What are the solutions to prevent abuse in sport?
Over the past decade many victims of violence in the world of sport have broken the silence around these seemingly commonplace violations. According to Human Rights Watch, in some sports clubs a culture of seeking to hide the facts has trumped efforts to investigate claims of abuse made by children.
Have you ever witnessed abuse in sports? What are some of the things that could be done to prevent abuse taking place within sports clubs?
From the article Olympic Games: when the dream becomes a nightmare
In private institutions, reporting to the competent authorities must pass by the direction. This presents a conflict of interests to any director. It also threatens the employment of the person reporting. Remove the gatekeeper designed to protect the bottom line, and allow the licensed professional to fulfill their legal obligation to report without hindrance.
More testing and more public shaming.
Cheating has no place in sports. Also shame those who are bullies (like Serena Williams who constantly bullies the Umpires and get away with it).
Now the young tennis players are all copying her. They abuse the referees.
Sports coaches should be registered under PVG guidelines as younger adults under their supervision should be considered vulnerable .Background checks before the person is employed should be carried out for criminal or related acts.If the person has a criminal record they should not be employed in this field especially if their crimes are related to abuse of which ever form that takes .I also believe coaches should not work on their own there should be two providing input .There should be a robust mechanism in place to enable accusations of abuse to be investigated without ruining the affected persons sports career or their opportunities.
The first step is to require staff, trainers and club supervisors to be married and have children, then we seek to determine the second step.
الخطوة الاولى اشتراط أن يكون العاملون والمدربون والمشرفون على الاندية متزوجين ولديهم أولاد، عندها نسعى لتحديد الخطوة الثانية.
Children and adolescents have little or no life experience and do not know some contexts. A "confidant" can easily abuse this and sell the young person any crap as "necessary".
One approach would be transparency; everything is recorded and can be viewed by the parents, and only the parents.
Another approach would be to teach the kids never to be in pairs, but in a group of at least 5 people or more.
It would also be good to teach children early on to say no to something they don't like, even if the no is directed against a person they trust, against a whole group, against a representative of the authorities or the state, or even against their best friend! This does not solve the dilemma of seduction.
Another possible approach would be to teach children at an early age what is appropriate and what is not, i.e. as high a level of morality as possible, which according to earlier psychologists is also useful in extreme situations. But as the discussion about freedom of speech reveals here, it is a question of point of view what is appropriate and what is not. And how much time do parents have today to permanently teach their (day-care) children what is appropriate and what is not?
Kinder und Jugendliche haben wenig bis keine Lebenserfahrung und kennen somanche Zusammenhänge nicht. Das kann eine "Vertrauensperson" leicht missbrauchen und dem jugendlichen jeden Mist als "erforderlich" verkaufen.
Ein Ansatz wäre Transparenz; alles wird aufgezeichnet und kann von den Eltern, und nur den Eltern, angeschaut werden.
Ein anderer Ansatz wäre es den Kinden bei zu bringen nie nur zu zweit zu sein, sondern in einer Gruppe von mindestens 5 Personen und mehr.
Gut wäre es auch den Kindern früh bei zu bringen präventiv Nein zu sagen zu etwasem das sie nicht mögen, auch wenn das Nein sich gegen eine Vertrauensperson, ganz Gruppe, mit Blick auf den Nationalsozialismus gegen einen Behördnevertreter oder die Staatsgewalt oder gerade den besten Freund richtet! Das löst zwar nicht das Dilemma mit der Verführung.
Ein weiterer möglicher Ansatz wäre es den Kinder früh bei zu bringen was sich gehört und was nicht, sprich eine möglichst hohes Niveau an Moral, was gemäss früheren Psychologen auch in Extremsituationen dienlich ist. Nur wie es hier die Diskussion über die Meinungsfreiheit offen legt ist es ein Frage des Standpunktes was sich gehört und was nicht. Und wieviel Zeit haben heute die Eltern um ihren (Kita-) Kindern permanent bei zu bringen was sich gehört und was nicht?
Unfortunately, this can probably never be completely prevented.
Especially if you read the article about the flesh show, then there seem to be mechanisms in sports which make this area attractive for sadists and other questionable spirits.
https://www.srf.ch/news/panorama/sexismus-im-sport-schneller-hoeher-knapper-frauen-fordern-ende-der-fleischbeschau
Sowas lässt sich wahrscheinlich leider nie vollständig verhindern.
Zumal, wenn man den Artikel über die Fleischschau liest, dann gibt es scheinbar leider ebenfalls im Sport Mechanismen welche diesen Bereich attraktiv macht für Sadisten und andere fragliche Geister.
https://www.srf.ch/news/panorama/sexismus-im-sport-schneller-hoeher-knapper-frauen-fordern-ende-der-fleischbeschau
Please stop the discrimination between sexes. It is absurd to have women and mens sports. Allow everyone to be part of mixed teams and be paid equally for the same jobs.
It would be absurd if we heard a hospital only hires women and a bank only hires men and pays them 10x more than they do for their other women's bank. Yet in sports we have segregated sexes and completely separate pay even among people of the same sex.
Stop the discrimination. Allow both men and women to be equal and compete together. Also, since they do the same things like pay basktball or run the 100m dash they should all be paid equally. It makes no difference if someone is bigger or faster, everyone should be treated equally and paid equally.
We would all be outraged if a grocery store chain would pay their male cashiers 5x more than the women because they can lift more weight. It is absurd. So, STOP THE DISCRIMINATION ALREADY !
I'm a woman lawyer and I would immediately sue the company if they would pay my male colleagues a different hourly rate for the same job, yet we allow this absurd discrimination in sport. Where's the fairness in that?
Thank you for your answer. In your opinion, is discrimination linked to abuse in sports? How would you prevent abuse and protect athletes of all ages?
Hi Isabelle,
As mentioned before, the easiest way to stop any and all discrimination and abuse is to have mixed sports where men and women work together and get paid equal money for the same job. That automatically stops these situations. Having a lot of colleagues around of both sexes makes normal behavior normal.
With women as a separate second class branch of sports it is very easy to have anything from sexual to monetary abuses and discrimination because anyone standing up will block their careers. In a mixed environment everyone understands what normal behavior is.
All the companies that I worked with had mixed environments. Both men and women managers demanded that everyone under them gets paid and gets treated equally.
The moment you say Women's Sports there is already discrimination, abuse and segregation because for a sports job a woman was already put in a second category of the labor market. Have everyone mixed and it will not matter if someone is young or old, a woman or a man as long as they get treated equally by default.
hi Isabelle,
The easiest way to look at it is if we'd demand to have Swissinfo-women.ch where only women post, while on Swissinfo.ch only men post articles and the men, on average get paid 5-10x more than the women. If you compare men in athletics, basketball or football they usually get paid a lot more than the women. And, it is false to call it only sports. Those are jobs for which the people get paid and are organized jobs as part of a company be it FIFA, UEFA or IAAF. Those are employees just like Uber or Taxi drivers are employees and they should all receive equal treatment irrespecitve of gender.
Hi, thank you and yes I think your point on not seeing discrimination and abuse as separate but rather connected issues and that a separation is always creating an "us" and "them" is very important. Do you think there's a chance mixed teams might become more common in the near future?
No
That is unrealistic. It sounds lovely and idealistic, but Megan Rapinoe will never ever equal physically Ronaldo (as example) and the coach will let her in the bench forever (or will never hire her), so she will never be paid as Ronaldo as many males in Ronaldo's team do not get the same payments.
Prosecute the offenders
What is the benefit of "prosecute the offenders" when the punishment is a joke?
Or ...
https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/sonntagszeitung/trotz-rueckfallgefahr-paedophiler-auf-freiem-fuss/story/26825569
Dr. Nasser got 175 years in jail for abusing Simone Biles and many others. It is that a Joke? I think you meant punish the guilty and proven offenders, right? But first there should be a prosecution and it must be fair! That in Switzerland is a joke, I agree
A good start might be to fight 'machismo'.
That's a tricky one, as physical and mental abuse (e.g. racism, sexual, bullying) is everywhere. There needs to be better vetting of coaches - lie detectors, perhaps, to try and spot potential abusers before they get appointed. But there should also be procedures in place to stop false claims. How many teachers, for example, have been accused of something bad as revenge for giving bad grades?
As you say, it is a tricky situation. Do you think awareness campaigns would help?
No - people are already aware. How many men watch women's sports, especially where the women are almost naked? Maybe a rule change might help - no bikinis (volleyball), full body suits (gymnastics). But, until men stop seeing women as sex objects, nothing will change. But, how many women use their bodies to get what they want? TV / Movie stars, singers, highly paid sports people. What did they do to get to where they are now? Everyone has a choice. They can say NO, but if it means they will not achieve their dreams or become millionaires, I doubt they will.
How you will "spot potential abusers"? Potentiality is not the same as guilt.
I think it is more simple to hire a female physician to take care of female athletes. And I will let the female football for female footballers. It is a funny game and nobody expect from them a super game! Neither an equal salary. But if the females aren't happy with the offer they should have all the rights to refuse... The problem is that they don't and prefer the lower salaries.
Lie detectors during an interview. MRI perhaps - show them images of abuse and see how their brains react.
Join the conversation!