Review of Chapter 8 Sport and Crime

 Chapter 8 Conclusion (Even) further towards a critical criminology of sport

Clearly I agree with their contention that their book, like mine, offers a critical criminological take on sport and second that criminology gains from such an engagement.

They suggest some emerging lines of enquiry (my numbering and apologies if I have missed one):

first the overlap with green criminologies (see Wilson and Millington, 2020);

second the growing penetration of the ‘Global South’ by mega-sports events;

third the ongoing and growing surveillance involved in sex-testing and ‘gender verification’;

fourth surveillance of fans and athletes in various ways which the Covid pandemic has exacerbated with its own legacy.

They conclude that there is an ‘intriguing and potentially rewarding challenge for scholars of criminology and sport alike’.

In their book they have advanced a critical criminology of sport with some intensive case studies. Mine was more focussed on arguing there was a pitch on which us criminologists might play (or frolic).

I agree with their hopes but would want to specifically add a critical engagement with trafficking and slavery to studies of mega-events and of the ‘Global South’.

If evaluations of sport as cure or cause of crime/violence are made these are broad-based and take account of wider structural issues as well as individuals.

All in all I’m very happy to have handed the baton to Millward et al so - like the clapped out old ‘father’ Avi Brisman has identified me as - I might shower off and retire to the stands to cheer on the next runners.