How do sporting organisations conceptualise and operationalise the prevention of violence against women?
Author | Ruth Liston,Shaez Mortimer,Gemma Hamilton |
DOI | 10.1177/0004865819860879 |
Published date | 01 March 2020 |
Date | 01 March 2020 |
Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
How do sporting
organisations conceptualise
and operationalise the
prevention of violence
against women?
Gemma Hamilton , Ruth Liston and
Shaez Mortimer
Criminology and Justice Studies, School of Global, Urban and Social
Studies, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
Abstract
Sport settings have great potential to influence social change and are therefore important
locations to engage in the prevention of violence against women. The following study
draws on in-depth interviews with 16 stakeholders who have been involved with the imple-
mentation of prevention programmes within competitive/team sport settings. A qualitative
thematic analysis of the interviews was undertaken to examine how spor ting organisations
understand, strategise and practise prevention work in Australia and New Zealand.
Implications for long-term changes in the prevention of violence against women are discussed
with reference to key prevention actions and frameworks.
Keywords
Gendered violence, prevention, sport, violence against women
Date received: 28 February 2019; accepted: 5 June 2019
There is consensus amongst key Australian agencies that effective prevention strategies
for violence against women need to engage people in the environments where they ‘live,
work, learn socialise and play’ (Our Watch, Australia’s National Research Organisation
Corresponding author:
Gemma Hamilton, College of Design and Social Context, RMIT University, 124 La Trobe St, Melbourne, Victoria
3000, Australia.
Email: gemma.hamilton@rmit.edu.au
Australian & New Zealand Journal of
Criminology
2020, Vol. 53(1) 121–136
!The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/0004865819860879
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for Women’s Safety (ANROWS), & VicHealth, 2015, p. 38). Similar to schools and
workplaces, sport settings are key institutions of socialisation for many people. For the
purpose of this paper, ‘sport settings’ are those which support and facilitate organised
sport (e.g. amateur or professional teams, their governing organisations and clubroom
spaces). Many Australians are involved in sport in some manner as fans, players,
volunteers, parents, staff or through ancillary social activities (see e.g. Australian
Sports Commission, 2016). Sport is also an especially important institution of men’s
socialisation (Flood, 2011). A sport setting can be a place where problematic attitudes
and behaviours thrive, just as it can be a place where those behaviours can be challenged
(Dyson & Flood, 2008; McCauley et al., 2014; McCray, 2015). Sport settings are there-
fore crucial to include in efforts to address gender inequality and prevent violence
against women.
The following paper first outlines the significance of violence against women, along
with key prevention frameworks. It then outlines a number of international violence
prevention initiatives that have been implemented in sport settings, before moving to the
current research that aimed to examine how sporting organisations understand, strate-
gise and practise the prevention of violence against women in Australia and
New Zealand. Much of the practical work on this topic has been published in reports
rather than peer-reviewed research, meaning that this paper draws from a larger quan-
tity of grey literature than most scholarly articles.
The prevention of violence against women
Violence against women is an issue of significant criminal justice and public concern
locally and internationally. In Australia, on average at least one woman per week is
killed by a current or former partner, and approximately one in six women have expe-
rienced a form of sexual or physical violence since the age of 15 (Australian Bureau of
Statistics, 2012; Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018). This violence encom-
passes a range of harms that also includes emotional, psychological and financial abuse
(Council of Australian Governments, 2012, p. 2). A number of key factors have been
identified in the research as the most consistent societal predictors or ‘drivers’ of vio-
lence against women: ‘(i) condoning of violence against women; (ii) men’s control of
decision-making and limits to women’s independence in public and private life, (iii) rigid
gender roles and stereotyped constructions of masculinity and femininity and (iv) male
peer relations that emphasise aggression and disrespect towards women’ (Our Watch
et al., 2015, p. 8).
1
These drivers, along with a number of reinforcing factors, contribute to the social
context in which violence occurs (Flood, 2015). Australia tracks lower than a number of
similar Western democracies and developing countries on the Global Gender Inequality
Index, and has dropped from 24th place in 2014 to 36th in 2015, and as low as 46th in
2016 (World Economic Forum, 2016). This indicates that a significant amount of work
needs to be conducted in order to achieve the gender equality necessary to significantly
reduce the incidence of violence against women in Australia. Whilst appropriate
legislation, allocation of sufficient policing resources and support for victims are all
important factors in addressing violence against women, they are limited in their ability
to prevent violence before it occurs. A preventative approach is vital to achieve the
122 Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology 53(1)
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