Cultures of Sport Hazing and Anti-Hazing Initiatives for the 21st Century: Volume 23

With the opportunity to co-author this chapter, we chose to trace the arc of sport hazing by situating ourselves both under and outside its shadow over the last 25+ years. When reading through our individual narratives, you will learn of our personal experiences with hazing in sport in both Canada and the United States of America, narrated from different points in our sport history and from our vantages while embodying different roles. We draw on research, practical experience, history and narrative to unpack and present where we have been and where we believe we are going with regards to this aspect of sport culture. We reflect on the societal changes that form the contextual background of those decades as well as personal changes that impacted our perspective, drawing on cultural touchstones as points of reference. All of this provides the foundation of our stories. Of particular note, there has been a stream of events cascading across the globe that have had an amplifying effect for voices calling for social change, both in and outside the culture of sport. These events included the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter (BLM) movements and the COVID-19 pandemic. This chapter weaves together our personal, professional and academic journeys that have led us on our joined path to interrogate and eradicate hazing in sport.

Martial arts and combat sports (MACS) are supported on ritualistic practices which often encompass hazing creating environments where catastrophic masculinities prevail. These forms of masculinities are strengthened inside MACS’ world resonating with masculinities spread out in wider society. We consider this to be the situation found in Brazilian society. With this study, our aim is to analyse how hazing practices in MACS contribute to the production of a socially legitimised catastrophic masculinity in Brazil. Catastrophic masculinity appears as a new concept proposed by Andrade (2022) to define a hegemonic, toxic and tragic form of masculinity spread in Brazil attached to a political power project. We carried out two qualitative empirical pieces of research that focused on three martial arts. These were ethnographic (participant-) observations of various events, training sessions, belt examination and competition and interviews with men participants. Supported by the presented data, we argue that hazing practices end up acting as a means of reproducing the catastrophic masculinity fighters perform in the dojo. They learn and resonate with a pedagogy that requires them to conform to and follow hierarchies through the repetition of the word ‘oss’ as a symbol of submission to arbitrariness. Hazing constitutes, instantiates and reproduces catastrophic masculinity and originates in the same (social) catastrophic masculinity.

This study sought to explore the understanding and experiences of hazing of seven Black men, 18–25 years of age, who attended all-boys ex-Model C schools in South Africa to describe what it might reveal about masculinities and cultural heteronormativity. This study aims to understand the institutional culture of boys' high schools including sport and the factors that inform, produce and reproduce heteronormative culture. This study used a retrospective ethnographic method of inquiry to explore participants' memories of their experiences and perceptions about the initiation/hazing they were subjected to during their school years. As points of entry into the extensive and broad theoretical discussions, I discuss hazing in sports, institutional culture and heteronormative ideals that have shaped the narratives around hazing in boys' schools, as well as the racial issues that exist within these structures. This illustrates how the issue of hazing is a systematic one that relies heavily on the reproduction of a system based on values and ideals that continue to be perpetuated and are reflected here.

There is little doubt that sport is an integral part of the social, political and economic fabric of countries worldwide. Governments allocate significant resources for sport governing bodies in the quest to be well represented at Olympic Games; they subsidise sport organisations for sport development at local, regional and national levels; they give tax breaks to corporate sport organisations. These represent a small sample in the ways by which governments ‘participate’ in the advancement of sport with the intent of increasing their local and global profile. However, the quest for this image can serve as a barrier to challenging traditions that expose a dark side of sport. This chapter acknowledges that hazing is one of these traditions. The protection of a desired image further adds to the complexities of dealing with hazing at a legislative level since the preponderance of sport hazing is in the more commercialised sports such as hockey, football and basketball (Fogel & Quinlan, 2023). The purpose of this chapter will be to provide samples of worldwide legislation, a determination of effectiveness and an analysis of potential for legislative value when applied to sport.

In 2020, former Major Junior hockey players filed a lawsuit against the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), its three regional affiliates and each of their teams. The statement of claim (Carcillo v. CHL, 2020) alleges rampant institutionalised and systemic abuse shaped by a toxic environment that enables abuse, discrimination and other harmful conduct to continue. In response, the CHL commissioned an independent review panel (Thériault et al., 2020) to investigate the abuse allegations. The panel concluded that the culture in the CHL has allowed abusive practices to become a cultural norm. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an understanding of player perceptions of hazing in the context of an environment that is typically understood as hypermasculine to the point of enabling abuse and the vitiation of consent. Drawing on a content analysis of affidavits from the Carcillo lawsuit as well as semi-structured qualitative interviews we conducted with former CHL players, we discuss the findings that suggest that CHL teams and leagues have often fostered a culture that can facilitate dangerous hazing practices for which consent is not always authentically obtained.

This chapter examines sexually violent hazing as a form of group sexual assault, which involves multiple perpetrators in a single sexually violent act, in the context of junior men's hockey in Canada. Research outside of the context of sport suggests that group sexual assaults are relatively rare. However, available evidence suggests that the prevalence of group sexual assaults perpetrated by male junior hockey players is significantly disproportionate to perpetration rates by men who do not participate in competitive sports. Drawing on examples from junior men's hockey in Canada, three main forms of group sexual assault are identified and explored in which multiple male junior hockey players have been reported for sexually assaulting: (1) new male team members through sexually violent hazing rituals, (2) female victims during team rookie nights or initiation parties and (3) a single female victim away from team activities. The data analysed include media files and written legal decisions involving group sexual assault allegations against 65 Canadian junior men's hockey players. This chapter reveals that each form is interconnected within the misogynistic culture of junior men's hockey in Canada, where group sexual assaults have long been tolerated, silenced and ignored by teams, leagues and legal officials.

This chapter reviews literature on hazing and hazing prevention specific to university athletics, with an emphasis on US and Canadian contexts. A synthesis of studies related to the nature and extent of student-athlete hazing and gender, sexuality and hazing is shared followed by a summary of public health-based approaches to hazing prevention and athlete-specific hazing prevention strategies.

Since Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) was signed into law, the landscape of sport in the United States has changed dramatically, not only in terms of sport participation rates for girls and women but also increased levels of support, sponsorship, viewership, competition and media coverage. While educational institutions were slow to develop and implement policies to comply with Title IX, decades later, girls' and women's sports have shown clear signs of having reaped the benefits of the law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex or gender in educational programmes receiving federal funding. As girls' and women's participation in scholastic and collegiate sport has grown, however, so too have reported incidents and public exposure of harmful hazing activities among female athletes. The purpose of this chapter is to examine hazing practices in girls' and women's sports, including the perspectives of female athletes and the broader community. Based on quantitative and qualitative survey data, interviews with college female athletes and public responses to hazing reports in the media, this chapter presents an analysis of hazing in girls' and women's sports 40+ years post-Title IX. Findings showed mixed opinions about the dangers and perceived utility of hazing ceremonies, highlighted athletes' ideas to promote positive team interactions in lieu of hazing and considered the impact of contemporary social and cultural shifts on athletes' ability and willingness to speak out against hazing and other forms of violence and abuse in sports.

With social media use on the rise and little indication that sport team hazing ceremonies are declining, the amount and types of exposure and awareness of hazing and its potentially detrimental impacts are shifting for athletes, the public and school administrators alike. This chapter describes relationships between hazing in sport and social media use in university athletics. These two areas of research have been investigated separately but warrant a closer examination to understand how they are intertwined. In this analysis, we include findings from our larger national-scale sport hazing study that produced a second stream of data specific to social media use. Data are derived from interviews with university athletic directors, coaches and athletes to spotlight: (1) uses of social media in the context of athletics, (2) their understanding of social media's relationship to hazing and (3) experiences with social media and hazing education. We also present recommendations provided by the researchers, and athletes, coaches and athletic directors, for athletic administration use in developing educational and informational resources that address the interconnections between social media use and hazing. This chapter describes how athletic departments and coaches perceived and (dis)engaged from discussions around social media, the ways that university athletes and teams engaged in hazing practices, the diversified and multiple uses of social media on teams differing by gender, highlighting a (lack) of educational programming provided for athletes by their university athletic departments centred around social media use and sport hazing as both separate and interconnected topics.

Amidst all of the prestige and tradition of college athletics, there exists an ugly underside of hazing. Hazing, generally defined as any forced act that may result in harm as a condition to become a part of a group, has been a part of colleges and universities, including college athletics, for decades. This qualitative study explores the ways in which peer leaders and team captains can impact their athletic team environment, especially within the context of hazing. Participants were swimmers and water polo players at two large west coast universities.

The findings of my study indicated that several factors were influential in understanding an athletic team's relationship to hazing. The dynamic of the team, the role and effectiveness of the team captain and the way in which formal and informal educational efforts are designed all emerged as significant. From these influential factors, several recommendations emerged to address hazing in athletics. Most notably, by harnessing the potential of peer leadership, especially the team captain position, educators can design an approach to significantly reduce hazing from college athletics.

Hazing, a practice where existing group members subject newcomers to humiliation, embarrassment or abuse, is often perceived as either violent or harmless fun. Regardless of its nature, all forms of hazing carry a significant risk of harm. The dual-factor model of mental health provides a framework for understanding this harm. This model posits that mental health and mental illness, while related, are not identical. In other words, individuals need more than just the absence of mental illness to thrive; they also require positive mental health. This chapter seeks to apply the dual-factor model to the context of hazing. It will first introduce the model of mental health, followed by an exploration of how violent hazing can potentially lead to mental illness. It will also examine how hazing, even when perceived as harmless fun, can result in languishing mental health. This chapter will conclude with recommendations and strategies to foster safe and caring organisational environments. The goal is to create spaces where all members can participate and flourish without the fear of harm, thereby promoting both individual and collective well-being.

What is the purpose of hazing? Why does it continue to happen? How can we enact change? Despite a wealth of research on hazing – documenting the detrimental effects, analysing prevalence, trends and causes, as well as suggesting steps to prevent hazing – there remains a disconnect between anti-hazing research, messages and online resources and the delivery and implementation of anti-hazing information and work in communities. Ignited by waves of sport activism and social justice movements globally, not only is greater attention being paid to long-established cultures of violence and abuse in sport and society, but victims are finding their voice and collective strength to expose perpetrators of violence and hold them accountable. Indeed, we are witnessing positive cultural shifts that challenge many of the ideological norms and values traditionally used to rationalise hazing behaviours. Deep change of this magnitude requires serious investment in thoughtfully developing strategies to: optimise educational efforts, expose infractions, enforce rules, hold policymakers, team leaders and athletics personnel accountable, open lines of communication for reporting and addressing instances of hazing as well as listening to athletes' voices in promoting positive team building experiences. Successfully making these investments is key for making progress towards protecting athletes from cultures of violence and harm.