Non-accidental violence in sports

With a feminist perspective as a background, this chapter presents the definitions of the different forms of non-accidental violence in sport: psychological, sexual, physical and neglect. It is stressed that there is no common internationally agreed upon definitions in this area, and few psychometric measurements. Methodological challenges are also connected to access and representativity, since the answering percentage, is often very low. Current state of knowledge is presented with respect to prevalence and characteristics of the perpetrators. Studies show that the form of non-accidental violence experienced the most by athletes is psychological violence. Further, both women and men are perpetrators, but it is most often a man. The last part of the chapter focuses on prevention and safeguarding and demonstrates how the first studies had an impact on policy development. One knows, however, little about the impact of these policies because very few have been monitored or evaluated.