The sport environment is obviously a popular and important training ground for child and adolescent development. Sports stand with several other activities (for example, education, mentoring, religious teaching, and volunteering) as a potential factor in influencing positive social development among children and youth. Crime prevention strategies have therefore tried to build on the popularity and benefits of sports activities to promote youth development and to influence risk and resiliency factors associated with criminal involvement.

A wide variety of community-based programmes aim to use sport either as a means or as a complementary activity to promote youth development and prevent youth crime. Because of its presumed ability to contribute to moral development (Pennington, 2017), character building and the acquisition of life skills, sport (especially competitive team sport) is frequently promoted as having the potential to contribute to crime prevention or the reduction of antisocial behaviour (Coalter, 2007, 2012). However, these primary-level crime prevention initiatives are seldom explicit about the type of crime they purport to prevent (Groombridge, 2017). Some of them refer generally to deviant or problem behaviour and may include anything from lack of self-discipline, defiance of authority, school absenteeism, or experimentation with drugs, to theft, violent and confrontational behaviour, or contacts with the police. Other initiatives specifically refer to violent behaviour, delinquency, or gang involvement, without specifying the exact behavioural nature of the outcomes to be achieved. There is a great deal of wishful thinking and proselytizing behind many programmes (Giulianotti, 2004).

Despite numerous positive anecdotal accounts, there is still little evidence to support the assumption that sport participation is effective in reducing youth crime (Coakley, 1998). Methodological and practical challenges in evaluating the impact of sport participation explain why there is little definitive/ empirical evidence to support the assumption that sport is effective in reducing youth crime. Challenges include identifying what aspects to measure to gauge success, poor-quality data, and difficulties in isolating the impact of sport-based initiatives from other confounding factors. Due to research limitations, it is difficult to reach general conclusions on the effectiveness of these programmes (Public Safety Canada, 2017).