Comparing Domestic Violence At Home and In Sports
ComparingDomestic Violence At Home and In Sports
ComparingDomestic Violence At Home and In Sports
DomesticViolence is a coercive behavior that involves a physical,psychological or sexual attack perpetrated by individuals againsttheir partner or former partner. Examples include physical abuse, forinstance, slapping, beating, and strangulation among others. Sexualassault includes threats, forceful sexual acts, and use of physicalforce. Psychological abuse may involve excessive jealousy,intimidation, harassment or stalking among others. In the UnitedStates, 20 people are physically abused every minute, 20,800 casesare reported daily in hotlines and majority of the victims arefemales aged between 18-24 years (National Coalition against DomesticViolence, 2015). Issues pertaining to violence at home are regardedas a societal issue that can affect anyone irrespective of theprofession as long as there are variables that trigger it. Thepurpose of the paper is to establish a comparison between domesticviolence at home and in sports.
Acommon conception is that on-field violence often leads to violenceat home. It is common in football, a favorite game among millions ofAmericans. Players are encouraged to have an aggressive behavior asit is the nature of the sport. They are unable to drop thispersonality once they leave the pitch. The National Football League(NFL) has a tougher policy that states that offenders of domesticviolence should be severely punished that includes being suspended.The National Basketball Association (NBA) calls for a ten gamesuspension to any player accused of perpetrating violence on theirspouse. For first-time offenders, the NFL charges them a six-gamesuspension and a one-year suspension for those who are secondoffenders (McCarthy, 2015). Sometimes, mandated sporting institutionsassist the partner to report cases of violence by providing anonymoushotlines where they can file reports. Partners are often encouragedto persecute the perpetrator if it is not a first-time offense.However, there have been cases of footballers who have escapedjustice due to their influence by bribing their way out or stiflingthe news from reaching the public. Floyd Mayweather, a high payingboxer has been accused of domestic abuse on many occasions, but thenews is always stifled because of his fame. He disagreed with hiswife on child support in 2001 and swung a car door at her that hither on the head and went ahead to punch her three times (Holter,2015). It is unfortunate that World Boxing Federation does not haveclear regulations that restrict players from committing violence athome.
Thereis a misconception that athletes and footballers are prone todomestic violence. According to the National Coalition againstViolent Athletes, there have been 19% incidents of sexual abuse, and35% accounts of domestic violence by athletes declared in collegecampuses at any given time (Woods, 2015). According to statistics,the NFL had the highest arrests of the perpetrators of abuse with2014 recording 2,466 arrests, the NBA at 2, 157, Baseball at 553 andlastly Hockey at 175 (Tracy, 2014).
Thedifference between domestic violence at home and in sports is that inthe former, the abuse may be endured in silence since there is noempowerment to speak up against it. They might also have beenintimidated and threatened that in case they report they might beharmed or even killed. In sports, it often involves professionals,and the spouse intends to shame them for their heinous crime. Thereare mechanisms put in place to report such cases which make it easierfor them. However, there are also partners who are battered bysports’ professionals, but because of their influence, fearreporting them. The main reason might be fear of victimization, whichis wrong as sometimes it might lead to death if not stopped.
Factorsthat trigger violence includes the use of alcohol and the negativeattitude of most men towards women. Consumption of alcohol increasesthe severity of the situation and elevates the chances of abuseperpetration. In most instances, police and medical personnel will beinvolved. Drinking alcohol is part of the spectator experience eitherin the main events or games. These spectators might have highexpectations of their teams winning the game. According to theresults presented, a loss might lead to disappointments that might betransferred back home. It is evident then that violence at home iscorrelated to violence in sports. It is hard to disassociate the twosince these individuals after being involved in sports have to goback home. Men get involved in sports to show their dominance andmasculinity and the violence perpetrated towards females is part ofcementing male domination. The issue of male entitlement comes intoplay, which increases according to their fame. According to a formerNBA player, Wilt Chamberlain, he managed to have sexual intercoursewith over 20,000 women which show men`s defiance and the will to besatisfied sexually (Woods, 2011).
Commoncauses of domestic violence include stress, lack of control, drugsand alcohol, mental health and history of abuse. Despite thesignificance of these factors in violence perpetration, they are notthe primary cause. Violence is a matter of choice, and theperpetrators intend to depict power and control hence they feel thatby hurting their partner, they can fulfill their accomplishments. Inthe home setting, women are always accused of not doing their workproperly, for instance, cooking, cleaning, or even feeding thefamily, leading to confrontations between couples which oftentranslate to violence. The weaker person between the partners islikely to be injured. Statistics indicate that one in every ten menand three for women have been victims of abuse caused by theirintimate colleagues (Walters,Chen, and Breiding, 2013).
Thereis a need to increase efforts to sensitize the public about theeffects of violence, initiatives such as “It’s on us” that wasinitially formed to assist victims of abuse on college campusesshould be applauded. Former President Barrack Obama established the“it’s on us” campaign in 2014 to sensitize the public aboutviolence. The campaign hopes to instill in everyone theresponsibility of being involved in eradicating the vice. TheNational Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has participated inthis initiative to educate its players and their spouses about theimportance of reaching out if affected. Office of Victims of Crimetogether with the Office of Justice Programs administers funding thatcan assist in developing strategies aimed at eradicating violence.Private and public institutions should be involved in such programsto discuss how to curb domestic violence, how to empower victims andhow to integrate them into the society.
Insummary, violence in both sports and at home should be given specificattention due to the adverse effects to the victim. It might resultin consequences such as psychological trauma, physical injury, socialstigma and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among others.Domestic violence does not just affect the victim, but the society asa whole as the repercussions trickle down to the community. Be itviolence at home or in sports, injuries, abuse, effects andconsequences are similar for all victims. The only way to preventdeaths and injuries linked to domestic violence is to persecuteperpetrators and to support victims.
References
Holter,L. (2015, May 1).Boxing’s Disturbing History with Domestic Violence Is Thrust intothe Spotlight by Floyd Mayweather Jr`s fight. Bustle.Retrieved fromhttps://www.bustle.com/articles/80408-boxings-disturbing-history-with-domestic-violence-is-thrust-into-the-spotlight-by-floyd-mayweather-jrs-fight.
 McCarthy,S. P. (2015). Bending the Rules to Change the Rule-Was the NationalFootball Leagues`s Domestic Violence Policy Collectively BargainedFor. Marq.Sports L. Rev., 26,245.
NationalCoalition against Domestic Violence (2015). Domestic violencenational statistics. Retrieved from www.ncadv.org
Tracy,A. (2014,September 15).NFL,NBA Lead Arrest Rates across Pro Sports.Vocativ.Retrieved fromhttp://www.vocativ.com/culture/sport/nfl-arrest-rates/
Walters,M. L., Chen, J., & Breiding, M. J. (2013). The National IntimatePartner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS): 2010 findings onvictimization by sexual orientation. Atlanta,GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers forDisease Control and Prevention, 648(73),6.
Woods,R. (2015). Socialissues in sport.Human Kinetics.
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