Athletic Violence Against Women
This is an excerpt from the paper...
Athletes who beat their wives are part of the bigger picture of spousal abuse in the U.S.; the O.J. Simpson case has brought wife abuse by athletes to center stage in the national discussion of what some feminists are even terming a national epidemic. The fact that violent sports such as football contribute to male athletes' aggression will be examined, as well as the general factors contributing to wife abuse. It will be seen that cases of wife abuse ignite mass outrage, yet the topic fades from the national debate unless it becomes re-ignited by the celebrity status of the perpetrators. All wife abuse (the abuse is almost exclusively one directional) is cause for alarm and immediate intervention, yet because of factors of fear and secrecy, many cases go unreported. While only those cases which make the evening news seem to grab public attention, two million women are beaten every year--one every 16 seconds (Cowley, 1994, p. 26). The following questions will be considered: who is at risk, why does violence escalate, and when should a woman fear for her life? Where can women go for intervention and support? For the purposes of discussion, wife abuse may mean abuse directed toward a wife, girlfriend, or one-night-stand. It will become apparent that the issue of "date rape" (primarily focused on our nation's campuses) is also part of the "spouse," or "wife," abuse discussion, for an obvious reason: the same prevalent societal values which lead to abuse of any kind a
. . .
ge campus as future training ground for life in general, there appear a disproportionate number of allegations of sexual assault involving athletes or fraternity members (Johnson, 1991, p. 34).
Johnson (1991) gives some statistics which quantify the issue of athlete violence against women on campus:
Even under some of the narrower definitions of date rape, athletes and fraternity members consistently show up as offenders. A 1990 national survey of more than 12,000 students by the Campus Violence Prevention Center at Maryland's Towson State University found that about half of all reported acquaintance rapes were committed by frat members and athletes. And a 1986 survey of some 200 college police departments and rape counselors by the Philadelphia Daily News found that athletes were reported for raping a student once every 18 days on average and that they were nearly 40 percent more likely to be reported for rape than the average male on campus. (The latter figure is conservative; it covers only reported cases and presumes that all reported campus rapes were committed by students, not by off-campus perpetrators.) (p. 34)
Athletes maintain an exalted status on campus, in part explaining their feelings of self-power over others.
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
OJ Simpson, Nicole Simpson's, Yes Johnson's, Syracuse University, Laurence Phillips, African Americans, Supreme Court, Brown Simpson, Philadelphia Daily, Domestic Violence, johnson 1991, wife abuse, cowley 1994, cowley 1994 26, 1994 26, date rape, domestic violence, rapping 1994, laurence phillips, marano 1993, nicole brown, athlete violence women, nicole brown simpson,
Approximate Word count = 2217
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
More Essays on Athletic Violence Against Women
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
