Citation

Mutz M, Baur J. Int. J. Sport Pol. 2009; 1(3): 305-321.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/19406940903265582

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Youth involvement in conflict and violence is a frequent problem in Germany as well as in many European countries. The European Commission's White Paper on Sport presumes that sport participation might be of help in preventing adolescents from delinquency and violence. It further claims that social norms inherent in the world of sport (e.g. fair play, team spirit) might foster pro-social behaviour patterns and help reduce aggressiveness among juveniles (Commission of the European Communities 2007). This article challenges that assumption by confronting it with German data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). On the theoretical level, the paper explicates different mechanisms of how sport participation might influence violent behaviour patterns. On the empirical level, the article examines the relationship between the involvement in club-organised sport activities and violent behaviour patterns among 15-year-old German adolescents. Overall, the results suggest that sport activities do not automatically prevent violence. Using logistic regression analysis, we found that sex, education, social background, immigrant background, family violence, media violence and peer-group attitudes all had a significant effect on violent behaviour, while sport club membership and participation in volunteer organisations were shown to be non-significant in this model. The concluding remarks of this paper discuss theoretical and policy implications of these findings.