SHITTU, AKEEM OLAYIWOLA

PGD EDUCATION, LASU (OGBA CAMPUS) PHE 742 (SOCIAL ASPECT OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORT)

Causes and Control of Violence in Sport Introduction Sport A sport is commonly defined as an organized, competitive, and skillful physical activity requiring commitment and fair play. It is governed by a set of rules or customs. The key factors in a sport are the physical capabilities and skills of the competitor when determining the outcome (winning or losing). The physical activity involves the movement of people, animals and/or a variety of objects such as balls and machines. Physical events such as scoring goals, crossing a line, or any other well-defined criteria often define the result of a sport. Sports participants are expected to display fair-play characterized by good sportsmanship, standards of conduct such as being respectful of opponents and officials, and even congratulating the winner when losing.

Roles of Sport in the Society Sport has many roles and benefits to play within the national and international societies. Sport is the mirror of society, a marker of national achievement, and a way to measure excellence, tradition, and contribution to global society reflected in many social constructions that gave way to national personality. Important roles include the original thought of international peace through the Olympic movement, ways to improve economical strength, prominence, and a place in the world theatre. Sport involvement may be viewed as a key to social interaction, a country bid for excellence, a way to improve social conditions, or as a key to leverage other improvements. From a societal point of view, sport may be viewed as necessary for health and welfare, a result of hard work and reward, a utilization factor to leverage power among nations, a means of securing money and power, and a combination of part or all of these factors.

Sport is also seen as a bridge to improve society, such as the removal of socio-political problems such as apartheid in former South Africa, a means to improve equity among those who are disenfranchised, women and men, those with money and those without, accessibility for those with disabilities, and many other factors that are identified or targeted for change. However, with all these benefits derivable from sport, it is not without its shortcomings, one of the biggest is violence.

Violence in Sports Violence, generally, can be defined as any interpersonal behavior intended to cause physical harm or mental distress. However, in the field of sports, violence in sports refers to physical acts committed in various contact sports beyond the normal levels of contact expected while playing the sport. These can include intentional attempts to injure one player by another player or coach, but can also include threats of physical harm or actual physical harm sustained by players or coaches or by spectators of sports. In his own words, Coakley (1998) defined violence in sport as a physical assault or physically harmful actions by a player that takes place in a sports context and that is intended to cause physical pain or injury to another player (or fan, coach, game official, etc.), where such harmful actions bear no direct relationship to the rules and associated competitive goals of the sport. According to Semyonov and Farbstein (1989), sport violence is seen as characteristic of many social systems and parallel to other social constructions in society, such as urban life, cultural norms, and political systems.

Causes of Violence in Sports Sports are loved by each and everyone, and it is this same love that is the main cause for violence in and around sporting arenas. Many people wonder why and what could be the causes of violence in sports. In its simple form, one cause of sports violence may stem from personal, non-violent attacks that may or may not have any merit, or from simple annoyance. Individuals who are fans of sports team cannot take or accept the win of the opposing team, and start violence. Sometimes the violence can be life threatening.

Violence in sports could be due to the fans of the sports teams, the athletes, parents of the athletes and the last are the rituals. Violence by fans: This sort of sports violence is generally seen when the fans get very

disappointed by their team's performance. Fan violence could also be to threaten the opposing team. For example, if the sports team the fans love the most is going to be involved in a sporting event with a team the fans hate the most; the opposing team and its supports get ragged and harassed. Tempers start running high and some fans react adversely. This leads to violence. Sometimes, violence by fans is done in order to stop the sporting event because they know that their team will lose. This sort of sports violence sometimes could be very dangerous if the participating teams belong to different countries. The actions of English football hooligans and firms in the 1980s caused English teams to be banned from European competition for six years after the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985. On April 12, 2005, the UEFA Champions League quarterfinal between intracity rivals AC Milan and Inter Milan was abandoned after Inter fans threw missiles and flares on to the pitch at the San Siro stadium, with AC Milan goalkeeper Dida hit by a flare. Physical factors (such as heat, noise, and crowding) and alcohol abuse have been espoused as facilitators of aggression causes of aggression in sport, especially among spectators. Violence by athletes and sportsmen: This sort of violence is most commonly seen in sports such as boxing where the athletes play furiously. The athletes hurt their opponents so as to own the victory. However, such athletes will be subjected to punishment by referees. The most notorious incident involved Mike Tyson biting off part of Evander Holyfield's ear during a 1997 match. Sometimes, in contact sports like football, ice hockey, basketball or soccer, when fans or other sportsmen jeer sportsmen of another team, the sportsmen can react violently. In this case, the team and the sportsmen are penalized by the governing sports body. Violence by parents of the athletes and sportsmen: This sort of violence is started when the parents of the athletes are disappointed with the coaches, and opponents of the game. Violence from language of the sports journalists and the media: Print and broadcast media portray sport in entertaining ways to secure ratings approval and readership. Language regarding sport intones words that has to do with the themes of violence, life and death, and hence can cause provocations. By using the terms such as destroy, slaughter, bury, and other words, one is affected by the thought that the end result of winning or losing is equated with life and death. Other terms such as connected with the loss of a game are depicted as the team fell, hopes died, season ended, conjure up loss and injury of both physical and

psychological natures (Jamieson & Orr, 2009). These terms have evoked mostly in football as a frequent way in which the sport is reported. Violence arising from officials: Mark, Bryant, and Lehman (1983) indicated that, charged with the responsibility of making important split-second decisions and rule interpretations, officials can be catalysts for arousing emotions conductive to player or spectator violence. Like players, officials are placed under great stress during games. Inability of incompetent officials to concentrate, control unnecessary arousal and cope with pressure will bring about errors that inflame aggressive acts in athletes and spectators. behavior. Violence due to rituals: Certain high school and college sports teams practice rituals that are not very healthy. These rituals are more like initiation ceremonies, which can involve violence and humiliation against the members who are being initiated. As can be seen all the causes of violence in sports are very simple, and can be very easily overcome if everyone remains patient without getting stressed over a win or a loss. After all, it is just a game. Officials should be more likely to consistently and appropriately enforce game rules which promote fair play and minimize violent

Measures to control Violence in Sports Violence in professional sports is seen to be the actions of one player against another, but now violence is rapidly increasing outside of the game and tarnishing the image of professional athletes as role models for kids. With the increase in on the field and off the field violence, new measures to control the athletes need to be taken. The International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP) is an organization devoted to promoting research, practice, and development in the discipline of sport psychology throughout the world. The ISSP is a multidisciplinary association of scholars whose research interests focus on some aspects of sport psychology. The Society exists to (a) encourage and promote the study of human behaviour within sport, physical activity, and health settings; (b) facilitate the sharing of knowledge through newsletter, meetings and a quadrennial congress, and (c) improve the quality of research and professional practice in sport psychology. In a hope of dramatically reducing the incident of aggression and violence in the athletic domain, the International Society of Sport Psychology makes the following recommendations:

Recommendation 1:

Management should make fundamental penalty revisions so that ruleManagement must ensure proper coaching of teams,

violating behavior results in punishments that have greater punitive value than potential reinforcement. Recommendation 2: participants. Recommendation 3: Management should ban the use of alcoholic beverages at sporting events. Recommendation 4: Management must make sure facilities are adequate regarding catering and spacing needs and the provision of modern amenities. Recommendation 5: The media must place in proper perspective the isolated incidents of aggression that occur in sport, rather than making them highlights. Recommendation 6: The media should promote a campaign to decrease violence and hostile aggression in sport which will also involve the participation and commitment of athletes, coaches, management, officials, and spectators. Recommendation 7: Coaches, managers, athletes, media, officials, and authority figures (e.g. police) should take part in workshops on aggression and violence to ensure they understand the topic of aggression, why it occurs, the cost of aggressive acts, and how aggressive behavior can be controlled. Recommendation 8: Coaches, managers, officials, and the media should encourage athletes to engage in pro-social behavior and punish those who perform acts of hostility. Recommendation 9: Athletes should take part in programs aimed at helping them reduce behavioral tendencies toward aggression. The tightening of rules, imposing of harsher penalties and changing of reinforcement patterns are only part of the answer to inhibiting aggression in sport. Ultimately, the athlete must assume responsibility for his/her behavior. particularly at junior levels, with emphasis on a fair play code-of-conduct among all

References Jamieson, L. & Orr, T.J. (2009). Sport and Violence: A Critical Examination of Sport. Burlington: Butterworth-Heinemann. Coakley, J.J. (1998). Sport in society: Issues and Controversies. Boston: Irwin/McGraw-Hill. Semyonov, M. & Farbstein, M. (1989). Ecology of sports violence: The case of Israeli soccer. Sociology of Sport Journal, 6, 50-59.