Idrott på blodigt allvar - om våldsutövningen inom Mixed Martial Arts och dess straffrättsliga gränser
(2016) JURM02 20162Department of Law
- Abstract
- Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a sport that has seen an increase in popularity in the last couple of years, including Sweden. The sport is violent and allows for several forms of violence against once head which can risk the lives and health of the practitioners. To secure the safety of practitioners it is required that the practice is performed under controlled forms. But how do you draw the line of what is permitted from a criminal law perspective?
The purpose of this report was to investigate when violence used in Swedish professional MMA can be criminal and how the non-criminal violence can be justified by criminal law. The investigation also aimed to discuss what these results could mean for Swedish criminal law in general.
The... (More) - Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a sport that has seen an increase in popularity in the last couple of years, including Sweden. The sport is violent and allows for several forms of violence against once head which can risk the lives and health of the practitioners. To secure the safety of practitioners it is required that the practice is performed under controlled forms. But how do you draw the line of what is permitted from a criminal law perspective?
The purpose of this report was to investigate when violence used in Swedish professional MMA can be criminal and how the non-criminal violence can be justified by criminal law. The investigation also aimed to discuss what these results could mean for Swedish criminal law in general.
The rules of MMA allow kicks and punches to the head, amongst other things, but some techniques like attacking a defenseless opponent or performing an attack with your elbow are against the rules. There is a consensus that all acts of violence within the rules are non-criminal based on the concept of consent. This is warranted because of the voluntary character of participation and that the rules make it clear what each practitioner is consenting to.
Rule violations on the other hand can’t be justified by consent since these rules don’t apply to severe violence. It has been discussed if social adequacy can be used instead as a way to justify these actions by assessing if the rule violations are in accordance with the purpose of the sport. Regarding MMA, an argument can be made that the purpose of the sport is in fact built on the violence itself which makes it hard to assess what kind of violence that is not in accordance with the purpose of the sport. This makes the law unforeseeable for the participants and shows that the legal security is lacking in this field.
These results not only illustrate the problems regarding criminality and MMA but also the problems of the Swedish criminal law in general. It indicates that the criminal law is not adapted for modern concepts, such as violent sports like MMA and sexual games such as BDSM, that doesn’t fit the norm of which criminal law is based upon. A change is needed both in terms of increasing the legal security for the practitioners of MMA and to increase the respect for the effectiveness of the Swedish criminal law. (Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) är en idrott som fått ökad popularitet de senaste åren, inte minst i Sverige. Idrotten är våldsam och tillåter olika typer av våld mot huvudet vilket utgör en fara för utövarnas liv och hälsa. För att säkra utövarnas säkerhet krävs det att utövningen sker under kontrollerade former. Men var går egentligen gränsen för vad som är tillåtet ur ett straffrättsligt perspektiv?
Denna uppsats syftade till att klarlägga var den straffrättsliga gränsen för våldsanvändningen inom svensk professionell MMA går och hur våldsanvändningen kan motiveras straffrättsligt. Det undersöktes även vad slutsatserna kring detta belyser för problematik med straffrätten i sin helhet.
Det egna MMA-regelverket tillåter bland annat... (More) - Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) är en idrott som fått ökad popularitet de senaste åren, inte minst i Sverige. Idrotten är våldsam och tillåter olika typer av våld mot huvudet vilket utgör en fara för utövarnas liv och hälsa. För att säkra utövarnas säkerhet krävs det att utövningen sker under kontrollerade former. Men var går egentligen gränsen för vad som är tillåtet ur ett straffrättsligt perspektiv?
Denna uppsats syftade till att klarlägga var den straffrättsliga gränsen för våldsanvändningen inom svensk professionell MMA går och hur våldsanvändningen kan motiveras straffrättsligt. Det undersöktes även vad slutsatserna kring detta belyser för problematik med straffrätten i sin helhet.
Det egna MMA-regelverket tillåter bland annat sparkar och slag mot huvudet, men vissa våldstekniker utgör regelöverträdelser såsom att attackera en försvarslös motståndare eller använda sig av armbågen. Det regelenliga våldet är rättskällorna eniga om är ansvarsfritt med samtycke som rättsligt stöd. Det motiveras utifrån det frivilliga deltagandet och förståelsen för vad som samtycks till utifrån MMA-reglerna.
Våld som utgör regelöverträdelser kan däremot inte var ansvarsfritt med samtycke som ansvarsfrihetsgrund eftersom de inte kan sträcka sig till sådant allvarligt våld. Förarbeten och doktrin har i dessa fall diskuterat huruvida social adekvans kan vara ett sätt att rubricera att sådana gärningar ändå kan vara ansvarsfria om de ligger inom idrottens idé. Inom MMA kan argumenteras för att idrottens idé utgörs av själva våldsanvändning vilket gör det svårt att avgöra vilket våld som ligger innanför MMA-idrottens idé. Det gör att rättsläget blir oförutsebart för utövarna och är tecken på bristande rättssäkerhet på området.
Dessa resultat belyser inte bara svårigheterna med straffansvaret inom MMA men även problem för straffrätten i sin helhet. Det visar bland annat på att straffrätten inte är anpassad för modernare koncept där våldsamma idrotter som MMA eller sexuella lekar som BDSM inte passar in i den norm rätten utgår ifrån. En förändring krävs både för att öka rättssäkerheten vad gäller MMA-utövning men även för att öka respekten för straffrättens effektivitet. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8897241
- author
- Norberg, Emil LU
- supervisor
- organization
- alternative title
- Bloody serious sports - about the violence in Mixed Martial Arts and its legal boundaries
- course
- JURM02 20162
- year
- 2016
- type
- H3 - Professional qualifications (4 Years - )
- subject
- keywords
- straffrätt, criminal law, MMA, idrott, idrottsjuridik, sport, kampsport, ansvarsfrihet, samtycke, social adekvans
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 8897241
- date added to LUP
- 2017-01-25 16:20:06
- date last changed
- 2017-01-25 16:20:06
@misc{8897241,
abstract = {{Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a sport that has seen an increase in popularity in the last couple of years, including Sweden. The sport is violent and allows for several forms of violence against once head which can risk the lives and health of the practitioners. To secure the safety of practitioners it is required that the practice is performed under controlled forms. But how do you draw the line of what is permitted from a criminal law perspective?
The purpose of this report was to investigate when violence used in Swedish professional MMA can be criminal and how the non-criminal violence can be justified by criminal law. The investigation also aimed to discuss what these results could mean for Swedish criminal law in general.
The rules of MMA allow kicks and punches to the head, amongst other things, but some techniques like attacking a defenseless opponent or performing an attack with your elbow are against the rules. There is a consensus that all acts of violence within the rules are non-criminal based on the concept of consent. This is warranted because of the voluntary character of participation and that the rules make it clear what each practitioner is consenting to.
Rule violations on the other hand can’t be justified by consent since these rules don’t apply to severe violence. It has been discussed if social adequacy can be used instead as a way to justify these actions by assessing if the rule violations are in accordance with the purpose of the sport. Regarding MMA, an argument can be made that the purpose of the sport is in fact built on the violence itself which makes it hard to assess what kind of violence that is not in accordance with the purpose of the sport. This makes the law unforeseeable for the participants and shows that the legal security is lacking in this field.
These results not only illustrate the problems regarding criminality and MMA but also the problems of the Swedish criminal law in general. It indicates that the criminal law is not adapted for modern concepts, such as violent sports like MMA and sexual games such as BDSM, that doesn’t fit the norm of which criminal law is based upon. A change is needed both in terms of increasing the legal security for the practitioners of MMA and to increase the respect for the effectiveness of the Swedish criminal law.}},
author = {{Norberg, Emil}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Idrott på blodigt allvar - om våldsutövningen inom Mixed Martial Arts och dess straffrättsliga gränser}},
year = {{2016}},
}