Clark Jones '01 loves hockey. But he also worries about it: “Professional hockey is a fast-paced, emotional, and aggressive game. However, the way the game has been going in recent years concerns me greatly.”
Last fall, for example, NHL player Marty McSorley was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, and received a conditional discharge. But the real story, says Jones, “was the fact that he was put on trial.” McSorley was the 12th NHL player to land in court for an on-ice incident.
A political science major as well as co-captain of Union's hockey team, Jones was the perfect person to do a senior thesis on violence in sports. Combining interests in law and sports, he focused on a legal gray area: When does a hockey stick become an assault weapon?
Jones sent out a questionnaire to a national random sample of trial court judges, seeking their views on sports violence, how they assess the criminal status of sports violence, responses to a hypothetical incident, and whether they think sports violence cases should be handled in court. An astonishing 400 of 1,000 replied.
Some of Jones's findings:
- Judges generally view sports violence as a serious problem.
- Judges acknowledge that sports violence is different from other violence cases.
- More than 75 percent of judges said that excessive sports violence cases should be considered criminal conduct.
- About 60 percent of the judges said it is difficult to differentiate between tolerable and excessive acts of sports violence.
- Women judges tend to view sports violence as more serious than do male judges.
- The degree to which a judge is a sports fan does not influence his or her opinion on the general issue of sports violence.
Jones and his adviser, Prof. Richard Fox, are including these findings in an article they hope to publish in a judicial or legal journal. Jones is also working on an op-ed piece.
Does Jones think far greater acts of violence in hockey go unpunished while drawing applause? Jones replies carefully: “It's been argued that a lot of the attraction of professional hockey is the violent nature of the game. What's `excessive' is not clear though.
“I think the NHL needs to do a better preventive job. If anything, they need to stop the excessive acts as much as they can so courts don't get involved. Changing the mindset of the players is the challenge.”
“My main concern is with the excessive violence that has been occurring, not necessarily because there has been an increase in the sheer numbers of instances, but because the visibility is more widespread,” Jones says.
There are two distinct consequences of the visibility, he says. First, children tend to emulate the actions of professional athletes. Secondly, the exposure may mean that more athletes are prosecuted for on-ice incidents.
“No athlete can play with freedom and with passion when there is the threat of litigation looming over them. At the same time, athletes are responsible for their actions, because with their right to play hockey, comes a responsibility to play within the rules, customs, and norms of the game.”
Jones, who graduates in June, is weighing the options of going to law school or playing professional hockey.