Fair Play or Fair Game? Child Sexual Abuse in Sport Organisations

Abstract

Feminist perspectives in sport research have helped to problematise gender relations in sport and to highlight dominating behaviours such as sexual harassment. It is argued that the independent status of many voluntary sport organisations helps to protect coaches from the scrutiny of certain state regulations and, consequently, offers easy targets for indivi duals with sexual motives. The paper sets the problem of child sexual abuse in sport within this broad context of organisational accountability and raises issues for both research and professional practice.