Characteristics and circumstances of sexual violence in sport from different perspectives

During the last year, sexual violence in sport has gained more and more public attention, especially because of the assaults in US gymnastics, but also due to incidents in several European countries. Nevertheless, research based knowledge about the characteristics and circumstances of sexual violence in sport is still scarce. Therefore, the aim of the symposium is to give more insight into this relatively new area of research from different perspectives: The first presentation will give deeper insight into the personality and characteristics of offenders in sport from different qualitative and quantitative studies, in order to better understand pathways to sexual offending in sport. In the second presentation, the focus will still be on the offenders of sexual violence: different groups of offenders (coaches vs. peer athletes) will be compared regarding the characteristics of the sexual violence incidents and the consequences of the experiences in the offended persons. In the third presentation, the center of attention will be shifted to the survivors of sexual violence in sport: based on in-depth interviews with survivors, the socio-cultural structures of sexual violence in sport, including the relevance of gender relations and the selection processes and disciplining regimes in sport will be examined. The last contribution will present a new initiative in the UK, which activists with a lived experience of sexual abuse in sport have undertaken to engage directly with the sport sector with the aim of improving its response to child abuse.