The U.S. Center for SafeSport began making public announcements of people placed on its disciplinary database Tuesday, a move designed to increase transparency and bring more attention to what the center believes is one of its top tools in the fight against sex abuse.
The center, in charge of combating abuse in Olympic sports, has long published what it calls its Centralized Disciplinary Database. But without publicizing who lands on the list, people had to access the database and know who they were looking for to learn about banned and restricted people in their orbit.
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Now, the center will share weekly updates about people added to the list; the updates will include cases taken to arbitration that have reached a decision.
"Knowledge is power and maintaining safe sport environments improves when information is as accessible as possible,” said the center's CEO, Benita Fitzgerald Mosley. “By sharing weekly news updates of individuals who have been added to the Centralized Disciplinary Database, we hope to improve safeguarding through increased public awareness.”
Among those who receive the center's correspondence are national governing bodies, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and media, making the news of someone's listing on the database more likely to be seen.
Publicizing offenders is a core principle in anti-doping. Public announcements of people who get caught doping is considered a deterrent to drug use and the practice is part of the world drug-fighting rulebook.
In the SafeSport Center’s news release announcing the change, it said people listed on the database are currently restricted or banned from participating in Olympic or Paralympic sports — a penalty that encompasses elite level down to the grassroots. The center said the database is a snapshot in time — i.e., someone on the list could come off of it — and that the center's process is neither a criminal nor civil legal proceeding.
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