Mike Hartill – författare

The safeguarding of children and young people participating in sport has become an increasingly prominent concern in policy-making and research communities around the world. Major organisations such as the IOC and UNICEF now officially recognize that children in sport can be at risk of exploitation and abuse, and this concern has led to the emergence of new initiatives and policies aimed at protecting vulnerable young people and athletes. This book is the first to comprehensively review contemporary developments in child protection and safeguarding in sport on a global level.

The book is divided into two parts. Part One critically analyses current child protection and safeguarding policy and practice in sport across a range of countries, including the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, China and Germany, providing a global context for current policy and practice. This represents the most comprehensive review to date of the landscape of child protection and safeguarding in sport and provides a starting point for critical international comparisons. Part Two explores a range of issues related to child protection and safeguarding in sport, including many not covered in previous books, such as emotional abuse, injury and over-training. While in many instances the impetus for policy in this area has arisen from concerns about sexual abuse, the second part of this book therefore opens up a broader, more holistic approach to child and athlete welfare.

By bringing together many of the leading researchers working in child and athlete protection in sport from around the world, this book is important reading for all advanced students, researchers, policy-makers or practitioners working in youth sport, physical education, sports coaching, coach education or child protection.

The safeguarding of children and young people participating in sport has become an increasingly prominent concern in policy-making and research communities around the world. Major organisations such as the IOC and UNICEF now officially recognize that children in sport can be at risk of exploitation and abuse, and this concern has led to the emergence of new initiatives and policies aimed at protecting vulnerable young people and athletes. This book is the first to comprehensively review contemporary developments in child protection and safeguarding in sport on a global level.

The book is divided into two parts. Part One critically analyses current child protection and safeguarding policy and practice in sport across a range of countries, including the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, China and Germany, providing a global context for current policy and practice. This represents the most comprehensive review to date of the landscape of child protection and safeguarding in sport and provides a starting point for critical international comparisons. Part Two explores a range of issues related to child protection and safeguarding in sport, including many not covered in previous books, such as emotional abuse, injury and over-training. While in many instances the impetus for policy in this area has arisen from concerns about sexual abuse, the second part of this book therefore opens up a broader, more holistic approach to child and athlete welfare.

By bringing together many of the leading researchers working in child and athlete protection in sport from around the world, this book is important reading for all advanced students, researchers, policy-makers or practitioners working in youth sport, physical education, sports coaching, coach education or child protection.

International attention on the abuse and exploitation of children and athletes in sport and its prevention has never been higher, as more cases of child abuse in sport have emerged across the globe in recent years. While there have been many developments in research, policy, and practice in this area, we are not yet close to putting an end to endemic child abuse within some sport environments.

Against this dynamic landscape, this edited collection is a timely critical reflection on this field, its trajectory, and contemporary developments within it. The chapters are theoretically informed, sociological analyses of abuse, violence, and exploitation of children in sport that critically interrogate the social and cultural terrain in which these interpersonal violations occur. Elucidating deeper understanding of the problem of child abuse in sport and the various responses to it, both academic and policy-based, the collection uses a critical sociological lens and various distinct theoretical lenses to provide the conceptual tools to problematise the practice and administration of youth sport.

Engaging critically with the topic, the authors identify weaknesses, limitations, and omissions within current scholarship, thereby – individually and collectively – providing an agenda for future research in this field. Child Abuse in Sport serves as an essential resource for sociology of sport students and researchers in this field, providing a state-of-the-art review of an urgent and rapidly growing area of sport scholarship and governance.