Concealment of Child Sexual Abuse in Sports

When the sexual abuse of children is revealed, it is often found that other nonabusing adults were aware of the abuse but failed to act. During the past twenty years or so, the concealment of child sexual abuse (CSA) within organizations has emerged as a key challenge for child protection work. Recent events at Pennsylvania State University (PSU) received unprecedented media coverage and many commentators observed similarities with the abuse scandals in organized religion. Drawing upon Pierre Bourdieu's critique of the Catholic Church, this article problematizes the emphasis on the moral failings of individual elites, arguing that concealment of CSA is an historical feature of organized sport. It concludes that the emergence of child protection agendas in sport must be accompanied by more reflexive analyses about youth-sport if we are to significantly improve our capacity to safeguard children and young people from sexual violence within sport and physical education contexts.