Paul Pederson11-28-00Sport Violence PaperSports Violence a Never-Ending ControversyBench clearing brawls in baseball, bloody hockey fights, soccer mobs, post-gamesports riots, and increasing injuries are all images of todays sports that are familiar to us. In recent years players and fans alike have shown increased aggression when it comes tosporting events. One of the most disturbing trends in sports is the increasing frequencyand severity of violence. Injuries and deaths among participants are on the rise, as areinjuries and deaths among fans and spectators. Violence in sports is an important issuebecause sports themselves are an important aspect in our lives and the society we live in. Their importance, however, should not be greater than our concern about preserving thevalues and aspects of our society. The problem of sports violence has become a worldwide phenomenon, that is anunacceptable, growing social problem. Sports violence can be defined as behavior by aplayer, coach, or fan that is intended to inflict pain or cause injury (Berger 8). Sportsviolence causes harm, breaks the rules of the game, and is unrelated to the competitiveobjectives of the sport. Leonard identifies two forms of aggression in sports: Instrumental aggression,which is non-emotional and task-oriented and reactive aggression, which has an underlyingemotional component, with harm as its goal(165). Violence is the outcome of reactiveaggression. There are three major theories of aggression in sports: The biological theory,psychological theory, and the social learning theory(Leonard 170-171). The biologicaltheory sees aggression as a basic, innate human characteristic, in which sports is seen as asocially acceptable way to discharge built-up aggression(170). The psychological theorystates that aggression is caused by frustration and is situational(170). In sports, frustrationcan be caused by questionable calls by officials, failure to make a cer...
