Introduction
Paradoxically, sports play a crucial role in violence prevention rather than just being an emphasis on athletic skills and physical fitness. What role do sports play in preventing health threatening behaviour or delinquency? Sports can equip the youth with emotional and social skills (Young, p. 130) _ by and large, sports provide a diversion of energy for the youths who are likely to engage in violence. As a matter of fact, it keeps the youth out of trouble by being off the streets. On the other hand, sports impart values such as positive approaches towards competition and teamwork that play crucial roles in kick starting the careers of many youths. Sports have proven to be effective in improving self-efficacy, self-esteem, self-confidence, moral values, emotional regulation, social skills, work ethic and physical fitness (Miller et al, p. 108).
In this study, we identify child abuse, domestic violence and gang violence as the types of violence that sports focuses on reducing and/or preventing. Intervention largely emanates from characteristics of perpetrators and victims that have been observed over time_ there has emerged a multidisciplinary approach to monitoring and measuring of violence. As a matter of fact, violence is indeed premised on appropriate infrastructure that focuses on prevention. For example, a community may organize a basketball tournament that targets youths living in group homes or housing projects in their quest to prevent gang related violence. As an embraced culture in sportsmanship, there was no issue on the court when it came to the usual punching and/or shoving. However, these events have not been successful especially with regard to finding professional athletes who reflect good morals since a host of these individuals have been found culpable for violence, especially against women (Jewkes, p.1580).
Sports as useful tools for imparting life skills
Ironically, reduction and prevention of deviant behavior has been attributed to sports especially in urban areas that are poverty stricken though competition limits these opportunities only to the most gifted (McMahon, p. 115). Consequently, sports educators use sports to inculcate interpersonal and emotional benefits in imparting life skills that can help those who are most gifted as well as those who don’t reach the professional level. This means that life skills should be the main aim of sports since it incorporates the cognitive and behavioral tools that entail success such as effective decision making, anger management and anticipating for the future_ largely, these life skills can be applied in other domains of life. Conversely, professional athletes have a role to play in that they have a duty to be good role models through qualities they possess on the road to success in life and sports (Miller et al, p. 109).
The al-risk youths and sports
Disruption of social order has most often been linked with youths (Lyndon, p.377); it is at this juncture that sports has been used to constructively socialize them and constrain violence and deviant behaviour among them. This is true especially in societies where the youth have been identified as threats and/or problems to society. The focus is particularly on changing the personal behaviors and characteristics of these youths to enable them escape their immediate disruptive environment in the same economic and social system. In addition, the focus is mainly on improving self esteem and empowering the youth to move from individuals who are marked as persons in need of socialization and control to responsible youth with proper lifestyles and character. As expected, most of these youths are from ethnic minority backgrounds and low income regions (Jewkes, p.1580).
Dolescents and violence preventiona
Violence prevention is a byproduct of physical activities and sports_ it entails activities that steer the youth away from risky behavior and trouble through programs that impart life skills aimed at development of pro-social behaviors and reduction of vandalism (Miller et al, p. 758). Sports act as catalyst for traditional and social cohesion. For example, the British football club Liverpool FC has in the past held campaigns aimed at reducing, truancy, promoting coaching and quit smoking programs. These programs have been found to have explicit or implicit prevention of violence outcomes. In the recent past, sports have shown potential in prevention of violence among communities and groups alike. By and large, the prevention of violence entails a social context that is largely supportive as well as appropriate and accessible activities. For example, a sport that entails survival in the wilderness dubbed Spectrum in the United States has been used to control an experimental group of adolescents with the program reporting a 20% reduction of arrests of adolescents that had participated in violence (McMahon, p. 116). These programs consisted of sports that were either group or solo survival expeditions.
