ABSTRACT
Sports often parallel and reflect the society in which they are played. In fact, sport performance and achievement are often measured by the level of violence. An issue related to violence in the context of organized sports is hazing. Attitudes toward violence in sport differ from attitudes toward violence outside the sporting realm. Leaders in both sport and society struggle with locating the point of acceptability on the violence spectrum. Historically, the courts have rarely been called upon to determine the outcome of disputes involving violence by sports participants. Most civil cases that have made their way to the judicial system involved claims of negligence. Criminal prosecutions of on-the-field acts of violence face the same difficulties— inherent in the assumption of the risk doctrine—as civil suits. Canadian courts seem more inclined to apply criminal laws to sport violence cases. The Sports Violence Act of 1980 would have criminalized "excessive violence" by participants in professional sports.
