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

By reviewing how social science researchers have utilised the triad of sport, gender, and violence, this article identifies variations, changes, and continuities in how these elements have been understood since the 1980s. Based on searches in two databases, the ten most-cited articles from each decade were analysed. The review shows that critical perspectives on men and masculinity were foregrounded in the 1980s, while research connecting sports participation and violence has expanded since the late 1990s. The findings reveal a spectrum of approaches that either challenge or reproduce static understandings of gender and violence. The review demonstrates that the triad, developed as a structural feminist critique and later expanded into research on causal and intervention-oriented models, widens the field’s analytical and political horizons and raises questions about where responsibility for violence in and around sport lies. The concluding discussion highlights the importance of normative guidance where violence occupies a grey area.