The Ugly Facts About Hazing

Hazing by definition means subjecting a person or people to anything that endangers, mistreats as well as disgraces in order for that person or people to be accepted into their collective group. This sort of terrible mistreatment can include abuse that will be detrimental both physically and emotionally to the person or people being initiated in. This initiation will happen whether that person or people are motivated to partake or not in that particular activity they are being subjected to.

In the United States, there are currently 44 states that have anti-hazing laws in place. Below is a list of all of them.

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin

A total of six remaining states currently do not have any anti-hazing laws in place. They are Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota and Wyoming.

Hazing does not just occur in the United States alone, other countries that have some form of hazing include Australia, India, Philippines, United Kingdom, Indonesia and France where there is a penalty of the accused finding themselves being in prison up to a total of 6 months.

A study that was done in 1999 in the United States, showed that at least 80% of athletes who were in college were found to be the targets of hazing. This absolutely staggering number was the result of a study that was conducted at a total of 224 National Collegiate Athletic Association schools where a little over 2,000 students were reviewed in regards to hazing.

These student athletes that were found to be the targets of hazing were required to be subjected to many things which included being shouted at with swear words, being struck physically, taken against their own will, pushed to participate in crimes that were illegal such as damaging possessions and even being denied the ability to eat and sleep.

The study found that the most awful hazing seemed to be located on football teams.

The study also found that 26 percent of student athletes felt that if they reported this type of abusive activity to the their own administrators, it would not be conducted in the proper manner. The student athletes also felt that it might even make the situation more grave.