Sexual harassment in elite sport

In many countries, sport is officially recognized as having an important social function and as a powerful cultural force (e.g., Australian Sports Commission 2012). Through participation in sport people learn attitudes, behaviors and social norms, and while it is commonly assumed that such outcomes will be positive, there is an increasing body of evidence to suggest that sport exerts a negative influence. For example, a summary of the research evidence (Liston et al. 2017) shows that sporting environments are places where violence against women can occur directly, and also indirectly through the entrenching of violence-supportive attitudes and behaviors. In this chapter, we examine sexual harassment in elite sport. While this is a prevalent and serious issue, there has been relatively little research on the topic