Hooliganism, vandalism and violent behavior

Abstract

This paper presents key issues surrounding hooliganism, vandalism and violent behavior. The author explains the basic elements of the phenomena in question starting at the consideration of definitions, having in mind that there are a lot of ambiguity in that filed. For that purpose, the author elaborates not only some notable theoretical definitions and explanations, but also definitions laid down in the Serbian legislation. Furthermore, the paper gives some detailed overview of hooliganism and vandalism in the context of sport. This is because sport could typically generate, beside all the positive things, the kind of hooligan and vandal acts which lead to easy-identifying them for the sake of research. After that, the detailed analysis of hooliganism and vandalism separately, followed with considerations about the notion of violence since this could be also helpful in determining hooliganism and vandalism as concepts. In accordance with strict academic approach, violence is the central point in hooliganism, while, in the wider academic approach this could be also said for vandalism but with a note that when it comes to vandalism, violence is manifested towards material items. In order to identify the conditions for violent behaviour (including hooliganism and vandalism) this paper gives a scope of social conditions dividing them into a few categories for systematic purposes. After that the paper presents some remarks on biological conditions in short. It is of great importance to include such theories while considering violent behavior since it should be noted that despite many different definitions and theoretical approaches, frustrations need to be considered as a very important element in violent behavior emergence. Finally, the author wants to emphasize the necessity of creating such cultural patterns that would reduce violent behavior. It seems like the first step in that effort, but also the most important.