Gender relations and sexual exploitation in sport.

My early publications were on aspects of gender relations in sport [Refs. 18, 17 & 16], reflecting my interests as a feminist teacher and activist. I continued to publish with colleagues in the broad field of gender relations in sport and leisure, in particular using feminist perspectives to inform analyses of leadership and coaching [Refs. 14,8, 6 & 2]. Understanding of the processes of sex discrimination in sporting organisations led me to examine further the conceptually linked issues of harassment and abuse in sport, at a time when there was virtually no literature on this [Ref. 15]. This first international refereed article on the subject was a literature review, and preceded my entry into fieldwork. Since the late 1980s I have pioneered the development of theoretical models of risk for sexual exploitation in sport, using both qualitative research with former abused athletes, and quantitative and policy research with sports personnel and national governing bodies [Refs. 10 & 11]. Throughout this work, I have adopted a multidisciplinary approach, drawing together material from sociology, psychology, philosophy, gender and sport studies, clinical and reflexive perspectives [Ref.7]. I was the first researcher to put forward a set of risk factors for sexual exploitation in sport, based on inductive research [Ref. 12], and also proposed an original model of a sex offending cycle in sport [Ref. 12, summarised in Ref. 4]. I conducted the first ever study of parents' role in protecting children from abuse in sport [Ref. 9]. I have researched the child protection policy process in the voluntary and public sectors and have used this to inform professional development work for Sport England, sports coach UK/NCF and the Council of Europe [Refs. 3, 5 & 13]. My book [Ref. 1] is a synthesis of all my previous research, representing a state-of-the-art review of theory, policy and practice in the fields of child abuse and protection in sport. Ch. 7 proposes an original Contingency Model of Sexual Exploitation, based on multiple case analysis, which should enable sport organisations to develop more effective risk management strategies.