Front Cover
The Criminology of Boxing Violence and Desistance
Copyright information
Dedication
Table of contents
Notes on the Author
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Introduction
1 Boxing as Sports Criminology
Why boxing?
Boxing gyms as sites of research
Boxing and narrative interviewing: introducing the boxers' stories and psychosocial theories of desistance
Narrative interviewing
Introduction to classic theories of desistance
Boxing and its relationship to desistance
Summary
2 The Appeal and Desistance-Promoting Potential of Boxing
Introduction

A brief history of boxing
Sport as a definer of hegemonic masculinity
Sport as a form of domination
The downside to domination: sport and male vulnerability
Combat sports, masculinity and intersectionality
Contemporary ideas surrounding sport and desistance from crime
Sport and conformity: theoretical arguments for sport's potential to increase pro-social behaviour
Sport as criminogenic: a discussion on the learnt behaviours in sport and its relationship with violence and masculine-enhancin
Summary
Notes

3 The Case of Frank: Respect, Embodiment and the Appeal of the Boxing Gym
Introduction
Frank's story
Battle wounds: Frank's search for respect
Boxing and reconstruction of the self
Summary
Notes
4 The Case of Eric: Self-Violence, Boxing and the Damaged, Emasculated Body
Introduction
Eric's story
The beginning of a boxer: Eric's trajectory
Physical capital and the boxer's means of production
"Think you're a big man, do you?" Eric's relationship with his father and the appeal of the gym
The boxing bulimic: Eric's bodily destruction for a sense of acceptance

The boxer's 'heart' and the controlling of a monster
Eric and violence outside the ring
The logic of violence: transposable attitudes from ring to street
Summary
Notes
5 The Case of Leroy: Shame, Violence and Reputation
Introduction
Leroy's story
Working-class habitus and boxing
Shame, stigma and class
Summary
Notes
6 The Appeal of the Boxing Gym
Introduction
Reflections on the appeal of boxing
Boxing's appeal: status, fame and action
Boxing's appeal: dedication, reconstruction and bodywork

Boxing's appeal: competition and the accomplishment of masculinity
Boxing as a response to personal and structural vulnerability
Summary
Notes
7 Desistance and Boxing: The Ambivalence of the Gym
Introduction
Boxing as a site of incapacitation
Boxing as a form of pro-social development
Respect: the gym, opportunities and the street
Identity and desistance from violence: the inside/outside gym paradigm and the use of techniques of neutralisation
Summary
Notes
8 Discussion
The enduring appeal of boxing
The desistance-promoting potential of boxing