Twelve percent of athletes sexually abused at sports club as child: report

Sexual abuse is sports is a common and far reaching problem in the Netherlands, according to an investigation by a committee led by Klaas de Vries. Twelve percent of athletes experienced sexual transgressive behavior in their sports club as a child, Four percent faced sexual assault or rape, NOS reports.

The committee received 103 reports of sexual abuse in sports, and interviewed 30 victims. A number of experts also helped with the research. In three quarters of the cases, the victim was under the age of 16 when he or she was abused. In over 40 percent of the cases, a fellow athlete was named the perpetrator.

Klaas de Vries and his committee investigated the nature and scope of sexual abuse in sports on behalf of organization NOC*NSF. The committee concludes that it is imperative that sports clubs quickly do much more to prevent incidents of sexual abuse.

The NOC*NSF set up a Sports Confidence Center to handle reports of sexual abuse. This center must be changed, according to the committee, as is currently unclear what is done with suspicions of abuse. The organizations must also implement a legal obligation for the sports world to report suspicions of abuse.