Mike Hartill is Professor of Sociology of Sport at Edge Hill University (Department of Social Sciences) and director of the Centre for Child Protection and Safeguarding in Sport (CPSS).
Mike has conducted research into child sexual exploitation in sport for the past fifteen years, working on a number of national and international projects aimed at preventing abuse of children in sport. He has been particularly influential in highlighting the sexual abuse of boys within sports contexts. Amongst research articles and book chapters, he authored ‘Sexual abuse in youth sport: a sociocultural analysis’ published by Routledge in 2016. Mike has also delivered higher education programmes on child welfare in sport since 2002.
Recent projects include the VOICE Project – a collaboration between eight European countries focused on the experiences of victims of sexual abuse in sport. Mike is currently leading the project CASES (Child Abuse in Sport: European Statistics) which investigates prevalence of child abuse and neglect in sport across six European countries.
Mike works with a wide range of organisations such as Sport England, the NWG Network, Lime Culture, the Child Protection in Sport Unit, and Survivors Manchester. Mike serves as an academic expert on sexual violence and safeguarding in sport for the Council of Europe and the European Union.
He recently served as the child protection in sport expert for the English Football Association’s independent review into allegations of child sexual abuse in football (Sheldon, 2021) and provided expert testimony for a House of Lords Select Committee on a National Plan for Sport and Recreation (April, 2021).
Mike has also been instrumental in establishing Sport England’s newly formed Safeguarding Advisory Panel, served by a group of men and women with lived experience of sexual abuse in sport.