Transcript deviance - 2010SOCY2280

DEVIANCE AND SPORT
Mair Underwood
What is deviance?
• Deviance is an action, trait or idea that falls
outside of a range of acceptance as determined by
people with the power to enforce norms in a social
world (Coakley et al 2009:167).
• Norms are socially constructed through interaction
and do not represent absolute ideals (Coakley ey al
2009:168).
• The category “deviant” is a social construct; it can
and does get redefined
• e.g. changes to levels of violence in Australian
rugby league after extreme violence of 1970s and
early 1980s
• We define what is considered deviant
Sport’s unique relationship with
deviance
•
Norms in sport are often different from norms in
other social worlds
–
•
What is accepted in sport may be deviant in other
spheres of society (e.g. violence), and actions
accepted in society may be deviant in sport (e.g.
asthma inhalants, nutritional supplements used by
millions of non-athletes.
Sense of entitlement and hubris among athletes.
•
•
Hubris: pride-driven arrogance (p223); expression of
self-importance and the accompanying sense of being
separate from and above the rest of the community
(Coakley et al 2009:179).
Bonds athletes together & separates them from the
wider community
Sport’s unique relationship with
deviance (continued)
• The deviance in sport often involves
unquestioned acceptance of norms, rather
than a rejection of norms.
• Sport is often thought of as beneficial in
terms of reducing deviance (as discussed in
the lecture on values)
Two types of deviance
• Deviant underconformity consists of actions
based on ignoring or rejecting norms,
whereas deviant overconformity consists of
actions based on uncritically accepting
norms and being willing to follow them to
extreme degrees (Coakley et al 2009:169).
• All social life contains tensions between
overconformity and underconformity
Deviant underconformity & sport
•
•
•
•
alcohol and recreational drug use
violence (unsanctioned)
sexual assaults & abuse
other crime
Deviant overconformity and sport
•
•
•
•
Violence (e.g. sanctioned)
Overtraining
Playing with pain and injury
Taking performance enhancing substances
Underconformity Recreational drugs
• In a recent statement, a retired Australian
footballer claimed that 80% of elite
footballers in Australia had used or been
offered recreational drugs.
• Others claimed the figure was closer to 30%
(Turner and McCrory 2003:378).
Recreational drugs continued
• A study in France found an association
between sport participation and
consumption of cannabis, heroine and
cocaine (Arvers et al 2000)
• A national US study found athletes were
more likely to use spit tobacco
• National average for college men: 17%
• Baseball players: 41%
• Football players: 29% (NCAA 2001)
Alcohol
• A national study of US college student
drinking found that athletes have
significantly higher rates of heavy drinking
(5 or more drinks in a row for men, 4 for
women) than non-athletes.
• Men: 49% drank heavily in 2 weeks prior to
survey, compared to 57% of athletes
• Women: 40% vs 48% athletes (Nelson and
Wechsler 2001)
Alcohol continued
• A similar study in Finland found that
members of sport clubs were more likely to
consume large amounts of alcohol, that the
association was stronger for young men,
and that it was especially strong in sports
with a particularly masculine culture, such
as ice-hockey, boxing and motor sport
(Koski 2000)
A drinking culture?
• Long tradition of drink-related initiations and
hazings in sport
• US national survey Hoover (1999) found that
over 75% of athletes (n=325 000) experienced
hazing, and over half had been required to
participate in drinking contests or alcoholrelated hazing.
• Indeed it seems that there is a drinking culture
that surrounds at least some sports where
individuals are taught that it is manly not only
to play sport but to drink beer and ‘hold your
ale’ (Dunning and Waddington 2003:356).
Violence and deviance
• Violence in sport can be a matter of
underconforming (e.g. unsanctioned
violence such as low blows) or
overconforming (e.g. sanctioned violence
such as hard tackles).
Sexuality and deviance
• Culture of sexualisation and subordination
of women in sport.
• Prof Steven Oritz, a sociologist at Oregon
State Uni, suggests that a “culture of
adultery” permeates professional sport.
• He states that there is a “fast food sex
mentality” among professional athletes
(Floyd 2001).
Shane Warne
• ‘Everyone knows what a woman
would be called if she behaved like
Shane Warne. Shane Warne is called a
cricketer’.
• Letter to the Editor of The Sydney
Morning Herald, 28 June 2005
Are there different sexual norms in
some sport settings?
Roy Masters (2006) Bad Boys
• “privately, no-one denied ‘buns’ or group sex
occurred in the football environment” (p85).
• unnamed Bulldog player: “Some of the boys love
a bun … Gang banging is nothing new for our
club, or rugby league” (p99).
• “So why do the boys love a bun? The sociologists
say it is part of the bonding process and they’re
right” (p99).
Sexual violence
• Sexual violence is a problem that is relevant to all of
you.
• 1 in 7 adult women have experienced a completed rape
in their lifetime.
• Power to change things with how they project
themselves, and what accept from men (e.g. those who
did not participate in Glen Ridge rape had strong
women in their lives).
– 38% of blue-collar men and 15% of male college students
admit having sex with a woman they knew did not want sex.
– 35% of male college students stated that they might rape a
woman if they could be assured of not getting caught
(Franklin 2004:28-9)
Is there a connection between
sport and sexual violence?
• reports of sexual assaults by AFL, League
and Union players almost regular features in
the news
• There is a public perception that athletes are
more likely to be involved in violence
against women.
– For instance, an internet poll found that 51% of
respondents believed this to be the case
(Crossett 1999 in Smith and Stewart:385).
Evidence regarding athletes and
sexual violence
• There is little information comparing
athletes to similar people who are not highprofile competitors (Coakley et al
2009:222).
• Within the little research there are
inconsistent findings
Evidence continued
• In a study of a large midwestern US university,
men on sports teams made up 2% of males on
campus, but made up 23% of attackers in
sexual assaults and 14% in attempted sexual
assaults (Frintner and Rubinson 1993).
• At another university, an anonymous survey
found that men on varsity, revenue-producing
teams, such as football and basketball, selfreported higher rates of sexually abusive
behaviour (Koss and Gaines 1993)
Evidence continued
• However, Jackson (1991) found no
difference with regard to self-reported
assault (in Jackson 2000:600).
• At another university 2.1% of athletes had
been reported for allegedly committing
rape, compared to 0.6% of the general
population (Moore 1991) in Smith and
Stewart: 385
Evidence continued
• Gang rapes are most often perpetrated by
men who belong to all-male peer groups.
One review of 24 alleged gang rapes found
in that 22 of the 24 cases perpetrators were
members of intercollegiate athletic teams or
fraternities (O’Sullivan 1991)
Rape supportive attitudes and
behaviour
• In a meta-analysis of 29 studies Murnen and
Kohlman (2007) found that athletic and
fraternity membership were both related to
sexually aggressive attitudes, and to a lesser
extent self-reported behaviour.
• Boeringer (1999) found that athletes were
more likely to agree with rape supportive
statements than controls
Sociological views
• Sociologists have suggested numerous reasons
why athletes may use and abuse women:
– Competitive and win at all costs attitude
– Taught to dominate others
– Taught that aggression and violence are
legitimate solutions
– Taught a ‘don’t think, act’ attitude
– Elitism and invulnerability
– Strong support for competitors regardless of
their actions
– Strong bonding and loyalty
– Group think
Groupthink and gang rape
• Sometimes men may feel that they have to
go along with others lest they be branded
non-masculine, are expelled from the group,
or become victims themselves (Franklin
2004:31).
• As a member of the Cincinnati Bengals who
was implicated in a gang rape explained “It
was very hard for you to say “No” because
you’re going to get ragged about it, you’re
going to get teased (Franklin 2004:31).
A rape culture?
• “Men’s sport represents a rape culture” (Crossett
et al in Smith and Stewart: 385).
• Athletic teams associated with hazing (including
stripping and sodomizing) (Franklin 2004)
• Athletes at Columbine sexually and racially
abused other students including Harris and
Klebold (Franklin 2004:32)
• 2 women filed lawsuits against the Uni of
Colorado alleging the university fostered an
atmosphere that led to them being sexually
assaulted by footballers (Murnen and Kohlman
2007:146).
Discussion
• Does sport foster a rape culture?
• Does sport shape the individual or do preexisting traits influence individual sport
choices?
Sport and overconformity
• Athletes may not see overconformity as
deviance, but as evidence of commitment
and dedication.
• Eating disorders
• On-field, sanctioned violence
• Playing through pain and injury
• Over-training
• Using performance enhancing drugs
Overconforming to what?
• Much of the deviance among athletes (and
coaches) involves unquestioned acceptance
of and conformity to the value system
embodied in the sport ethic (Coakley
2003:168)
The sport ethic
• A player is dedicated to the game above all
things
• An athlete strives for distinction.
• An athlete accepts risks and plays through
pain.
• An athlete accepts no obstacles in the
pursuit of possibilities (Coakley 2009:1712).
Overconformity: Performance
enhancing drugs
• The use of performance enhancing drugs
occurs in a certain cultural context:
• a medicalised world where drugs are seen to
be the solution to many problems.
• Humans = drug-dependent species
(Dunning and Waddington 2003:353-4)
• The body is considered a tool or machine,
the condition of which can be actively
manipulated.
Performance enhancing drugs in
sport
•
•
•
•
Use currently banned
Thousand of drugs on banned list
Punishments: fines and bans
Seems that penalties are small compared to
the potential rewards
Discussion
• What do you think about the use of
performance enhancing drugs in sport?
• Is it wrong? Why?
Arguments for the ban
• Fair play and a level playing field
• The health of athletes
• Allowing drug use will force all to use in
order to compete
Fair play and a level playing field
• The argument is that a ban and drug testing
is needed to guarantee a level playing field
where competitive outcomes reflect skills
and training rather than access to
substances.
• Drug use is seen as damaging the integrity
of sports (Coakley 2003:192-3).
• But is the playing field ever level?
• Why single out drugs?
All is fair in sport?
• Jennifer Capriati was given every available
coaching an equipment facility to help her
develop her tennis skills since she was old
enough to grip a racket … Imagine tennis
produced a ghetto child from Brooklyn,
who had the added disadvantage of being
black. When they came face-to-face the
conditions might appear fair, but one would
hardly say that they are fair in the deeper
sense…. It would be a naïve person indeed
who believed all is fair in sport (Cashmore
2005:250).
Other enhancements that are not
banned
• Hypobaric chambers or hypoxic air
machines are designed to replicate high
altitude atmospheres. Their use is not
banned even though they produce much the
same results as illicit methods such as EPO
or blood doping (Cashmore 2005:241-2).
• Tiger Woods - eye surgery which gave him
a competitive advantage.
• Air-inflated spikes and FastSkin swimsuits
Drugs as an equaliser?
• If all athletes were on drugs, contests would
again come down to natural ability (Black
1996:370).
• Perhaps drugs and a working knowledge of
how to take them are more transferable than
the developed world’s high-tech facilities,
Olympic-size pools, and college bursaries
that enable full-time training (Cashmore
2005:251).
Drugs as equaliser continued
• “Nature is not fair. Ian Thorpe has
enormous feet which give him an advantage
that no other swimmer can get … By
allowing everyone to take performance
enhancing drugs, we level the playing field.
We remove the effects of genetic inequality.
Far from being unfair, allowing
performance enhancement promotes
equality” (Savelescu, Foddy and Clayton
2004:667-668).
The argument for athlete health
• Some performance enhancing substances
can have a detrimental impact on athlete
health.
• But some have argued that at the moment
we spend so much on testing for drugs that
there is no money left for ascertaining
exactly what they do to athletes (Cashmore
2005:237).
Health continued
• Black (1996:372-3) argues that the ban
exacerbates health risks which would
significantly reduce if the ban was removed.
This occurs since the ban reduces the
incentive for research into safe dosages and
ways to overcome harmful side effects; it
restricts medical monitoring; it contributes
to the spread of AIDS; it cause athletes to
acquire Black Market drugs; and it
contributes to excessive consumption of
drugs by users (Black 1996:372-3).
Allowing drug use will force all
to use in order to compete
• Of course athletes should have the choice
about what risks they are prepared to
accept.
• But this could also be an argument for
lifting the ban.
• But what about the fact that athletes are role
models?
• Well so are others such as musicians and
actors, but we don’t test them for drugs.
Arguments for lifting the ban
• Problems with testing
• Current policy assumes free choice in using
drugs
• Problems with prohibition
• Athletes are being singled out
• Drugs are not against the spirit of sport
Problems with testing
• Not all athletes tested
• Drugs often mimic natural processes, and
therefore difficult to detect.
• Often detection means defining the natural
body (very difficult)
• Testing is not keeping up with the
development of new drugs
Current policy assumes free
choice in using drugs
• Some people do not have the same options
• East Germany: state sanctioned doping
• From 1960 as part of State Program 1425
government doped athletes
• Won many medals and set records
• Some forced to change sex afterwards
Problems with prohibition
• The current ban on performance enhancing
drugs may actually enhance the appeal of
these drugs, and encourage people to use
them.
• There is already a demand for performance
enhancing drugs, and banning things that
are already in demand has a history of
failing.
Athletes are being singled out
• Drug use is allowed in other contexts (e.g.
classical music).
• More emphasis on combating drugs in sport
than recreational drugs even though impact
of recreational is larger
• The ban on drugs assumes that athletes are
not rational, deliberating agents capable of
assessing the risks and benefits
Drugs are not against the spirit of sport
• Not against the spirit of sport; it is the spirit
of sport (Savulescu, Foddy and Clayton
2004:670).
• Coakley’s (2009) sport ethic:
• A player is dedicated to the game above all
things
• An athlete strives for distinction.
• An athlete accepts risks and plays through
pain.
• An athlete accepts no obstacles in the
pursuit of possibilities
Some suggestions for the future
• Change the balance between penalty and
reward.
• Change the interest groups from sporting
organisations (who are concerned with
maintaining a certain image of sport for
financial reasons) to medical authorities
(who would be more concerned with the
health of athletes) (Dingelstad et al 1996).
• Change the sport ethic (Coakley 2003).