The sport-gender-violence triad: an analysis of analyses from the 1980s until 2019

By reviewing social science researchers’ ways of utilising the triad of sport, gender, and violence, this article aims to identify variations, changes, and continuities over time in how these three elements are understood. Collected through searches in two data bases, the ten most cited articles from each decade since the 1980s were analysed. Results show that a critical perspective on men and masculinity was accentuated in the 1980s and, since the late 1990s, research showing a causal connection between sports participation and violence has gradually increased in scope. A spectrum of approaches, both challenging and preserving a static view of gender and violence, was also found. A significant shift that the review demonstrates is that the triad, initially developed as a structural feminist critique and later expanded into research on causal and interventionoriented models, widensing the field’s analytical and political horizons and raises questions about where responsibility for violence in and around sport lies. The concluding discussion underscores the importance of normative guidance in cases where violence falls into a grey area.