Sports and Violence
Jasmina Gerin, Jasmin Peco
SUMMARY
Violence in sports can be observed both within competitions and outside them. Within competitions, violence may be present in sports such as boxing, wrestling, martial arts, rugby, and similar activities, while violence outside competitions is most often manifested as a social problem among spectators.
Michael Smith distinguishes between “relatively legitimate” and “relatively illegitimate” violence. The first category includes violence that occurs within the limits of sports rules, as well as violence that exceeds those limits but is generally accepted. The second category includes “quasi-criminal” violence, which violates laws and official regulations, and “criminal” violence, which is entirely unacceptable.
The boundaries between these forms of violence are often less clear than commonly assumed. Spectators frequently identify with athletes, who often serve as role models for young people. This identification is one of the key factors contributing to aggression. Aggressive behavior displayed on the playing field can be transferred to the stands, where symbolic sports aggression may transform into real acts of aggression among spectators.
The paper focuses on this transfer of aggression from athletes to fans and seeks to analyze and explain the social context of conflicts both on the field and in the stands. The phenomenon of hooliganism is closely connected to modern sports events, particularly in team sports and in competitions involving teams with long-standing rivalries and histories of conflict.
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