Evaluation Of Criminal Law On Competitive Sports Injury Behavior

Competitive sports injury behavior is very common in athletic contests,which accords with the elements of crime.In reality,however,athletes who committed violence in competitive sports were rarely charged with a crime.Therefore,the evaluation of competitive sports injury behavior in criminal law is certainly an important issue and worthy of our attention.Firstly,the concept of competitive sports injury behavior is defined,in this article,as ‘intentional or negligent physical aggressive behavior inflicted on the opponents on the playground in the course of the game '.After clarifying the concept of competitive sports injury behavior,this article further discusses the necessity and limitations of the intervention of criminal law in the field of competitive sports and to competitive sports injury behavior.It is considered that criminal law's involvement in the field of competitive sports is necessary and justified,while the modest nature of criminal law and the particularities of competitive sports shall be fully considered and respected as much as possible.Then,this article briefly introduces types of crimes that may be involved in competitive sports injury behavior and the theories explaining the legitimacy of competitive sports injury behavior in academia including analogical application of medical behavior,the theory of allowed risk,the theory of victim's self accountability,the theory of proper business,the theory of victim's commitment,the theory of appropriateness of society,the theory of allowed by nation,and establishes a double-level basis to justify the legitimacy of competitive sports injury behavior taking into account of the pros and cons of these theories.In this double-level basis,the first level is the theory of victim's self accountability,and the second level is the theory of appropriateness of society.Based on this,this article further discusses the criteria for and factors of judging the legitimacy of competitive sports injury behavior,that is,competitive sports injury behavior can only be justified when meeting the following four requirements including that the competitive sports activity is legitimate,the victim takes part in the competitive sport self-responsibly,the behavior is within the range of the objective expectation of sports rules,and the subjective purpose of the actor is for the game.Finally,depending on the nature of different behavior and combining Chinese judicial practice,this article deems that competitive sports injury behavior can be roughly divided into five categories according to a logically progressive relationship: firstly,for injury behavior in competitive sports that do not have legitimacy,there is no room for justification,and it is sufficient to identify the behavior of the actor according to the basic theory of constitution of crime;secondly,if the victim does not participate in competitive sports self-responsibly,the behavior of the actor shall be determined according to the basic theory of constitution of crime;thirdly,if the actor's behavior is out of the range of the objective expectation of sports rules,it is sufficient to identify the behavior according to the basic theory of constitution of crime;fourthly,if the actor's behavior is within the range of the objective expectation of sports rules but not for competition purpose,there is no room for legitimacy and the behavior shall be regarded as a behavior that is no different from general harm;fifthly,for competitive sports injury behavior which consist of the four elements of legitimacy including that the competitive sports activity is legitimate,the victim takes part in competitive sports self-responsibly,the actor's behavior is within the range of the objective expectation of sports rules and the subjective purpose of the actor is for the game,criminality shall be excluded.