Football hooliganism, which has plagued big cities and college towns alike, has become almost commonplace after major championship games.

But Oakland won't leave any opportunities to chance after Sunday's Super Bowl matchup between the Raiders and Tampa Bay.

The city's Police Department announced Friday that nearly 400 officers, sheriff's deputies and highway patrol officers would be deployed in the early afternoon. Blockades will be set up to keep revelers from assembling at Jack London Square, and debris that could be used to start fires will be swept up.

The decision to beef up manpower comes after Raiders fans created a ruckus in the Fruitvale district following last Sunday's AFC Championship Game in Oakland, breaking windows and setting fire to an auto body shop. Dozens of citations were issued.

While spectator violence has become associated with football, experts and residents disagree whether a stronger police presence is the answer.

Three years ago in Los Angeles, when the Lakers won their first championship in 12 years, four officers were injured by overzealous fans who swarmed into the streets, torching cars and tree branches and looting businesses. Angelenos in the stricken neighborhood declared their surprise at the "lack of forethought" by police.

A similar situation erupted last November after an Ohio State University football game, when fans delirious about their team's victory over archrival Michigan turned over a dozen cars and set more than 100 fires in the street.

The violence that takes over after sports is an inevitable part of major wins and losses, psychologists say, and usually involves alcohol, youth and testosterone. Add an instigator or two, and trouble brews like a chemical reaction.

The impulses aren't necessarily criminal.

Rosa Diaz, who works near the intersection where last week's post-game riot occurred, said fans needed a place to go to celebrate. Aside from offering a tent or a stage or even a sectioned-off block for people to cheer for their home team, there's not much they can do, she said.

"People will get away with what they think they can get away with," Diaz said.

But experts say that's only one piece of the puzzle.

Gordon Russell, a retired social psychologist at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, who has studied fan outbursts and shenanigans all over the world, says it begins with one bad pirate.

"One person's thoughtless actions, the high of physical aggression, the thrill of a momentary sensation all contribute" to a riotous crowd mentality, he said. And things get even crazier if the people involved have a history of fighting, Russell said.

Socioeconomic factors also play a part. Melees are bound to break out in places "where residents usually have a low regard for law and order or have disdain for police personnel; they shirk citizen responsibilities to assist police whenever possible," Russell said.

Richard Lustberg, a journalist, teacher and creator of psychologyofsports. com, says post-game violence is an outlet to unleash rage.

"It's not really about football, it's much deeper," he said. "How do you begin to address the people who riot in a much broader way? In the case of East Oakland, the root causes of their poverty haven't been addressed, and when you live low on the socioeconomic/cultural scale, major events give you the opportunity to act out your aggression."

But that may not be the case on Sunday.

Oakland deputy chief Patrick Haw announced Friday that 250 Oakland police officers had agreed to work -- nearly three times more than normal on a Sunday evening and 70 more than were called out last weekend.

In addition, Alameda County and the state will pay overtime for deploying more than 100 sheriff's deputies and California Highway Patrol officers.

Karyn Klingman and Glenn Sellman, Fruitvale residents who live just a few blocks from the scene of last week's melee, aren't worried about another outbreak of violence on Super Bowl Sunday.

And experts say there's no reason to get your Raiders flags in a bunch: Repeat riots in the same place are relatively rare.

Klingman, 44, agrees. "There might be problems if the Raiders lose. But (this violence) is just part of the strange society we live in."

Araceli Espinoza, who owns Thalia's Jewelry Shop near the intersection where last weekend's disturbance began, said she'd been assured that more police would be out -- but she isn't taking any chances.

"I'm still putting plywood behind the doors and windows," Espinoza, 30, said Friday. "And I'm staying home."

E-mail Joshunda Sanders at jsanders@sfchronicle.com.