Sociology of Sport VII Critique

Sports in Society:

Issues and Controversies

Chapter 6

Violence in Sports:

Does It Affect Our Lives?

Statements about

violence in sports may be

confusing because people

fail to define important

terms.

Definition of Violence

The use of excessive physical force, which causes or has obvious potential to cause harm or destruction

***

 Violence is not always illegal or disapproved.  It may be praised as necessary to achieve goals

 When violence involves widespread rejection of norms, it may signal anarchy.

 When violence involves extreme overconformity to norms, it may signal fascism.

Violence is primarily about control. Violence works. It makes

people do what they otherwise would not. It governs the thin line between life and death. —Allan G. Johnson, sociologist, 2013

Definition of aggression

Verbal or physical actions grounded in an intent to dominate, control, or

do harm to another person

***

 Aggression is not the same as trying hard or being assertive and achievement oriented.

 Intimidation refers to words, gestures, and actions that threaten violence or aggression.

Violence in sports is not new, but not all sports are violent.

Violence in sports history

 Research shows that violence was more severe

in the past, both on and off the field.

 Rates of sports violence have not increased over time.

 Violence in sports is an issue today partly because it may reproduce gender ideology

that privileges men over women at the same time that it endangers many men.

Serious sport has nothing to do

with fair play. It is bound up with hatred,

jealousy, boastfulness,

disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing

violence: in other words, it is war minus the shooting.

—George Orwell, 1945

Types of

on-the-field violence

1. Brutal body contact

2. Borderline violence

3. Quasi-criminal violence

4. Criminal violence

When violence is associated

with excellence, athletes may learn to see it as a

normal part of sports.

Photo by Jay Coakley

Violence on-the-field as

overconformity to the sport ethic (I)

 Coaches may expect players to use violence.

 Violence often attracts media attention.

 Players may not like violence, but most

accept it as part of the game.

 Quasi-criminal and criminal violence are

routinely rejected by athletes and spectators.

(continued)

Violence as

overconformity to the sport ethic (II)

 Violence may be related to insecurities in

high-performance sports.

 Expressions of violence are related to

masculinity, but not limited to men.

 Physicality and facing violence creates drama

and excitement, strong emotions, and special

bonds of mutual support among athletes.

Commercialization and violence

 Some athletes are paid to do violence.

 Commercialization and money expand the visibility of violence in sports and encourage a promotional rhetoric that uses violent images.

 Violence is not caused by TV and money— it existed long before TV coverage and big salaries.

If we want to understand

violence in sports, we must understand gender ideology

and issues of masculinity in culture.

Violence & masculinity

 Violence is grounded in general cultural norms.

 Violence in sports is not limited to men.

 Playing power and performance sports often are ways to prove masculinity.

Doing violence in sports

is not limited to males.

Women UFC fighters

disrupt orthodox

gender ideology, but

reaffirm an emphasis

on domination that

works to their

disadvantage

Violence in sports

and gender ideology

 Doing violence in sports reproduces the

belief that “men are superior to women.”

 Power and performance sports, when they

encourage violence, emphasize differences

between men and women.

 Sports violence reproduces an ideology of

male entitlement.

Violence is

institutionalized in some sports

 In non-contact sports, violence is usually limited to using violent images in verbal statements.

 Male players learn to use violence as a strategy.

 In contact sports, enforcers and goons are paid to do violence.

 Female players learn to use violence as a strategy in contact sports, but they don’t use it to prove femininity.

In certain sports, violence is taught as a strategy.

Violence is most likely when:

Sports are organized in ways that

 Produce hubris

 Separate athletes from the community

 Encourage athletes to think that others do

not deserve their respect

Pain and injury

as the price of violence

 A paradox in today’s sports: People accept violence while being concerned about injuries caused by it.

 Disabling injuries caused by violence are a serious problem in some sports.

 Dominant ideas about masculinity are related to high injury rates in men’s sports.

90% of all serious injuries in college football occur on legal plays.

Brutal body contact, head trauma

and brain damage

As research shows that concussions and repetitive

sub-concussive head trauma can cause both temporary and permanent brain damage, some

people are beginning to question the existence of collision sports.

 Vested interests in these sports are so strong that many

people refuse to heed what science is saying

 There is no form of headgear that prevents the brain from hitting the inside of the skull during violent collisions or rapid head rotation; helmets provide the illusion of safety.

Controlling

on-the-field violence

 Brutal body contact is the most difficult form

of violence to control.

 Most injuries occur on “legal hits.”

 The most effective strategies might involve:

 Suspensions for players

 Fines for team owners

Ultimate fighting (aka cage fighting) is organized around brutal body contact and

borderline violence; rules exist only to remain a legal sport in U.S. states.

Off-the-field violence

control vs carryover

Research suggests that the relationship between violence on-the-field and

violence off-the-field depends on:

 The meanings that athletes give to their

on-the-field actions

 The context in which athletes seek and

maintain status off the field

Learning to control

violence through sports

Control may be learned if sport cultures emphasize:

 Non-violence

 Self-control

 Respect for self and others

 Physical fitness

 Patience

Assault & sexual assault rates

by male athletes

 Assault and sexual assault by males are serious

problems in United States and many other societies

 To focus only on athletes distracts attention from the

larger problem of violence against women

 Valid and reliable research on the dynamics of such violence perpetrated by athletes is difficult to do

 Sexual assault and rape are vastly underreported

crimes due to

 gender relations

 popular misconceptions about the meaning of “no”

 police investigations that are insensitive to rape victims

Research-based hypotheses about

male athletes’ violence against women (I)

Violence is related to

1. Support from fellow athletes for using physical force as interpersonal strategy

2. Perceived cultural support for domination as a basis for status and identity among men

3. Social bonds created by collective over- conformity to the norms of the sport ethic

(continued)

Violence is related to 4. Collective hubris among athletes and the

notion that outsiders do not deserve their respect

5. The belief that women are “groupies” in sport worlds

6. Institutional support for elite athletes regardless of their actions

7. Institutional failures to hold athletes accountable for deviance

Hypotheses about male athletes’

violence against women (II)

Violence among spectators

 Violence is not usually a problem among spectators watching non-contact sports

 Violence is occasionally a problem among spectators watching collision sports but the causes of that violence varies by situation.

 Evidence indicates that  rates of spectator violence today are lower

than rates in the past

 Nearly all sport spectator violence involves men

Spectator violence

and the context in which events occur

 Spectators bring with them the histories, issues,

controversies, and ideologies of the communities in which they live.

 When tensions and conflicts are intense and

widespread, confrontations may occur.

 Sport events may be used as sites for confrontations.

 Racial, ethnic, and class divisions increase the

likelihood of violence.

 Nearly all spectator violence involves younger men.

The language used by sport spectators refers to

violence, but are they are violent people?

There is little research on spectator violence in venues where

crowds watch events on large outdoor screens.

Photo by Jay Coakley

Research is needed on celebratory violence associated

with certain sports. This violence is difficult to control

when it occurs in diverse locations away from the stadium.

Spectator violence worldwide

 Violence is always related to the context in

which it occurs; it is most likely when

 Male spectators are unemployed an alienated from

society generally

 Groups of male spectators see violent confrontations

with police or opposing fans as a means of creating

excitement and gaining status

 Male spectators use the stadium as a site for

expressing nationalism, racism, extreme positions on

social issues, political opposition to local or national

officials perceived as autocratic and corrupt.

Spectator panics  More spectators have been killed in mass panics

and accidents at sport events than from any intentional violence

 Panics are linked with many factors, but they are fueled by emotional contagion, or the rapid

formation of social norms that large numbers of people follow simultaneously

 The most common factor in deadly panics is a

lack of escape routes.

 When thousands of people flee in fear and hit a

blocked exit, people are crushed and trampled.

Post-event violence

 Celebratory riots  These were often defined as over exuberant fans expressing team

loyalty—until someone had to pay for the destruction they caused.

 Some police forces (in many college campus towns, for example)

have learned to anticipate these riots and how to disburse crowds

without creating confrontations

 Frustration riots  These are rare; they usually occur in response to a perceived

injustice that determines the outcome in the final minutes of a

game; violence between players often is a precipitating incident

 Both of these forms of riots are linked with the

extent to which a team is a source of spectators’ identities

Crowd dynamics and situational factors

related to spectator violence

 Crowd size

 Composition of crowd

 Meaning and importance of event

 History of relationship between teams

 Crowd control strategies at event

 Alcohol consumption by spectators

 Location of event

 Motivations for attending the event

 Importance of teams as sources of identity for spectators

Controlling crowd violence

Be aware of the following factors:

1. Perceived violence on the field is

positively related to crowd violence

2. Crowd dynamics and conditions

3. Historical, social, economic, and political

issues underlying spectator orientations

 Employ visible coaches and athletes to give anti-violence messages

 Use on field rituals to highlight connections between opponents

 Make spectators aware of anti-violence norms; promote civility towards other fans

 Regulate alcohol consumption

(continued)

Controlling violence

by creating anti-violence norms (I)

 Limit the use of social control methods that dehumanize spectators or limit attendance

 Law enforcement officials must be well trained

 Long term control depends on the extent

to which anti-violence norms are

established and maintained in stadiums and by people in attendance at events

Controlling violence

by creating anti-violence norms (II)

Terrorism at sport events

 Terrorism is a special form of violence designed to

intimidate a target population of people for the purpose of achieving political or social goals

 Terrorism occurs most frequently in divided societies or when

oppressed populations have an oppositional political agenda

 Although sport events appear to be likely targets for terrorism

due to their visibility and media coverage, few deadly attacks

have occurred in recent history—acknowledging

 Boston Marathon attack in 2013

 Domestic terrorism at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta

 Palestinian attack on Israeli teams members at the 1972 Olympic

games in Munich, Germany

Terrorism

as spectator violence

 Terrorism has occurred at sports events in the past (e.g., 1972 Olympics).

 Current threats of terrorism have increased security at sport venues.

 Understanding terrorism requires

awareness of global issues.

 Sports do not exist in social vacuums.

 Global problems and hostilities may be

expressed in sport crowds.

The threat of terrorism has led

to billions of dollars of security expenses at major sport events worldwide.

This is one of the factors that has

increased the expenses for host cities and nations.

Here are two of the thousands of

police, military, and private security

personnel on duty for every minute of

the Olympic Games in London. Photo by Lara Killick

The cost of terrorism: