Addressing Violence Before It Happens

There it was! Security video of a Florida State football player, underage and in a bar, punching a woman. The sickening sight was played countless times over various social media outlets. The player was dismissed from the team, later offering an apology to broadcast interviewer Michael Strahan which included the nonchalant comment, “I totally should have walked away.”

This is just one of a plethora of examples of violence against women demonstrated by college athletes. The issue is not going away for university athletic directors, nor is it something just occurring near college campuses.  Research conducted by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and reported in a 2014 New York Times article, shows there is concern with younger teens as well.

Using data collected from over 1,600 Northern California high school athletes for another study, the researchers found 276 male students (freshman through senior) to be involved in a type of relationship abuse. “Boys who had hypermasculine attitudes were three times as likely to have recently abused their female dating partners,” said researcher Heather McCauley. Additional information revealed males playing both football and basketball were twice as likely to commit abuse while males only football were 50 percent more likely to abuse a dating partner.



College administrators would no doubt benefit from addressing the issue of ‘athlete violence’ at the high school age, but they have little control over a portion of the solution.  Awareness programs are available from a number of resources, and college athletic directors need to take advantage of these services. This is not the time for a reactionary response. Far too many administrators will not address the issue until it happens on their campus. Just as coaches teach fundamentals and tactics to their athletes in an aggressive manner, so too must be the approach to curtailing violent behaviors of athletes.

Here are a few of the organisations and options available to help curb violence before it happens:

Child Welfare League of America – A coalition of hundreds of private and public agencies, the focus of which is to promote safe families through reaching ‘at risk’ children. The idea is to bring successful strategies to family units, especially those with adults showing patterns of violence against women.

Futures Without Violence – Largely responsible for getting Congress to pass 1994’s Violence Against Women Act, this group has specific programs geared toward student-athletes and the upturn in violence. FWV does not limit its cause to women’s violence issues and has other programs to advance the health and security of everyone worldwide.

Institute of Domestic Violence in the African American Community – Awareness and action are at the forefront of this service which is connected to the University of Minnesota. Assistance is available for African American neighborhoods under a consistent threat of violence.

Stop Violence Against Women – This project of The Advocate for Human Rights organization has clear guidelines on its website for developing a training program, setting goals and objectives of an individual group’s plan, advice on picking a facilitator, how to train others, etc.

With a little research and preparation, athletic directors can set a plan of action to aggressively combat this nationwide problem before another incident arises – possibly on their own campus.