Essay On Deviance In Sport

It would be remiss to ignore the fact that deviance among both players and officials continue to be a pernicious problem in the governance of contemporary sport. Contemporary sport is considered to be sport from the second half of the 20th century which is the period in which there was first an inkling and then the realization of the fact that international sport had became globalised. Ideally, sport advocates for many of the character traits that society desires including fairplay, sportsmanship, hard work, dedication toward a desired goal and compliance to authority. Unfortunately, sport is no longer considered a social institution where all individuals adhere to social or cultural norms but rather deviant behaviour. Deviance occurs when
This is because forms and causes of deviance in sports are so diverse that no single theoretical approach can be employed to explain all of them, especially when athletes are allowed and even encouraged to behave in manner that is prohibited or defined as criminal in other settings (e.g. boxing, racing). Within sport, deviance involves violating the rules of a game or organization, going beyond commonly accepted definitions of fair play and sportsmanship, and intentionally using illegal means to intimidate or injure an opponent (Eitzen 1988). These acts can be done through the means of on the field, off the field, performance enhancing drug use among athletes and illegal and pathological gambling. Since there has been a greater emphasis on commercialisation and bureaucratisation of sport, there is greater pressure on athletes and teams to win and earn a profit given the rules implemented or further amended. This typically increases
In his framework, conformity exists when beliefs are compatible with established cultural goals or values and actions are compatible with institutionalized norms and roles. Merton believed that strain was a condition that existed permanently in certain societies, such as the United States. Merton viewed the U.S. as a dysfunctional society because it places an over-emphasis on the cultural goal of economic success. He stated that American society provided many appropriate, legitimate or institutionalized means for attaining the success goal for a majority of the people of society. However, Merton argued that everyone is not equally endowed with desire or opportunity to reach the success goal. He believed that when certain members of society become frustrated and feel a strain that they cannot attain the cultural desired goals legitimately, they turn to illegitimate means of getting ahead. Thus, Merton believed that deviance was a result of the social strain that anomie created. For instance, an NBA player who has the goal of averaging 30 points per game in one season but fails to do so may decide to take performance-enhancing drugs in order to achieve that goal. Also, people engage in a form of deviance Merton called ‘innovation’ when they acknowledge established cultural goals and values, such as winning in