Sociology of Sport VII Critique

Sports in Society:

Issues and Controversies

Chapter 5

Deviance in Sports:

Is It Out of Control?

M edia stories about drug use, on -the-field rule violations, and

off-the-field criminal actions are so common today that deviance is seen by many as out of control in sports.

Defining and studying

deviance in sports

Deviance occurs when a person’s ideas, traits, or

actions are perceived by others to fall outside the norm al range of acceptance in a society

 Formal deviance = violations of official rules and laws

that are punished by official sanctions adm inistered by people in positions of authority

 Informal deviance = violations of unwritten custom s

and shared understandings that are punished by unofficial sanctions adm inistered by observers or peers

Defining and studying

deviance in sports

Understanding deviance requires

an understanding of norms

Norm = a shared expectation that people use to identify what is acceptable and unacceptable in

a social world

 Formal norms = official expectations that take the form of written rules or laws

 Inform al norm s = custom s or unwritten, shared understandings of how a person is

expected to think, appear, & act in a social world

Problems faced when studying

deviance in sports

1. Types and causes of deviance are diverse; one theory

cannot explain them.

2. Actions accepted in sports may be deviant in other situations; and actions accepted in society may be deviant in sports.

3. Deviance in sports often involves uncritical acceptance of norms, rather than a rejection of norms.

4. Training and performance are now based on such new

forms of science and technology that people haven’t

had time to develop new norms to guide and regulate the actions of people in sports.

Assault & battery or sport?

Who decides?

Two approaches to

studying deviance

 Absolutist approach = assum es that social norm s

are based on essential principles that constitute an unchanging foundation for identifying good &

evil and distinguishing right from wrong.

 This approach is based on four assumptions:

 Norms represent social or moral ideals

 Any departure from the ideal constitutes deviance

 The greater the departure from the ideal, the more

serious the deviance.

According to an absolutist approach, “normal” is conforming

to an ideal, and anything less than normal is deviant.

An absolutist

approach to deviance does little to explain or control

most deviance in sports today.

Two approaches to

studying deviance

2. Constructionist approach = deviance occurs when ideas,

traits, and actions fall outside socially determ ined boundaries that people use to determ ine what is acceptable and unacceptable in a social world.

This approach is based on four assumptions:

 Norm s are socially constructed as people interact with each other

and determ ine what’s acceptable and what isn’t

 Deviance is socially constructed as people negotiate the boundaries

of their acceptance.

 Power dynam ics influence this negotiation

 M ost ideas, traits, and actions fall into a norm ally accepted range

According to a constructionist approach, there are two

types of deviance— one involving underconformity to norms and the other involving overconformity.

Using a constructionist approach

to explain deviance in sports

M ost deviance in sports is not due to the

moral bankruptcy of athletes, as inferred by an absolutist approach.

 M uch deviance in sports involves overconform ity

to established norm s in sports.

 Sport deviance must be understood in terms of the context of sport cultures and the norms of

“the sport ethic.”

The sport ethic

. . . an interrelated set of norm s or standards that are used to guide and evaluate ideas, traits, and actions in the social worlds created around power and perform ance sports.

Why do athletes engage in

deviant overconformity?

1. Playing sports is so exciting and exhilarating that athletes will do almost anything to stay involved.

2. Being selected to play high -performance sports often requires overconformity to the norms of the sport ethic.

3. Exceeding normative limits creates drama and excitement and leads to strong social bonds between athletes.

Athletes most likely to overconform

to the sport ethic

1. Those with low self-esteem and a deep need to be accepted as athletes by their peers in a sport

2. Those who see achievement in sports as their only way to gain success and respect

3. Those males who link their identities as athletes and as men so that being an athlete and being a man become one and the same thing

Deviant overconformity

and group dynamics

Engaging in deviant overconformity

 Bonds athletes together in ways that normalize

overconformity to the sport ethic in sport groups

 Separates athletes from the general community while inspiring awe and admiration among

community members

 Often leads athletes to develop HUBRIS – that is, pride-driven arrogance and an inflated sense of self -

im portance that leads one to feel separate from and

superior to others

Is there a relationship

between deviant

overconformity in sport

cultures and deviant

underconformity in the

larger social world?

If so, some athletes may

feel that certain norms

to not apply to them,

and that certain people

don’t deserve their

respect.

Additional hypotheses about

deviance among athletes

Deviance becom es m ore likely when

1. Social bonds among athletes normalize risk taking

2. Athletes are separated from the rest of the community

3. Athletes develop extreme degrees of hubris

4. People in the community see athletes as deserving special privilege because they engage in entertaining, even if dangerous and disabling, actions

How to control

deviant overconformity in sports

 Learn to identify the forms and dynamics of over- conformity among athletes (and make coaches aware)

 Raise critical questions about the meaning, organization, and purpose of sports

 Help athletes to learn how and when to set limits on their conformity to the norms of the sport ethic

 Assist athletes to connect more meaningfully and deeply with people in the general community

Research on deviance

among athletes

On-the-Field Deviance  Evidence suggests that cheating, dirty play, and fighting

are less common today than in the past.  It seem s like there is m ore today because there are m ore rules to

violate and video technology captures it.

 Athletes in power and performance sports accept “good fouls,” “cheating when you can get away with it,” and “playing to the level of the referee.”

 People focus exclusively on deviant underconformity and overlook deviant overconformity — the form of deviance that might be more pervasive today.  This historical finding contradicts popular perceptions. M any

people think that athletes are more deviant today because there are more rules than ever before, and expectations for conformity are greater.

Deviance

by people other than athletes

 Coaches

 Administrators

 Team owners

 Referees

 Trainers

 Public officials

 Media people

 Agents

 Parents

 Spectators

Athletes are not the only ones in sports who engage in

deviant behavior. Think of other examples involving:

Corruption in Sport Organizations

 As the personal stakes (i.e., status and money) have

increased in sports and surveillance methods are more pervasive, our awareness of corruption in sport organizations has increased.

 Self-policing in sport organizations is inherently flawed

 W hen people believe in the great sport myth, they overlook

deviance because they don’t want to see it

 There are m any conflicts of interest that underm ine self -

policing

 People managing sport organizations are not trained rule

enforcers

 The “good ol’ boy” networks in these organization undermine

transparency and accountability

Institutional corruption = established, widespread & taken -for-granted

processes and practices that, if publicly known, would be seen as immoral,

unethical, or illegal to the point of destroying public trust in its leaders

Many top executives in FIFA have

been arrested for corrupt business

practices.

Chuck Blazer, former executive for the

American Soccer League and the U.S.

Soccer Federation was suspended

from his post in FIFA for paying

himself $1.5 million in commissions,

among other things—plus he amassed

a fortune without ever paying taxes.

Gambling & Associated Deviance

 New digital technologies have enabled more people

to gamble on more sports in more regions of the world than ever before.

 Heavy betting occurs in soccer with its more than 10,000

professional team s worldwide

 High stakes gamblers have tried to increase their odds of wining by making deals with athletes and

referees. M ost of these deals are very difficult to detect, except viewing betting patters worldwide to

detect patterns that may indicate when a “fix is in”

 Organized crim e is now involved in global sport gam bling,

and this increases danger for rule enforcers

Hazing: Deviance or Team Building?

 Hazing is a chronic issue at many levels of sports

 People often confuse hazing, bullying, and rites of

passage.

 It is difficult to obtain data on hazing

 Hazing becomes an insider secret among members of

high status groups

 Hazing increasingly involves demeaning sex acts which people don’t want to admit to or discuss

 Hazing on some teams becomes increasingly extreme

over time and has led to serious injuries and deaths.

Like hazing on all teams, it is

used by team veterans as a means of asserting power and

control over new team members.

Hazing on professional teams

often involves forcing rookies to engage juvenile actions that place them in a subordinate

position. .

Research on deviance

among athletes (I)

Off-the-Field Deviance

 Research shows that many athletes have lower rates

of delinquency than similar peers who do not play

sports

 There are exceptions to this in the case of certain athletes

(football players and wrestlers in one study) who are more

likely to engage in serious fights than other athletes

 Sport programs do nothing to alter the social conditions

associated with delinquency

(continued)

Research on deviance among athletes (II)

 Data on academic cheating is inconclusive.

 Membership in any tight-knit group is more important than

simply playing sports when explaining cheating patterns

 Data on rates of alcohol use & binge drinking are mixed

 Drinking norms vary by the age of athletes & the contexts in

which they live (e.g., dorm vs. parents’ home)

 Binge drinking also is a problem in society as a whole

 Felony rates among adult athletes do not seem to be

out of control, but they are a serious problem.

 Age, race, ethnicity, & social class background must be taken

into account when analyzing data

 Sexual assault rates seem to be high and constitute a serious

problem

The “Sport books” in Las Vegas casinos are a big attraction for

25-45 year old males who think they know more than the bookies

Using deviance to create

commercial personas in sports

Consumptive deviance = actions and appearances

that can be im agined as “real” deviance without producing any real negative consequences for

anyone involved.

 This form of deviance m ay be used to create m arketable personas or to m ake one’s self into a brand— without hurting anyone in the

process

Performance-Enhancing Substances (PESs):

A Case Study of Deviant Overconformity

 Use of PESs has a long history in sports and it has

been difficult to detect and control in every era

 Coakley conclusion: substance use is not caused

by defective socialization or a lack of moral

character among athletes

 It usually occurs among the most dedicated,

committed, & hard-working athletes in sports.

 Most substance use and abuse is tied to an athlete’s

uncritical acceptance of the norms of the sport ethic.

Therefore, it is grounded in overconformity to the

norms of the sport ethic

Using performance enhancing

substances in sports

 The use of performance-enhancing substances occurs regularly today in high -performance sports.

 In most cases, substances, illegal or legal, are used as training aids more than performance enhancers during competition— they enable athletes to train more intensely and for longer periods than “normal ”

 PESs will be used as long as athletes believe they are effective and allow athletes to remain in the game they love and depend on for their identities and livelihoods

Lance Armstrong completes a half triathlon with his daughters running

with him to the finish line. After his pro cycling career, he continued

to train incessantly for marathons & triathlons, even though he had

little chance of winning at his age. But his identity depended on it.

PES use is best explained in terms of career socialization and survival

Dietary Supplements

are not subject to government testing & approval before they

are marketed and sold

When two people

died using OxyELITE

Pro, it was taken off

the market

Nearly all elite athletes today take one kind of PESs or another.

These have been big sellers in Colorado Springs, home of the U.S. Olympic Training Center and other athletes training at altitude

Defining and banning

performance-enhancing substances

Defining a “performance-enhancing substance”

 Defining what is unnatural, artificial, abnormal, or

foreign to the body is difficult.

 Defining what is fair is difficult when athletes now use science, medicine, & technology in their training and

competition.

 Determining what is dangerous to health is difficult— and irrelevant to athletes who put their bodies on the

line just to participate in their sport

 Studying and testing for substances is limited by ethical and legal factors

The negative side

effects of various combinations of substances are

more difficult to identify than this!

Why has substance use become normalized

in elite sports today? (I)

1. The visibility and resources associated with sports

have fueled massive research and development efforts, and increased the availability of substances.

2. People are fascinated with technology and want to use it to push human limits.

3. The rationalization of the body influences how people see the mind-body relationship.

4. There’s a growing emphasis on self-medication.

(continued)

Why has substance use become normalized

in elite sports today? (II)

5. Gender relations are changing, & substances are used

to challenge or preserve gender ideology.

6. The organization of power & performance sports encourages overconformity to norms of the sport ethic.

7. Coaches, sponsors, administrators, and fans encourage

deviant overconformity.

8. Athletes’ performances are closely monitored with an emphasis on control over body and conform ity to demands of coaches.

Arguments for testing used by

WADA and USADA

Testing is needed to:

 Protect the health of athletes and reduce pressures to take

substances to keep up with competitors

 Guarantee fairness and a level playing field

 Protect children who may imitate athletes

 M aintain normal law enforcement procedures

 Preserve the inherent integrity of sports and the true

meaning of athletic achievement

 Preserve faith in the great sport myth (although they don’t

say it this way)

Some athletes take

multiple “nutritional

supplements.” The

industries that produce

them are unregulated and

they often market products

as performance enhancing.

The Anti-

Doping

Passport

used by

USADA

Arguments against testing

Testing should be dropped because:

 Athletes remain one -step ahead of the testers, making

tests ineffective

 Testing violates privacy rights

 Testing drains valuable sport resources

 Testing can’t detect all performance enhancing

substances

 Testing encourages athletes to seek other technologies

such as genetic engineering

The “War on Doping”

 This rationale for the “war” is based on an absolutist

approach assuming that any use of PESs violates the ideals of

sport and is therefore deviant.

 This approach

 Demonizing all athletes who use banned substances for any reason

 Is now the basis for a m ulti-billion dollar industry worldwide

 Creates a cat and m ouse system of policing that is ineffective, but

gives the public the illusion that athletes are “clean” and fit to be role

models for children who don’t know them beyond their sport

performances and what they tweet about them.

 Pushes sport medicine and other researchers to develop new

approaches to performance enhancement that may further endanger

athletes.

 Protects sponsors and m edia com pany profits as it sacrifices athletes

Controlling substance use:

where to start (I)

1. Critically examine the hypocrisy in elite sports

2. Establish rules indicating that risks to health are undesirable and unnecessary in sports

3. Establish a “harm reduction” approach, disallowing athletes to play until they are

certified as “well” by an independent medical expert

4. Establish injury and health education programs

for athletes (continued)

Controlling substance use:

where to start (II)

5. Establish a code of ethics for sport scientists, coaches, managers, and those who arrange competition schedules (that are inhumane and destroy athletes’ bodies)

6. M ake drug education part of deviance and health education to

 Critically exam ine values and norm s in sports

 Redefine m eaning of achievem ent

 Teach athletes to think critically

 Provide accurate and current inform ation to parents,

coaches, and athletes