The article I read was titled The Life-Course Offending Trajectories of Football Hooligans. The article centered on examining how football hooliganism in British males’ youths became a predictor for criminal offending later in life. Football hooliganism, or soccer hooliganism in the United States, refers to any disorderly, violent, or destructive behavior by overzealous football supporters. It usually includes brawling, vandalism and intimidation. This specific study found that male British youth who participate in football hooliganism are placed on a social pathway that increases their likelihood of further developing antisocial behaviors and participating in criminal offending later in their lives. This occurs even after adjusting for certain risk factors that hooligans tended to exhibit more frequently. …show more content…
During childhood (8-10), hooligans exhibited behavior that was akin to that of violent offenders when they were children. In adolescence, when football hooliganism most likely began, hooligans engaged in more risky behavior (such as binge drinking, smoking, and promiscuous sex) when compared to adolescents with no criminal background. In adulthood (age 32), hooligans tended to “resemble violent offenders on the majority of adult risk factors”. This suggests that the behavioral factors of a hooligan’s childhood may have caused a higher inclination to hooliganism and other risky behaviors in adolescence, which in turn increased the likelihood of hooligans to be criminal offenders in their adulthood, thus demonstrating a cumulative sequence. It may also suggest that risk factors in childhood are accentuated through participation in hooliganism, and these accentuated characteristics lead to a higher likelihood of participating in criminal