Hooliganism and Police Tactics: Should Tear Gas Make Crime Preventers Cry?

Panu Poutvaara and Mikael Priks

No 2812, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Hooliganism is on the rise and different countries use different strategies to combat it. We introduce a model where hooligans reap utility from violence and social identity and study the effects of different police strategies. We find that an increase in discriminative policing, provided by intelligence units, for example, always reduces violence. Under the right circumstances, it may also lead to larger supporter clubs and a significant drop in violence. Indiscriminate policing, such as the use of teargas or random jailing of potential law breakers, may, however, backfire and result in smaller and more brutal groups.

Keywords: identity; hooliganism; violence; police (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D71 D74 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2007-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-spo
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Published - published in: Journal of Public Economic Theory, 2009, 11 (3), 441-453

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