Fact of Violence in Sports from Sociological Perspective: A Holistic View

Sports is an area where people have the opportunity to move more flexibly than many institutional structures. It would not be wrong to say that sport encompasses life in an individual and social sense and it is effective in the reproduction of social relations. While the nature of sport should allow people to develop their character, socialize and move away from negative behaviors, violence is also observed in most sports areas. In this respect, many scientific studies have been done on these two concepts, sports and violence, which are opposite to each other. In the scientific investigations, issues such as physical violence, fan violence, aggression, and fanaticism have been tried to be assessed and analyzed. The fact of violence in sports has not been investigated in depth from a holistic perspective including physical, psychological, economic, and sexual violence. In this study, a total of 28 elite athletes, 14 male and 14 female, were interviewed in 15 different sports branches. Interviews have been conducted with athletes in 5 different cities (Istanbul, Kocaeli, Sakarya, Duzce, and Bolu). Data were analyzed using the thematic data analysis method. Based on the experiences of athletes, it has been determined how they can be exposed to different dimensions of physical, psychological, economic, and sexual violence by coach, spectators, and athletes. In addition, findings showed that there is an intensive economic and sexual violence in sports