1. “If you can meet with triumph and disasters and treat the two imposters
just the same”. Rudyard Kipling – Wimbledon statue
Batting on a sticky wicket
Being on the ropes
The final hurdle
Our culture puts sport on a
pedestal and our sporting heroes
are influential role models.
Millions watch sport on the TV –
Olympics, World
Cup, Premiership matches, F1
But sometimes are sporting heroes let us down….

3. Section C – Part 3
Deviance
1. Understand the main types of deviance in sport
2. Describe the causes of hooliganism and the methods
used to combat it
3. Explain the impact of hooliganism and player violence
has on those involved, on sport and on wider society
4. Describe violence between players and how it is dealt
with
5. Evaluate the relationship between sport and the law
and the effect on performers, officials and spectators

4. This part of specification also covers drugs in sport and
you will need to:
1. Understand why performers take performance
enhancing drugs and the arguments for and against
their use
2. Explain how the authorities are trying to eliminate
drug taking in sport and the associated difficulties
But we’ve already
covered this when we
looked at drug doping
in Section A!

5. Deviance could be:
Voluntary e.g.
performer
decide
Co-operative e.g.
the performer
decides to take
drugs because all his
friends are doing so
Enforced e.g. a
former East German
swimmer took drugs
because her coach
gave them to her

6. Deviance:
behaviour that
falls outside the
norms or outside
what is deemed to
be acceptable
Also behaviour of
spectators, manager
s, coaches and
officials
Behaviour of
players
Breaking the laws
of sport
v
breaking the laws
of society
Sport can be seen as a
subsection of social behaviour

7. Types of deviance
Sports sociologist Jay Coakley (1992) considered 3 types of behaviour:
Positive deviance:
Behaviour that is
outside the norm but
with no intention to
harm or break rules –
overconforming to
what is expected
Normal
Negative deviance:
Behaviour that goes
against the norm and
has a detrimental
effect on individuals
and on society in
general –
underconforming to
what is expected
Normal distribution for this behaviour

8. Positive deviance:
Behaviour that is
outside the norm but
with no intention to
harm or break rules –
overconforming to
what is expected
E.g.
oAn individual who trains or plays so hard they
injure themselves
oBehaviour that can lead to a disruption of normal
life
oPlay when they are injured
Deviance but their actions are for positive reasons:
They are striving to win or to improve within the
ethical guidelines of the activity
Although deviant can be seen in a positive light
Could argue that a player who is striving to win within the rules and etiquette of the
sport and who accidently and without intent injures another player is also exhibiting
positive deviance

9. Negative deviance:
Behaviour that goes
against the norm and
has a detrimental
effect on individuals
and on society in
general –
underconforming to
what is expected
Behaves in a way that knowingly and
intentionally breaks the rules and ethics
of sport
e.g.
Using performance enhancing drugs
Cheating within a contest – deliberately
fouling another player
Being bribed to influence the outcome
of a match
Fan violence or hooliganism
Illegal betting on the outcome of a
contest
Financial irregularities in the
transferring of players
Player violence

10. Relative deviance:
Deviant behaviour that is
not acceptable in wider
society but may be deemed
to acceptable by those
involved in a sub-culture
Some behaviour
acceptable in sport
but not in wider
society? e.g. use of fists in
rugby (hidden in
scrum or
otherwise
Players deem this
acceptable as
long as violence
doesn’t breach an
unwritten limit
BUT gouging
& biting
completely
off limits
Sport often likes
to deal with
things in house
But police less
and less willing to
turn a blind eye

11. Deviance
and the
contract to
compete
Whether or not the behaviour is viewed within a
sporting context is determined by whether or
not it breaks the contract to compete.

12. Don’t strive to win or
try to loose –
negative deviance
Not trying to win fairly
– cheating or
unacceptable physical
contact e.g. biting –
negative deviance
Expected to allow
opponent fair and free
change to win – taking
drugs or bribing an
official does not allow
this –
negative deviance
Using
tactics, strategies and
skills that you use to
stop an opponent
within the
expectations of the
activity –
Relative deviance

13. Concept of relative deviance and the contract to compete are closely linked
Concept increasingly
challenge but the
media and society in
general
Both imply that
somehow sport
exists within its
own moral
subculture

14. Rewards of winning so
great that a large
number of individuals
may be prepared to
cross the line. (May be
particularly true of
positive deviance)
Causes of
deviant
behaviour
Individual lacks
moral restraint to
keep to code of
conduct
Individuals may value
winning above the
loss of respect or
punishment that may
occur
Deviant behaviour may be
becoming less socially
unacceptable and cause less
negative comment than in
the past
NGBs may feel less able to punish due
to power of commercial interests or fear
of being taken to court by performer
who they punish

15. Violence in sport
Violence
between
players
Violence
among
spectators

16. Two ways this generally occurs:
A spontaneous outburst
A premeditated and planned action
Cause of violence between players:
Most violence occurs as an aggressive act – refer to sport psychology notes
In summary, aggressive behaviour may be caused by:
•Innate
•Frustration
•Loss of identity (follow the actions of the crowd)
•Social learning – imitating others
Within some teams they have a well-known characters (enforcers), whose role it is
to physically intimidate the opposition or to act in retaliation on behalf of others
Drugs,
gamesmanship taken too far,
hyping-up, presence of
spectators, unacceptable
aggression,
acts against the law

17. Dealing with
violence
between
players
Responsibility of individual
performers, team managers or
coaches and the NGBs
An NGB may take a range of actions:
•Ensuring that match officials and their
decisions are supported when dealing with
violent behaviour of players
•Punishing players post match
•Being prepared to use post-match video
evidence
•Upholding players with a good disciplinary
record as role models
•Using ‘fair play’ awards to reward clubs with
good disciplinary records
•Training officials in player management and
how to defuse situations between players
NGBs keen to diminish
violence – so sport’s
reputation is not damaged
NGBs like to deal with
violence themselves but
more involvement from
legal system evident

18. Important that leaders, managers,, coaches, captains set a
good example and set the tone for their teams as they have a
great responsibility for player conduct.
To ensure good player behaviour they could:
Set a good example themselves before and during contests
Establish a clear code of conduct and expectations
Criticise or punish players who fail to meet the code of conduct; play
substitutes in their place
Praise or promote those players who set a good example
Where possible, ensure that players who have a low flash point are kept
away from high stress situations
Stress appropriate behaviour in team talks
Understand each individual player’s level of arousal and try to avoid
overarousal
Train players to manage their own level of arousal
Avoid an attitude of winning at all costs.

19. Hooliganism

20. Hooliganism: anti-social or aggressive/violent
behaviour by people in a group of spectators
Suggested causes:
• Fans drink too much alcohol
• Local derby/high tension
between rival fans
• Pre-match media hype
• Poor officiating
• Diminished responsibility
within a large
crowd/depersonalisation
• The team being supported is
losing
• Poor crowd control/poor
policing – crowd confinement
• Religion
Solutions:
• Control alcohol sales
• All seater stadiums
• Improve policing (numbers
increase)/segregation of fans
• Stewards
• Increase family concept
• CCTV
• Penalties/bans
• More responsible media
reporting
• Kick racism out of football
campaign