AN END TO ATHLETE VIOLENCE: UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS PSYCHOLOGIST HOLDS SOLUTION TO NATIONAL PROBLEM

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Of the 3,000 student athletes who have gone through Dr. Tom Jackson’s violence prevention workshops, not one has been charged with sexual or physical assault.

The key to preventing violent acts by young athletes, the University of Arkansas psychologist said, is to teach them the distinction between behavior that is appropriate on-field and that which is acceptable off-field.

During the past decade, Dr. Jackson has conducted violence prevention workshops for the athletic departments of over a dozen NCAA division-I and division-II universities and had his program materials provided to over 100 additional university athletic departments.

The success of the program has been so significant that even professional sports franchises have invited Jackson to speak.

Jackson said not one of the athletes who attended his program has since been charged with assault. "We do have a comparison group of individuals who were not able to make the presentation, however. Among those athletes, twelve have subsequently faced charges," he said.

In collaboration with Dr. Doug McDonald at the University of North Dakota and Joanne Davis, an intern at the Medical University of South Carolina, Jackson has written a book entitled, Violence Prevention for Athletes which will be published by Professional Resource Press in fall 1999.

The book documents Jackson’s violence prevention workshops and addresses the cultural, economic and lifestyle issues that influence athlete behavior. It also provides information on how athletic departments can contact and invite professional speakers to address the issue of violence on their campus in an athletic-sensitive manner.

According to Jackson, a wide range of factors can predispose student athletes to violent behavior. Though social class contributes to the issue, Jackson says there are bigger culprits such as athlete lifestyle and public visibility.

Tendencies toward aggression often begin in early childhood, Jackson said, in response to rigorous training and the focus on physical prowess. Among those athletes who make it to division-I scholarship positions, pressure from parents and coaches begins at an early age.

"They don’t get exposed to social maturity, normal dating skills, incentives to perform well academically or even the chance to hang out with people who have different interests," said Jackson. "So athletes who make it to college competition have spent the majority of their lives in very disciplined, focused and often sheltered lifestyles."

Such a background leaves many students ill-prepared to handle the responsibility and public scrutiny that accompanies their position on a college team.

It also makes them vulnerable to groups of people who prey upon athletes’ celebrity status - bookies, fanatics and individuals who hope to bring athletes down by luring them into fights or illegal activities.

"One of the biggest issues is simply that athletes have so much more opportunity to get into trouble than other people," Jackson said.

Another issue, claimed Jackson, is that student athletes are often held to higher standards by the public as well as by university judicial boards and sometimes criminal courts. They therefore risk greater loss of reputation as well as more rigorous penalties when wrong-doing occurs.

Power, speed, strength, aggression and physical dominance are the winning qualities that every college coach searches for in a student athlete. But for many young athletes, these very qualities lead not only to victory but to violence.

Because athletic training focuses so exclusively on the development of physical strength and skill, it often neglects to teach the subtleties of social interaction and the virtue of self-control. Athletes must be informed on how to conduct themselves within two conflicting realms of personal interaction: on-field and off.

To illustrate the difference, Jackson uses the acronym PAYS which stands for power, attitude, youth and speed - four qualities that many student athletes embody. On the competitive field, these qualities enable an athlete to beat his opponent. They translate into victory.

"In social circumstances, however, power can translate into aggression, attitude into intimidation, youth into inexperience and speed into acting without thought," said Jackson. "I ask the athletes then, 'Who pays for these qualities off the field?’ The answer is, they do."

Once this distinction has been made, Jackson offers a number of practical tips that the athletes can employ to prevent sexual assault situations or to lead themselves away from potential fights.

Jackson not only teaches the students that no means no, but he also emphasizes the importance of asking for permission before becoming physically involved with a dating partner, communicating openly about their intentions and avoiding the influence of alcohol.

In relation to physical assault, Jackson said: "I tell them first to always walk away. They have everything to lose - their spot on the team, scholarships, potential future income, even their college education - and nothing to gain from violence."

In addition, he asks student athletes to support their teammates even off the field - helping each other to back down from volatile situations and reporting trouble to coaches and trainers as soon as an incident happens.

Jackson is careful to present information in ways that student athletes can understand and can relate to. He asks that coaches and women be absent during the male athlete workshops so that the participants feel free to communicate openly.

"There’s some role playing, and the language is often coarse," said Jackson. "But since they spend so much time on their physical skills, and I get so little time to help them develop their social skills, I need to make my presentation very open and very forceful."

According to Jackson, once student athletes have been educated on appropriate behaviors, their disciplined lifestyle becomes an asset - enabling them to avoid violent situations and to conduct themselves with more restraint than the average citizen.

"If all that these athletes have focused on during their training is dominance and aggression and beating the opponent at all cost, it is all the more important to teach them that this is not the way to approach the rest of their lives," he said. "Off-field they have to lay those qualities aside and learn to work collaboratively with potential dates, friends, even strangers."

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