Criminology, Leisure and Sport

This book takes a critical look at how leisure and sport intersect with crime and harm. Bringing together leading scholars in criminology, sociology, sport science, social work and psychology, it shows how recreational and elite sporting spaces can foster prosocial development but also generate significant social inequalities and injustices.

Through diverse empirical cases - including sexual abuse in sport, environmental harms at mega-events, performance enhancing drugs, athlete criminality, organised crime, deviant fandom, policing, rehabilitation and desistance - the book provides readers with an analytically rich framework for understanding sport and leisure as dynamic areas where power, inequality, harm and social transformation converge. The book’s interdisciplinary approach equips researchers, practitioners and students with unique insights into the issues and transformative potential of these domains.

Timely, authoritative and globally relevant, this book is essential reading for scholars and students in criminology, sociology of sport, leisure studies, sports science and social policy, as well as practitioners working in youth justice, community sport, safeguarding, and sport-based interventions more broadly.