Sport has long held a special place in the affections of western industrial societies. This status has protected sport from critical scrutiny and meant that social inequalities and other problems, such as sexual harassment and abuse, have all-too-often been ignored or tacitly condoned. Further, general research on institutional sex offending has been much slower to develop than individual, pathological analyses. There is reason to believe that sport research could contribute to a wider understanding of institutional abuse. But for that to happen there needs to be a concerted effort by both sport and non-sport researchers to share their work more often and more openly.

This book draws on the contributions to a Symposium on ‘Sexual Harassment in Sport: Challenges for Sport Psychology in the New Millennium’, held at the Xth Congress of the International Society for Sport Psychology, held in Greece in June 2001. The symposium was intended to move forward the international research agenda on sexual harassment and abuse in sport and, in particular, to examine professional practice issues for sport psychologists.

The sport-based researchers whose work is reported here bring many different approaches to this work. It is their hope that this book will take this work to a wider audience, both to increase awareness of sexual abuse in extra-familial settings and to attract critical interest in the sharing of research perspectives between those working inside and outside sport.

Sexual Harassment and Abuse in Sport is also available through the North American booktrade at US$75.00.

Sexual harassment and abuse in sport: The research context
Celia Brackenridge and Kari Fasting
Prevalence of sexual abuse in organised competitive sport in Australia
Trisha Leahy, Grace Pretty and Gershon Tenenbaum
Coping with sexual harassment in sport: Experiences of elite female athletes
Kari Fasting, Celia Brackenridge and Kristin Walseth
Running the gauntlet: An examination of initiation/hazing and sexual abuse in sport
Sandra Kirby and Glen Wintrup
Sexual harassment of women in athletics vs academia
Karin Volkwein, Frauke Schnell, Shannon Devlin, Michele Mitchell and Jennifer Sutera
Defining appropriateness in coach-athlete sexual relationships: The voice of coaches
Joy Bringer, Celia Brackenridge and Lynne Johnston
The Child Protection in Sport Unit
Steve Boocock
Reflections on the special issue on sport: implications for education and professional practice
Carole Oglesby
Review essay: Three books on sexual harassment and abuse in sport
Keith Lyons
plus extensive bibliography, list of websites and other resources

Celia Brackenridge Kari Fasting