Criminal aspect of injuries in sports

Abstract

In this paper the concept of sports ethics is defined and attention is directed to kinds of behavior which are not considered as fair play, the general conception of criminal offence as well as the elements of general idea of criminal act, unlawfulness and guilt with special attention paid to the basis on which unlawfulness and delict, and with them, the criminal offence itself are excluded. Consent of the injured party as basis for excluding unlawfulness has been carefully considered, with emphasis on the fact that with accepting to participate is a certain sport an athlete does not consent to be hurt outside the frame which rules of a particular sport imply. The attitude is accepted that with his consent an athlete consented to the possibility for his integrity be endangered, which still does not mean that he consented to be injured indeed, i.e. a difference is recognized between the consequence of endangering and the consequence of injuring protected assets. After that, rules which are applied in certain sports are explained and connected with the acceptance of the injured party, and the stand is taken that acceptance of the injured party excludes existence of criminal deed only in a situation when an injury occurred within the rules of a particular sport. If the injury occurred by breaking the rules of the sport, it would be considered as a criminal act. In conclusion, the stand is taken that it is necessary to fight against all harmful occurrences in sports, including the injuries which occurred due to severe violation of rules which should be applied in a particular sport. It is concluded that consent of the injured party must not be an excuse for not applying criminal justice, if the injury occurred by violation of the rules of a particular sport.

Keywords

• ethics
• fair play
• criminal offence
• consent of the injured
• excluding unlawfulness
• bodily injury