Sexual Harassment and Abuse in Sport

Sport has long held a special place in the affections of western industrial societies. This status has protected sport from critical scrutiny and meant that social inequalities and other problems, such as sexual harassment and abuse, have all-too-often been ignored or tacitly condoned. Further, general research on institutional sex offending has been much slower to develop than individual, pathological analyses. There is reason to believe that sport research could contribute to a wider understanding of institutional abuse. But for that to happen there needs to be a concerted effort by both sport and non-sport researchers to share their work more often and more openly.

The sport-based researchers whose work is reported here bring many different approaches to this work. It is their hope that this book will take this work to a wider audience, both to increase awareness of sexual abuse in extra-familial settings and to attract critical interest in the sharing of research perspectives between those working inside and outside sport.

CONTENTS: Sexual harassment and abuse in sport: The research context Celia Brackenridge and Kari Fasting . Prevalence of sexual abuse in organised competitive sport in Australia Trisha Leahy, Grace Pretty and Gershon Tenenbaum . coping with sexual harassment in sport: Experiences of elite female athletes Kari Fasting, Celia Brackenridge and Kristin Walseth . Running the gauntlet: An examination of initiation/hazing and sexual abuse in sport Sandra Kirby and Glen Wintrup . Sexual harassment of women in athletics vs academia Karin Volkwein, Frauke Schnell, Shannon Devlin, Michele Mitchell and Jennifer Sutera . Defining appropriateness in coach-athlete sexual relationships: The voice of coaches Joy Bringer, Celia Brackenridge and Lynne Johnston . The Child Protection in Sport Unit Steve Boocock . Reflections on the special issue on sport: implications for education and professional practice Carole Oglesby . Review essay: Three books on sexual harassment and abuse in sport Keith Lyons (plus extensive bibliography, list of websites and other resources)