Hazing and initiation ceremonies in university sport: setting the scene for further research in the United Kingdom

Abstract

In recent years, the pervasive practice of student initiation ceremonies into university sports teams has become widely reported in the British media. Such initiations have been likened to the practice known as hazing, which is prevalent in universities across the USA. Although there is some research that has considered how and why hazing occurs in American universities, less attention has been paid to the initiation ceremonies that regularly occur in British institutions. This article provides an overview of some of the literature that has examined the practice of hazing in the USA in order to set the scene for much needed research in the UK.

Notes

¹ See BBC, ‘University to Probe Initiation’; Telegraph.co.uk, ‘Shocking Cambridge University Initiation Ceremonies Revealed’; Times Online, ‘University of Gloucestershire Investigates Nazi Style Initiation’.

² Times Online, ‘University of Gloucestershire Investigates Nazi Style Initiation’.

³ See Tinmouth, ‘Induction Ceremonies in University Sport in the UK’.

⁴ Telegraph.co.uk, ‘Shocking Cambridge University Initiation Ceremonies Revealed’.

⁵ Tinmouth, ‘Induction Ceremonies in University Sport in the UK’, 10.

⁶ Tinmouth, ‘Induction Ceremonies in University Sport in the UK’, 10

⁷ Tinmouth, ‘Induction Ceremonies in University Sport in the UK’, 10

⁸ See, for example, E. Allan and Madden, ‘Hazing in View’; Hoover, National Survey; Nuwer, The Hazing Reader.

⁹ E. Allan and Madden, ‘Hazing in View’, 2.

¹⁰ E. Allan and Madden, ‘Hazing in View’, 2

¹¹ See Drout and Corsoro, ‘Attitudes Toward Fraternity Hazing Among Fraternity Members’; Sweet, ‘Understanding Fraternity Hazing’.

¹² E. Allan and Madden, ‘Hazing in View’.

¹³ E. Allan and Madden, ‘Hazing in View’

¹⁴ See Drout and Corsoro, ‘Attitudes Toward Fraternity Hazing Among Fraternity Members’; Nuwer, The Hazing Reader; Sweet, ‘Understanding Fraternity Hazing’.

¹⁵ E. Allan and Madden, ‘Hazing in View’.

¹⁶ Hoover, National Survey.

¹⁷ E. Allan and Madden, ‘Hazing in View’; Hoover, National Survey.

¹⁸ Crow and Phillips, ‘Hazing’.

¹⁹ Fields, Collins, and Comstock, ‘Violence in Youth Sports’; Nuwer, The Hazing Reader.

²⁰ Van Raalte et al. , ‘The Relationship Between Hazing and Team Cohesion’, 494.

²¹ See E. Allan and Madden, ‘Hazing in View’; Johnson and Holman, Making the Team; Malszecki, ‘No Mercy Shown or Asked’; Waldron, ‘I Have to Do What to be a Teammate’.

²² See Hoffer, ‘Praising Hazing’; Wahl and Wertheim, ‘A Rite Gone Terribly Wrong’; Weir, ‘Hazing Issues Rears Ugly Head Across USA’.

²³ See Campo, Poulos, and Sipple, ‘Prevalence and Profiling’; Carron, ‘Cohesiveness in Sports Groups’; Keating et al. , ‘Going to College and Unpacking Hazing’.

²⁴ Van Raalte et al., ‘The Relationship Between Hazing and Team Cohesion’; Waldon and Kowlaski, ‘Crossing the Line’.

²⁵ Holman, ‘A Search for Theoretical Understanding of Hazing Practices in Athletics’.

²⁶ Waldon and Kowlaski, ‘Crossing the Line’; E. Allan and DeAngelis, ‘Hazing, Masculinity and Collision Sports’.

²⁷ Holman, ‘A Search for Theoretical Understanding of Hazing Practices in Athletics’.

²⁸ Holman, ‘A Search for Theoretical Understanding of Hazing Practices in Athletics’, 50.

²⁹ Ramazanoglu, ‘Sex and Violence in Academic Life’.

³⁰ Holman, ‘A Search for Theoretical Understanding of Hazing Practices in Athletics’.

³¹ Holman, ‘A Search for Theoretical Understanding of Hazing Practices in Athletics’

³² Waldron and Krane, ‘Whatever it Takes’.

³³ Holman, ‘A Search for Theoretical Understanding of Hazing Practices in Athletics’.

³⁴ E. Allan and Madden, ‘Hazing in View’; Hoover, National Survey.

³⁵ Waldron, ‘I Have to Do What to be a Teammate’.

³⁶ E. Allan and Madden, ‘Hazing in View’.

³⁷ Holman, ‘A Search for Theoretical Understanding of Hazing Practices in Athletics’.

³⁸ Johnson and Holman, ‘Gender and Hazing’.

³⁹ See Holman, ‘A Search for Theoretical Understanding of Hazing Practices in Athletics’; Trota and Johnson, ‘A Brief History of Hazing’.

⁴⁰ Johnson, ‘Are Sisters Doing it for Themselves?’, 125.

⁴¹ See Holman, ‘A Search for Theoretical Understanding of Hazing Practices in Athletics’; Johnson, ‘Are Sisters Doing it for Themselves?’; Johnson and Holman, ‘Gender and Hazing’, 7.

⁴² See Holman, ‘A Search for Theoretical Understanding of Hazing Practices in Athletics’; Johnson, ‘Are Sisters Doing it for Themselves?’.

⁴³ E. Allan and DeAngelis, ‘Hazing, Masculinity and Collision Sports’; Waldron and Krane, ‘Whatever it Takes’.

⁴⁴ Waldon and Kowlaski, ‘Crossing the Line’.

⁴⁵ Holman, ‘A Search for Theoretical Understanding of Hazing Practices in Athletics’; Johnson and Holman, ‘Gender and Hazing’.

⁴⁶ Johnson and Holman, ‘Gender and Hazing’.

⁴⁷ See Holman, ‘A Search for Theoretical Understanding of Hazing Practices in Athletics’, 56; Johnson, ‘Are Sisters Doing it for Themselves?’.

⁴⁸ Johnson and Holman, ‘Gender and Hazing’; Waldron and Krane, ‘Whatever it Takes’.

⁴⁹ Sweet, ‘Understanding Fraternity Hazing: Insights from Symbolic Interactionist Theory’; ‘Understanding Fraternity Hazing’.

⁵⁰ Sweet, ‘Understanding Fraternity Hazing’, 1.

⁵¹ Sandstrom, Martin, and Fine, ‘Symbolic Interactionism at the End of the Century’.

⁵² Blumer, Symbolic Interactionism.

⁵³ Sandstrom, Martin, and Fine, ‘Symbolic Interactionism at the End of the Century’.

⁵⁴ Blumer, ‘Society as Symbolic Interaction’; Mead, Mind, Self and Society.

⁵⁵ Sweet, ‘Understanding Fraternity Hazing’.

⁵⁶ Cited in Sweet, ‘Understanding Fraternity Hazing’.

⁵⁷ Goffman, Asylums.

⁵⁸ Arthur, ‘Role Salience’, 365.

⁵⁹ Sweet, ‘Understanding Fraternity Hazing’.

⁶⁰ E. Allan and DeAngelis, ‘Hazing, Masculinity and Collision Sports’; Caperchione and Holman, ‘Gender differences in Coaches’ Perceptions of Hazing in Intercollegiate Athletics'.

⁶¹ Cited in Sweet, ‘Understanding Fraternity Hazing’.

⁶² Cited in Sweet, ‘Understanding Fraternity Hazing’

⁶³ Sweet, ‘Understanding Fraternity Hazing’.

⁶⁴ Mead, Mind, Self and Society.

⁶⁵ Sweet, ‘Understanding Fraternity Hazing’.

⁶⁶ Sweet, ‘Understanding Fraternity Hazing’

⁶⁷ Hughes and Coakley, ‘Positive Deviance Among Athletes’.

⁶⁸ Hughes and Coakley, ‘Positive Deviance Among Athletes’

⁶⁹ Ewald and Jibou, ‘Explaining Positive Deviance’.

⁷⁰ See Brackenridge, Spoilsports; Howe, Sport, Professionalism and Pain; Nixon, ‘A Social Network Analysis of Influences on Athletes to Play with Pain and Injuries’; Waldron and Krane, ‘Whatever it Takes’.

⁷¹ Hughes and Coakley, ‘Positive Deviance Among Athletes’; J. Allen, ‘Social Motivation in Youth Sport’.

⁷² Waldron and Krane, ‘Whatever it Takes’.

⁷³ Waldon and Kowlaski, ‘Crossing the Line’.

⁷⁴ Keating et al., ‘Going to College and Unpacking Hazing’.

⁷⁵ Coakley, Sport in Society.

⁷⁶ Waldon and Kowlaski, ‘Crossing the Line’, 292.

⁷⁷ Cokley et al. , ‘Developing an Instrument to Assess College Students Attitudes Towards Pledging and Hazing in Greek Letter Organizations’.

⁷⁸ Tinmouth, ‘Induction Ceremonies in University Sport in the UK’.

⁷⁹ Elias, The Germans; Carew, cited in Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement.

⁸⁰ Dunning and Waddington, ‘Sport as a Drug and Drugs in Sport’, 356.

⁸¹ Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement.

⁸² Tinmouth, ‘Induction Ceremonies in University Sport in the UK’.

⁸³ Nuwer, The Hazing Reader; The Wrongs of Passage; E. Allan and Madden, ‘Hazing in View’.

⁸⁴ Waldron, ‘I Have to Do What to be a Teammate’.

⁸⁵ Tinmouth, ‘Induction Ceremonies in University Sport in the UK’.

⁸⁶ Clayton and Humberstone, ‘Men's Talk’.

⁸⁷ Tinmouth, ‘Induction Ceremonies in University Sport in the UK’.

⁸⁸ E. Allan and Madden, ‘Hazing in View’; Johnson, ‘Are Sisters Doing it for Themselves?’; Holman, ‘A Search for Theoretical Understanding of Hazing Practices in Athletics’.

⁸⁹ Tinmouth, ‘Induction Ceremonies in University Sport in the UK’.

⁹⁰ Tinmouth, ‘Induction Ceremonies in University Sport in the UK’

⁹¹ Holman, ‘A search for Theoretical Understanding of Hazing Practices in Athletics’.

⁹² Johnson and Holman, ‘Gender and Hazing’, 7.

⁹³ Johnson, ‘Are Sisters Doing it for Themselves?’.

⁹⁴ Holman, ‘A search for Theoretical Understanding of Hazing Practices in Athletics’.

⁹⁵ Holman, ‘A search for Theoretical Understanding of Hazing Practices in Athletics’

⁹⁶ Waldron and Krane, ‘Whatever it Takes’.

⁹⁷ Tinmouth, ‘Induction Ceremonies in University Sport in the UK’.

⁹⁸ Dunning, ‘Sport as a Male Preserve’; Sheard and Dunning; ‘The Rugby Football Club as a Type of Male Preserve’.

⁹⁹ E. Allan and Madden, ‘Hazing in View’.

¹⁰⁰ Hoover, National Survey.

¹⁰¹ Van Raalte et al., ‘The Relationship Between Hazing and Team Cohesion’.

¹⁰² Waldron and Krane, ‘Whatever it Takes’.

¹⁰³ Tinmouth, ‘Induction Ceremonies in University Sport in the UK’.

¹⁰⁴ Dunning and Waddington, ‘Sport as a Drug and Drugs in Sport’.

¹⁰⁵ Waldron and Krane, ‘Whatever it Takes’.

¹⁰⁶ Cited in Waldron and Krane, ‘Whatever it Takes’.

¹⁰⁷ Johnson and Holman. ‘Gender and Hazing’.

¹⁰⁸ Hoover, National Survey, 9.

¹⁰⁹ E. Allan and Madden, ‘Hazing in View’.

¹¹⁰ Waldron and Krane, ‘Whatever it Takes’.

¹¹¹ Johnson, ‘Are Sisters Doing it for Themselves?’.

¹¹² Johnson, ‘Are Sisters Doing it for Themselves?’

¹¹³ Johnson, ‘Are Sisters Doing it for Themselves?’ 128.

¹¹⁴ Tinmouth, ‘Induction Ceremonies in University Sport in the UK’.

¹¹⁵ Tinmouth, ‘Induction Ceremonies in University Sport in the UK’