Violence in sport: a crime or criminal defense

Aim. The paper aims to describe violence as a social and legal concept in order to provide fairness and safety in sport within the strategy for the development of Physical Education and Sport in Russia up to 2030. Materials and methods. The paper is based on the use of the dialectical method together with general and special methods of scientific analysis. Results. It was found that violence in sport could be conditionally divided into 2 categories: permitted and prohibited violence. Permitted violence is the sense of combat sports and their integrative part arising from physical impact. Prohibited violence is typical of team sports (hockey, football) and results from physical contact between rivals. The law enforcer maintains a position of non-interference when it comes to sports activities and does not insist on prosecution even in case of grave consequences. Therefore, a legal conflict is found associated with the fact that violence in sport is out of legal regulation as far as there is no corresponding criminal defense. Violation of the rules, for example in hockey, falls within the scope of both criminal law and disciplinary rules. Therefore, persons who caused injury or death of a third person bear exclusively sports and disciplinary responsibility. Conclusion. The existing state of affairs and the regulation of violence in sport are considered unacceptable. Therefore, corresponding changes should be introduced to fill this legal gap.