Boxing as Sports Criminology

The chapter explores the history of boxing and its relationship to desistance from crime. It will briefly examine the appeal of boxing and also its position in contemporary criminological theory. I will introduce arguments that examine and critique the relationship between the sport of boxing and desistance from violence. I will argue that combat sports in general are conducive to the maintenance of valued masculine identities and therefore perpetuate dominant discourses of masculinity that value violence as a central theme