Fraud, violence and other deviant behaviors in professional and Olympic sport
Online open source media are increasingly being used as tools for intelligence analysis. This contribution explores how they can be used in the field of deviance in professional and Olympic sport. Our study considered on the field fraud (doping, game manipulation, eligibility fraud) and off the field fraud (corruption), on the field and off the field violence (hooliganism and terrorism), and other detrimental conducts by sportsmen whether off or on the field of play. To explore the magnitude of these phenomena, we performed an online open source analysis in 2016 (in English) and identified 775 cases reported by online media, with frauds accounting for 85 % of all cases. Specifically, doping, followed by match-fixing are the most frequent cases. In total, 87 different countries were involved, but some sub regions, notably Eastern Europe (17.4 %), East Africa (16.1 %) and Australia and New Zealand (10.2 %)) concentrate most of the observed cases. In terms of temporal patterns, concentration of cases in August and November for fraud, and in June and July for violence may suggest a seasonality of deviant behaviors in sport. By looking at biases linked to language and types of source, further research may contribute to systematic monitoring of the presence of these phenomena around the world.