Open Access

Martina Schreiber

• Within recent years the elaborated social identity model of crowd behaviour, ESIM, has gained increasing support for both the explanation of conflict and the absence of violence at crowd events. Outcomes of this research have influenced practical policing, in particular with regard to the policing of football games. As existing literature focused exclusively upon the policing and psychological reactions of British fans, there was no empirical analysis of the cross cultural dimensions of the dynamics outlined within ESIM and a lack of evidence concerning the psychology, group processes and intergroup relationships with regard to groups from other nations. The present thesis was designed to fill this gap. It presents four studies of crowd behaviour and group interaction at different tournaments in Europe: The first study presents an analysis of German fan psychology at the European Championships 2004 in Portugal. The second paper examines the relations between police tactics and the psychology of different groups that attended the World Cup 2006 in Germany. The third paper focuses on group relations between German and Polish fans and between fans and the police at the game of Germany versus Poland, also during the 2006 World Cup. Finally one study examines German fan identity in relation to different contexts and follows the German fan category through three different tournaments: the Euro 2004, the World Cup 2006 and the Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland. Findings suggest that the social psychological processes that the ESIM proposes are also present among other cultural groups and the finding support the model as a valuable tool to explain the escalation of violence upon wider parts of the crowd. Furthermore, the studies provide support for the low-profile policing approach. Limitations of the model are discussed, in particular with regard to the initiation of violence and acts of vandalism. Suggestions are made for further research activities.