Sports and crime

SIGNIFICANCE: Once regarded as an unpleasant but normal part of sports, criminal behavior by athletes and fans now receives focused attention by the criminal justice system. Arrests of both athletes and fans for misbehavior on and off the field of play help to illustrate how many of the problems of violent behavior directly related to sport relate to violent problems in other areas of society.

The concept of “sports crime” has no one specific definition but encompasses three main areas of importance: crowd and fan violence, criminal behavior of players outside the field of play, and criminal behavior of players on the field of play. Each of these areas of sport crime presents the criminal justice system with its own specific challenges.

Crowd and Fan Violence

Compared to other countries—particularly in Europe and South America—the United States has relatively law-abiding and peaceful sports fans. However, while the frequency of violent behavior by fans and the severity of fan violence is substantially higher in many other countries, there is enough sport-related crowd and fan violence in the United States to merit considerable attention from the US criminal justice system.

The most common form of crowd violence is fights among fans attending sporting events. While many of these fights are minor in nature and do not escalate beyond verbal arguments, the modern trend appears to be toward greater frequency and higher levels of violence. For example, in 2002 a Massachusetts court convicted a man for the involuntary manslaughter of another man during an argument that arose over the amount of slashing and checking that was occurring during a youth hockey practice in which their sons were participating. Fan violence has become prevalent enough at sporting events that some stadiums, such as Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium, have set up temporary jails during football games to house fans who become overly intoxicated or engage in abusive and violent behavior.

In addition to fans assaulting other fans, there have also been growing numbers of incidents in which fans have assaulted athletes, both on and off the field. A particularly notable instance of fan violence directed toward an athlete occurred in Germany in 1993, when a German fan of tennis star Steffi Graf stabbed tennis star Monica Seles during a tennis match. Violence of that level directed at athletes is almost unknown at US sporting events. Less violent incidents are not uncommon, however. For example, in November, 2004, near-riotous conditions erupted during the midst of a professional basketball game between the Detroit Pistons and the visiting Indian Pacers, when a fan threw an object at a player who responded by jumping into the stands after him. Soon, a large numbers of players and fans were fighting in the stands and on the court. Afterward, a number of arrests were made and several star players received long suspensions.

In 2002, a Chicago White Sox fan and his fifteen-year-old son jumped onto the playing field during a White Sox game with the Kansas City Royals and physically attacked the Royals’ first base coach. That incident attracted national headlines. Earlier, another man had run onto the same field and tackled an umpire for what he regarded as an unfair call against his team. In response to those events, Illinois lawmakers introduced a new law that extended the offense of criminal trespass to places of public amusement, specifically targeting people who illegally enter playing fields, locker rooms, or stages.

Violence at sporting events can also occur at a group level among crowds in what often turn into riotous circumstances before, during, and after games. A form of crowd violence, which has become so common that it is now often expected, occurs during what have been labeled “celebratory riots” by fans of winning teams. Such riots may occur in spectator stands, on playing fields, or outside stadiums. To some extent, they follow old traditions of joyous fans doing such things as pouring onto football fields and tearing down goal posts after important or unexpected victories.

Crowd riots also can occur after losses by home teams. In 1999, for example, after the Michigan State men’s basketball team suffered a loss in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) basketball championship tournament, crowds in East Lansing, Michigan, set sixty-one fires, threw frozen beer cans at police, and caused over $250,000 worth of damage. In response, law-enforcement officers made 132 arrests, of which ten resulted in felony sentences. During the 2005 NCAA basketball tournament, Michigan State was again eliminated in the championship bracket and students in East Lansing again rioted.

Although there is some debate over the specific causes of crowd riots, most research suggests that the events occurring during games have less to do with providing incentives for rioting than the circumstances surrounding the events. In fact, police records show that many rioters arrested after sporting events do not even attend the games that trigger the riots.

Athlete Crimes “Off the Field”

Some of the most celebrated criminal cases in modern US history have involved athletes. The criminal proceedings against such well-known athletes as the late football star O. J. Simpson , boxer Mike Tyson, and the late basketball star Kobe Bryant have attracted the most attention and publicity, but many more cases are disposed of quickly in the courts and receive little attention from the media. Arrests and convictions of both professional and amateur athletes for crimes such as sexual assault, aggravated battery, drug possession and sales, domestic violence, drunk driving, and even homicide no longer have the shocking impact on the public they once had. After Charles Barkley made the controversial statement in a 1993 shoe commercial that children should not view athletes as role models, Americans became more accustomed to seeing athletes charged for criminal offenses.

Although it is not known whether athletes commit crimes at a rate greater or less than that of nonathletes, it is clear that the criminal behavior of athletes has an association with the nature of sports in American society. Research conducted on athletes who engage in criminal behavior off the field of play has found many similarities between the causes of athletes’ criminal behavior and the criminal behavior of nonathletes. More specifically, however, research has found that the specific cultural environment surrounding sports and athletes can contribute to criminal behavior of athletes outside the sporting arena.

For most professional athletes, socialization from an early age often encourages aggressive and violent behavior. From childhood through professional careers, athletes find themselves in a world that puts heavy emphasis on heroic values and winning. The consequent combat sport subculture rarely tolerates losing, even if it means playing “outside the lines” to win. Not only do athletes learn to be aggressive and to win at any cost, but coaches, teammates, and fans also frequently reward the overly aggressive behavior of athletes.

In addition, athletes often are involved in sport cultures in which failing to live up to the expectations of peer groups—such as being masculine and tough—is often punished by receiving less playing time or being ignored by the television media. When athletes carry these values into life outside sports, their illegal behaviors are often ignored or downplayed by many in the community because of admiration for the athletes’ abilities. The resulting lack of punishment leads to a sense of entitlement on the part of athletes who may conclude that their actions, no matter how criminal, have few negative consequences.

In the nineties, the NFL engendered a policy of no involvement for cases of domestic and sexual abuse at the hands of their players. Since then, the NFL has used a policy of suspending players for such behavior, but the organization has come under fire in the 2010s for inconsistent punishments and for continuing to employ players who commit such crimes.

In 2013 one of the most sensationalized sports crime cases in the 2010s began when former star tight end for the New England Patriots, Aaron Hernandez, was indicted on murder charges, as well as several other charges, in two different cases. On June 26, 2013, a warrant was issued for his arrest and the New England Patriots cut him from the team the same day. On April 15, 2015, Hernandez was convicted for the murder in one of the cases, that of the murder of Odin Lloyd.

Former NFL player Brandon Browner was one of the founding members of the Seattle Seahawks' Legion of Boom defense in the early 2010s and played with the winning teams in two Super Bowls, first with the Seahawks in 2013 and then with the New England Patriots in 2014. In 2018, Browner was arrested for breaking into his ex-girlfriend's home and attacking her. He was charged with attempted murder and two counts of child cruelty because her two children were there at the time. He was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Sergio Mitre pitched for four MLB teams from 2003 and 2011, the last being the New York Yankees. He then played with the Mexican Baseball League until 2019. In 2020, he was charged with the murder of his former girlfriend's twenty-two-month-old daughter. Mitre was sentenced to fifty years in prison.

Athlete Crimes “On the Field”

Legal concern with excessive violence in sport in the United States is far from a recent development. As far back in US history as 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt threatened to outlaw, by executive order, the sport of football following a game in which a University of Pennsylvania football player assaulted an opposing player. Roosevelt stated that the player had been beaten to a “bloody pulp.” After Roosevelt’s time, however, threats of criminal and civil litigation against athletes was virtually nonexistent in the United States for more than a half century. The situation changed during the 1970s, when several landmark court cases began to challenge the use of excessive violence in sport and attempted to hold those engaged in such behavior criminally responsible for their violent actions.

The most famous court case occurred in 1975, when David Forbes of the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Boston Bruins “checked” Henry Boucha of the Minnesota North Stars into the boards with his “elbows up.” Boucha retaliated by punching Forbes. Both players were given seven minutes of penalty time, during which they continued arguing. As the players finally left the penalty box to return to their team benches, Forbes followed Boucha and hit him over the head with his hockey stick. After Boucha fell to the ice, Forbes continued his attack and slammed Boucha’s head into the ice. Boucha suffered a fractured eye socket and required twenty-five stitches for facial cuts.

NHL officials concluded that an unprecedented ten-game suspension of Forbes was warranted, but a Minnesota grand jury indicted Forbes for aggravated assault with a dangerous weapon. The jury in Forbes’s criminal trial voted 9 to 3 in favor of conviction, but since it could not reach a unanimous verdict, a mistrial was declared. Forbes was never retried. Interestingly the nine jurors who voted for conviction later stated that their reason for wanting to convict Forbes was that they believed his assault was technically “out of play.” Had the incident occurred during play, they would have been reluctant to convict.

In 2004, the Forbes case remained the only modern American criminal prosecution of an athlete in a major professional league for activity engaged in during a game. However, there have been recent examples of semi-professional players who have been convicted of participant-on-participant violence during games. In addition, other countries such as Canada have had a history of criminally charging and convicting players for actions occurring during professional games. Hockey player Marty McSorley was tried in Vancouver for criminal assault during a game in 2002, and Todd Bertuzzi was also tried in Vancouver for assault in 2004. Both cases received worldwide attention and may eventually have an impact on the criminal justice system in the United States.

Barriers to Prosecuting Violence “On the Field”

The justice system faces many societal pressures when it attempts to charge athletes for criminal assaults during play because of the unique context of sporting events. Many prosecutors hesitate to burden courts with assaults that the public may regard as nonthreatening to public safety. Prosecutors are also concerned that they should be focusing on more “serious” criminals whose behavior better warrants their attention. Moreover, many people fear that holding athletes criminally responsible for overly aggressive actions during play may drastically change sports as they are known. Arguments that athletes should be immune to prosecution for assaults in sports competitions arise from concerns that players may become tentative and lack the intensity required to make games entertaining for spectators.

Lawyers prosecuting sports violence cases face an unusual set of legal obstacles that make logistical aspects of their task more difficult than in other kinds of cases. For example, victims of assaults on the field often do not see themselves as victims and—like many fans—regard their victimization as “part of the game.” Moreover, many athletes view victims of violence in competition who are willing to testify against their attackers as traitors to their teams and place pressure on victims not to testify.

In cases of sports violence, the prosecution must typically prove that the defendants committed assault and battery against their victims with intent to cause harm. It is quite difficult to prove mens rea during sporting events that involve quick decision making and physical contact as integral parts of competition. Prosecutors thus have difficulty proving intent.

Even when intent to cause harm is established, prosecutors must deal with the defense of consent—a special problem in sports because athletes who participate in inherently violent sporting events are, in effect, consenting to the types of physical contact that commonly occur in the events. The question that arises next is the extent of implied consent that athletes give during games. While consent is limited to acts that occur in the ordinary and normal conduct of a game, what constitutes “ordinary and normal conduct” is difficult to define. For example, a professional boxer who enters the ring against an opponent gives consent to be repeatedly punched in the face, within the rules of boxing; however, the boxer does not consent to being repeatedly hit below the belt, because boxing forbids that kind of hitting. Hard body checks in hockey games and hard tackles in football games are almost always considered ordinary parts of those sports and are often not against the rules. However, problems of definition arise when a boxer’s punch, a hockey player’s body check, or a football player’s tackle goes beyond what players consider normal. Examples might include a hockey player’s check on the back of an opponent’s neck using a hockey stick or a football player’s blindside tackle of an opponent who has stepped out of bounds.

Legislative attempts to outlaw excessive violence in sports have generally failed. In 1980, for example, Ohio congressman Ronald Mottl wrote the Sports Violence Act and the Sports Violence Arbitration Act, which intended to “deter and punish through criminal penalties, the episodes of excessive violence that characterize professional sports.” Similarly, Congressman (later Senator) Tom Daschle of South Dakota attempted to introduce a similar bill in 1983 seeking to impose civil law remedies by an arbitration board. Both attempts were unsuccessful.

Bibliography

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Buford, Bill. Among the Thugs. New York: Vintage Books, 1993. Very personal look into British football (soccer) hooligans by an American journalist. Buford followed a group of violent supporters of the Manchester United team to matches throughout Europe and attempted to discover some of the underlying causes of their aggressive behavior. Buford helps readers to distinguish between traditional hooliganism and other forms of crowd violence.

Daignault, Isabelle, Nadine Deslauriers-Varin, and Sylvie Parent. "Profiles of Teenage Athletes' Exposure to Violence in Sport: An Analysis of Their Sport Practice, Athletic Behaviors, and Mental Health." Journal of Interpersonal Violence, vol. 38, no. 11-12, 7 Feb. 2023, pp. 7254-7779, doi.org/10.1177/08862605221148216. Accessed 10 July 2024.

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Feinstein, John, and Terry Adams. The Punch: One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight That Changed Basketball Forever. Boston: Little, Brown, 2002. Discusses an on-the-court incident in a 1977 National Basketball Association game in which Kermit Washington struck opposing player Rudy Tomjanovich and shattered the bones in his face.

Goldstein, Jeffrey H. Why We Watch: The Attractions of Violent Entertainment. London: Oxford University Press, 1998. Attempts to answer the question of why violence in popular entertainments is both appealing and difficult to regulate. Contributors look at the appeal of violence in a wide range of entertainment categories including movies and television. Also contains chapters on sports, children’s toys, and games and even religion.

Messner, Michael, and Donald Sabo. Sex, Violence, and Power in Sports: Rethinking Masculinity. Freedom, Calif.: Crossing Press, 1994. Examines the culture of male sports and its relation to concepts of masculinity. Messner and Sabo investigate the ways racism, sexism, and homophobia on the part of athletes can result in violent consequences.

Tatum, Jack. They Call Me Assassin. New York: Avon Books, 1980. Controversial unrepentant memoir by a former professional defensive football star who is most remembered for a hit on receiver Darryl Stingley in 1978 that left the latter permanently paralyzed.