Skating on Thin Ice

Why is it that professional sports, and notably hockey, remain a bastion for rape culture and violence against women? What are the conditions that allow a culture of toxic masculinity to persist despite awakenings elsewhere in society? What is the path forward, and how do we make officials, coaches, and athletes accountable?

Drawing on decades of award-winning sociological research and sports journalism, Walter S. DeKeseredy and Martin D. Schwartz along with veteran sportswriter Stu Cowan find answers to these questions in Skating on Thin Ice.

The book examines the abusive, misogynistic, racist, and homophobic behaviours found in professional hockey and explains the larger societal forces that perpetuate and legitimate these harms. Confirming a recent federal government inquiry into Hockey Canada’s handling of sexual assault allegations, the book reveals that young men enter the NHL and other revenue-generating hockey leagues already trained and primed to treat women as objects – and often to commit violent acts against them.

Rooted in the authors’ work in the sports world as well as their work with activists and governments, Skating on Thin Ice doesn’t just highlight the problem of hockey and rape culture, it also provides collaborative solutions for fixing it.

Walter S. DeKeseredy is the Anna Deane Carlson Endowed Chair of Social Sciences, director of the Research Center on Violence, and professor of sociology at West Virginia University. He has published 27 books, over 130 scientific journal articles, and close to 100 scholarly book chapters on violence against women and other social problems. He has earned numerous prestigious awards throughout his career, including the American Society of Criminology’s 2022 Praxis Award as well as their 2022 Robert Jerin Book Award. He was named a fellow of the American Society of Criminology in 2022.

Stu Cowan is a sports columnist with the Montreal Gazette with over 35 years of experience in the sports department. Before becoming a sports columnist, he worked as a scoreboard-page statistics editor, reporter, and sports editor. He is a regular panelist on the Hockey Inside/Out Show.

Martin D. Schwartz is a professorial lecturer at George Washington University and an emeritus professor at Ohio University. He has published 25 editions of 14 books, 80 refereed journal articles, and another 80 chapters and reports. He is a fellow of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and has received a variety of distinguished scholar, teaching, and mentoring awards from international criminology organizations. His work has centred on organizational and peer support for violence against women in school, relationships, sport, and other institutions