Sport Policy and Development- Discuss the Relationship Between Sport and Crime Reduction and Critically Assess the Benefits/Limitations That Sport Presents in Achieving Positive Results.

Sport Policy and Development- Summative 1
Discuss the relationship between sport and crime reduction and critically assess the benefits/limitations that sport presents in achieving positive results.

In this piece of literature there will be an in depth discussion of the complicated relationship between sport and crime. There will be a lot of focus on the debate of whether sport plays a positive role in crime reduction in society, and in what ways sport can be used as a method to lower crime in society. This essay will endeavour to critically examine both the benefits and limitations of sport to achieve positive results in reducing crime in society.

The fact is that crime in society isn’t a straight forward issue, it is extremely complex. In this section there will be an assessment of the reasons for why sport is believed to either reduce or influence crime.
There are multiple theories to suggest that sport can be used in society as a mechanism to produce a positive influence over crime in all areas of society.

There are many theories for why communities see a reduction in criminal activities when good sports policies are implemented and carried out. One of the theories for this was explored in Mutz and Baur` investigation in 2009 into youths’ involvement in conflict and violence and the role of sport in preventing it. They wrote about the crime opportunity theory, they said that offenders often act “in a purposive and instrumental- rational manner insofar as they evaluate the cost and benefit that might accompany an offence in a given situation.” In other words the perceived likelihood of detection and the effected severity of the punishment define the cost of a crime. They go on to say that the presence of people significantly reduces the likelihood of crimes being committed. This theory has been used to prove that sport can reduce crime, particularly in youths. It is evident to see that deviant actions are dramatically reduced in the presence of

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