2.2 The four main types of abuse

Select each of the four tiles below to learn more about each type of abuse

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Physical: Deliberately hurting someone causing physical harm. It may involve hitting, kicking, shaking, pushing, poisoning, burning, biting, scalding, drowning or any other method of causing physical harm. In sport, it may include using inappropriate training loads, or being forced to train while ill or injured.

Sexual: When someone is forced, persuaded, or tricked into taking part in sexual activities. This may involve physical contact or non-contact activities and can happen online or in-person. This may be the result of a single incident, or a pattern over time.

Emotional/Psychological:making someone feel unloved, worthless or useless. A one-off incident can cause emotional harm, but often these behaviours are repeated over time. Emotional abuse may involve bullying. This can happen online (sometimes known as cyber-bullying) or in-person.

Neglect: Failing to provide for a person’s physical and psychological needs and protect them from danger. A one-off incident can cause harm, but often these behaviours are repeated over time.

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One form of abuse that cuts across all these areas is exploitation. Exploitation is the act of abusing power over someone and/or their assets for personal gain.

Examples in sport include:

  • Sexual exploitation and trafficking.

  • Financial exploitation through taking an unfair share of sponsorship or other funding earned by an athlete.

  • Misrepresenting an athlete’s age or nationality.

  • Signing athletes up to long-term contracts that don’t benefit them – especially when they are still children.

2.1 Introduction

2.3 Examples from sport