus, our group thinks that if we focus on the negative effect of fan violence, which affects entire frank fans and sportsmanship badly and make it lost the balance, we may be able to say that we are looking the fan violence by functionalism theory. In contrast, if we see the positive effect of fan violence, which makes it possible that whole matches or general sports play safely by the players who observed and realized from the fan violence, we may be able to say that we are looking the fan violence by the conflict theory which may concentrate on how conflict affect something well or badly. Besides, in the fan violence, individuals have a really strong desire or affection of the team and they want to interact with other persons, who have a common feeling of same team, and they sometimes want to show off their power or strong which reveal their emotion. As a result, it may be a group of people which appear or express the crowd violence. Our group thinks this explanation may imply the symbolic interactionism.

             Moreover, fan violence especially exposes into mass media because mass media broadcast the section of sports; as a result, it may be possible that people perceive or observe it throughout television. However, to be specific, it affects youth’s socialization as violent behavior because youth has more exposure time from mass media, and they may perceive the fan violence in broadcasting. For example, according to “Sports Violence an Appalling Example ofExtremism”, in St. Petersburg Times, it showed “Baseball has always had its bean balls, but a new threshold was broken when two fans attacked a coach in Kansas City. And fellow players don't just shake someone's hand or give him an "attaboy'' after a good play anymore. They slam him in the head, butt heads, or jump on him, at times creating further injury.” At this time, if this situation was broadcasted by television, it would affect youth as badly because if this situation happened, it might be possible that the crowd shouted loudly and youth perceived it and thought that people were violent. Actually, shout loudly is also a part of fan violence which makes other fans worked up.

            In conclusion, this work was so hard or tough for us because we didn’t learn this chapter, and we felt it was not common. Actually, we went through the hardship seriously because it was really difficult to find some information in school’s databases the most. Although we found the information about fan violence; actually, it was only for UK. However, throughout this work, we could really focus on the fan violence by the three perspectives which are really important for observing the society and social phenomenon, and how the fan violence affects our socialization by mass media and has a societal influence.

 

  Works Cited

Roadburg, Alan. "Factors precipitating fan violence: a new comparison of professional soccer in Britain and North America." British Journal of Sociology 31.2 (1980): 265-276. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 13 Mar. 2011.

Aguirre, B. E. "Sports Fan Violence in North America." Contemporary Sociology 37.2 (2008): 157-158. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 13 Mar. 2011.

Livingstone, Seth, and Bob Nightengale. "Was Taser too much? Incident stirs debate." USA Today 5 May 2010: 01C. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 13 Mar. 2011.

 

"THE SPORTS BLOTTER." New York Post [New York, NY] 21 Jan. 2003: 77. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 13 Mar. 2011.

 

"Sports violence an appalling example of extremism." St. Petersburg Times [St. Petersburg, FL] 16 Dec. 2002: 2. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 13 Mar. 2011.

 

“Sociology of Sports”,  JERRYM . LEWIS , Kent State University. From group folder by Erin.