Yorkshire police officer, Brian Jones (name changed to protect security), believes the size of the crowd is not entirely relevant when trying to understand why crime at football occurs.
Following two decades of working for the police at all kinds of sizes of footballing events, Jones says some of the worst violence he has ever seen has happened at the lower levels where the crowds often don’t exceed 2000.
Jones also believes a large contributor to football violence is drugs: “I would say alcohol and more so cocaine (are influences) these days, they definitely effect peoples behaviour”.
Despite having an average attendance of around 10% of Barnsley’s, Farsley Celtic’s crime rate was almost quadruple that of crimes committed around Oakwell. Although the crimes committed are in relation to where the football grounds are situated, it is important however to not that all crimes committed are not necessarily football related.
This does however support Jones’ comment that lower league clubs potentially make violence and anti-social behaviour more common in relation to the number of fans in attendance.
Barnsley in particular was an outlier, with their crime rates being significantly low in comparison to their crowds, which were in the top 5 in Yorkshire.
Data gathered from www.police.uk shows which teams across Yorkshire are deemed to be the ‘safest’. Comparing how many crimes committed in the past year compared to their average attendance. All teams included had a similar number of crimes committed in regards to the area of the football team, although it yet again showed that higher attendances does not always mean more crime.
