Discuss about the Sociology Of Sports Off-Field Crimes Committed By Athletes.
The competitive environment of today’s sports association had made many athletes fall into aggressive and dynamic nature both mentally as well as physically. This state of mental and physical conditions has made many athletes commit off-field crimes (McCarthy, 2013). Society demands athletes perform flawlessly in arenas and stadiums as their fans get accustomed to high hitting shows of finesse and athleticism. When their career reaches a peak point, athletes starts feeling that they should get respect and priority from their fans even when they are off-field (Withers, 2010). If they do not get the same, athletes become aggressive and violent that even leads them to commit crime to gain public attention. These attitude of aggressiveness and want of power becomes the root cause of controversies and increase in amount of violence like rage, rape, assault and sexual abusing by them (Comeron, 2002).
Not any other athlete in the globe has made as many headlines or raised eyebrows as Mike Tyson. Although he was never the most theoretically proficient boxer, but his merciless fights always ended most of his fights within the initial round. From beginning of his life, Tyson experiences has been like a ‘roller-coaster ride’: escaping the slum life, winning WBC heavyweight championship at the age of twenty, mounting wealth and bankruptcy, imprisonment, death of child, facial tattoo, crippling addictions, and of course the incident of 1997 when he bit off a portion of ear of his opponent Evander Holyfield.
Mike Tyson is most celebrated as well as critically acclaimed as most notorious boxers of all time. Once he became ferocious in field, he feared other fighters. His aggressive and violent outbursts have often drawn media attention and fans around the globe. Historically, Michael Gerard Tyson grew up in the environment that supported his behaviour of aggression and violence towards other people. Born on 30th June, 1966, he was parented by Jimmy Kirkpatrick and Lorna Tyson in New York’s Brooklyn. When Mike was two years old, his father left him, his mother and two siblings. He was often mocked by his peers and was one of the prime social targets for neighbourhood kids (Biography.com editors, 2014).
At the age of eleven, things changed for him when he pulled one of the boys and beat him badly out of anger and violence. It was then he came to knew how strong he was and learned how he could use his expertise to dominate and empower people around him. Later he was given a name “Iron Mike”. His involvement with bad people and gangs caused Mike develop criminal background and at the age of 13 he was arrested more than thirty times. He was even sent to a reform school in New York where he met his counsellor Bob Stewart. Bob was an incompetent boxing champion and with Mike’s request he agreed to teach him boxing stunts and how he can use fists in boxing in exchange of getting good grades and avoiding conflicts.
In the year 1991, this notorious boxer raped a contestant of Miss Black America pageant, Desiree Washington in a hotel room of Indianapolis. As soon as the story of Mike’s rape and sexual assault came into the media, his attack became a global sensational news within a short time period. Tyson had lost his heavyweight title in the year 1990 to James Douglas and was preparing to take it back a year later. Tyson’s behaviour became reportedly aggressive and ferocious. In the meantime, his marriage with Robin Givens had also fallen apart due to domestic violence. Moreover, there were other incidents also that showed Tyson became unwanted among public due to his rude and violence towards women at the places he went (Godden, 2015).
Tyson attended the pageant in Indianapolis and was invited as a guest celebrity over there. During the photo opportunity, he grabbed and flirted with women along with hugging them without their consent. Later, it was revealed that Tyson had made disgusting propositions to many of them during the event. Tyson was able to impress a college student named Desiree Washington of Rhode Island. He was able to get her ready for a date and in the hotel room he pinned her to bed and forced himself on her. Afterwards, the medical tests conducted found Tyson guilty although he made up the story that she was angry upon him for not walking with her to his Limousine. In 1992 February, Tyson was convicted of rape and received six years sentence (SHIPP, 2018).
In 1995, he was released after which he became more paranoid and lost control over his rage. During a match he even bit of an ear of his opponent for which his was annulled of his boxing licence. Even in interviews he stated that he would bit off his opponent’s ear again if the situation demanded. Although Tyson fought again but he never got his dominance back. In the year 2003, Tyson became bankrupted and in 2005 he took retirement after losing three out of his last four matches.
Conclusion and Proposed solution
After evaluating Mike Tyson’s case study, it has become clear that factors behind athlete off-field violence is directly related to on-field behaviour along with other day to day living conditions. These offences can be in the form of physical abuse or verbal that can be due to athlete’s early childhood days, up-bringing, racism, or other domestic violence (Falck, 2015). Whatever the case is, successful athletes become role model of people and thus they require possessing qualities that suits sociological conditions.
In order to prevent athletes from making off-field crimes, an initiative called “Self-Help” program can be introduced under which seminars can be conducted for parents, coaches, officials and athletes. Each seminar will take different approach in which techniques of attempting control over one self and violence will be discussed along with how they can be prevented from happening. There are many foundation institutions that can be asked to collaborate so that seminars can be developed by certified instructors and researchers. Each seminar will be around two hours’ time period within which different timings will be provided to parents, coaches, sports officials and athletes so that their issues can be discussed individually.
To present different topics more clearly, videos, brochures and competent speakers will be invited to demonstrate both unacceptable behaviour of sports person and acceptable sides. On the other hand, athletes will be taught how to control anger and public offences by introducing programs that will help them in accepting failures as a part of life.
There are many institutions that have taken a step to combat sports athlete violence. They utilise methods of days silence, rewarding, positive reinforcement, instituting code of conduct and zero-tolerance policies (Danilewicz, 2012). Similarly, “Self-Help” will held seminars for sports athletes and all those people that are associated with them so that a positive effect is brought in them with self-help and through others support. Educating parents will teach them how to deal with domestic life with a sports athlete and coaches will be taught how to train children while they give them a shape of athlete so that pure sportsmanship and responsibility as civilian is maintained (Pico, 2016). Educating officials will help them in getting knowledge about ways they must tackle intense situations while being around athletes along with other security measures required to be taken according to the venue.
Violence and aggression off-field does not follow any rules and regulations but the regulations and punishments for such acts is clearly mentioned in laws of countries. Whether an athlete is on-field or off-field, they are not supposed to act unlawfully and do any thing that hurts the sentiments of fans as well as the society. The case study of Mike Tyson has set an example that shows requirement of taking initiative like “Self-Help” that supports athletes mentally so that they become more easy-going with anger within themselves and sociological intolerances.
References
Biography.com editors. (2014). Mike Tyson-Biography. Retrieved from The Biography.com: https://www.biography.com/people/mike-tyson-9512980
Comeron, M. (2002). The prevention of violence in sport. Europe: Council of Europe Publishing.
Danilewicz, C. (2012). Violence in youth sport: Potential preventative measures and solutions. Retrieved from https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2333&context=thesesdissertations
Falck, D. M. (2015). Criminal Minds: The Relationship between Sport and Off Field Violence. Retrieved from https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1104&context=sport_undergrad
Godden, N. (2015). Mike Tyson rape case was inevitable, I’m surprised more girls didn’t make claims against him,’ former manager opens up about boxer’s sex addiction. Retrieved from Mail Online: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/boxing/article-2945856/Mike-Tyson-rape-case-inevitable-m-surprised-girls-didn-t-make-claims-against-former-manager-opens-boxer-s-sex-addiction.html
McCarthy, M. (2013). Sports, crime and money: Athletes gone wrong. Retrieved from CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/id/100942614
Pico, I. (2016). 10 basic intervention strategies for coaches. Retrieved from https://psicopico.com/en/10-estrategias-prevencion-la-violencia-deporte-entrenadores/
SHIPP, E. R. (2018). Tyson Gets 6-Year Prison Term For Rape Conviction in Indiana. Retrieved from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/27/sports/tyson-gets-6-year-prison-term-for-rape-conviction-in-indiana.html
Withers, B. P. (2010). The Integrity of the Game: Professional Athletes and Domestic Violence. Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law, 01, 145-179. Retrieved from https://harvardjsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/JSEL-Withers.pdf
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