Situating Sexual Abuse in Sporting Communities and Cultures

Sport is an important facilitator of development. Benefits identified by sport psychologists and sport physiologists include physical, emotional, fine motor, psychological and wider health and social development. It is also acknowledged as being an important driver of pro-social development for persons with convictions, including reducing illicit drug use, developing desistance and replacing gang identities. Since the 1990s, however, there has also been recognition of hidden harms within sporting communities with abuse. Most recently attention has been drawn to this through a series of reports into a wide range of sports and cultures. Independent reports into abuse in many of these sporting communities have cited the culture and closed nature of the respective sporting communities as facilitators for this abuse. This chapter explores the role of cultures within sporting communities and the role that they can play in facilitating trauma and abuse. This includes exploring a desire to win at all costs, for victims and survivors not to rock the boat for fear of repercussions from teammates and coaches, and other barriers to reporting. These barriers compound the trauma and vulnerability of victims and survivors and poses significant challenges to organisational autonomy and success for sporting groups and communities.