{"id":378,"date":"2008-03-02T16:46:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-02T22:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/2008\/03\/02\/chris-simon-chronic-offenders-and-the-hockey-recidivist\/"},"modified":"2008-07-22T11:17:11","modified_gmt":"2008-07-22T17:17:11","slug":"chris-simon-chronic-offenders-and-the-hockey-recidivist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/2008\/03\/02\/chris-simon-chronic-offenders-and-the-hockey-recidivist\/","title":{"rendered":"chris simon, chronic offenders, and the hockey recidivist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/files\/blogger_import\/372-simon.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173272632955049330\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/files\/blogger_import\/373-simon.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>for the first time in team history, the local call-in shows, letters to the editor, and message boards are awash in criticism of the <em>minnesota wild.<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.minnpost.com\/patborzi\/2008\/02\/29\/1053\/fans_gone_wild_anger_over_the_simon_deal\">minnesota hockey fans are in revolt<\/a> over the team&#8217;s recent trade for chris simon (left), the most notorious goon in hockey.<\/p>\n<p>in truth, the term <em><a href=\"http:\/\/chrisuggen.blogspot.com\/2007\/07\/first-rule-of-fight-camp-is-that.html\">goon<\/a> <\/em>doesn&#8217;t do mr. simon Justice. for there is honor among goons and the <em>wild&#8217;s <\/em>latest acquisition has consistently violated the clear-cut norms and behavioral expectations of the enforcer role. as a criminologist, i&#8217;d characterize mr. simon as a violent recidivist. think that&#8217;s too strong? here&#8217;s how the <em>strib <\/em>summarizes his career accomplishments:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>30 games (December 2007): The longest suspension in NHL history, after Simon, playing for the Islanders, stomped on Pittsburgh&#8217;s Jarkko Ruutu with his skate on Dec. 15.<\/li>\n<li>25 games (March 2007): Then, the longest suspension in league history, for his two-handed stick attack to the face of Rangers forward Ryan Hollweg.<\/li>\n<li>5 preseason games (1994): While with Quebec, swung his stick at Ottawa&#8217;s Dennis Vial but missed.<\/li>\n<li>3 games (1997): With Washington, he used a racial slur toward Edmonton&#8217;s Mike Grier, who is black.<\/li>\n<li>2 games (2004): Crosschecked Tampa Bay&#8217;s Ruslan Fedotenko and then jumped on him and punched him.<\/li>\n<li>2 games (2004): Kneed Dallas&#8217; Sergei Zubov.<\/li>\n<li>2 games (2001): Elbowed Florida&#8217;s Anders Eriksson.<\/li>\n<li>1 game (2000): In the playoffs with the Capitals, he was suspended for crosschecking Pittsburgh&#8217;s Peter Popovic across the throat.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>the press even covers mr. simon as though he were a criminal rather than an athlete. the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/12\/18\/sports\/hockey\/18isles.html\"><em>times<\/em><\/a>, for example,<em> <\/em>writes that mr. simon needs help and counseling, while <a href=\"http:\/\/sportsillustrated.cnn.com\/2007\/writers\/michael_farber\/10\/24\/simon1029\/\">sports illustrated<\/a> calls mr. simon a &#8220;hockey recidivist,&#8221; tracing his criminal history back to the junior leagues:<\/p>\n<p>&#8230; In the Ontario junior hockey league Simon was a disciplinary nightmare. Although the OHL was unable to provide records, The Sault Star (of Sault Sainte Marie, Ont.) reported that in 1991-92 he was suspended eight times for a total of 34 games &#8212; 32 by the league and two by the team. The previous season, when the Soo Greyhounds acquired Simon from the Ottawa 67s, he was serving a 12-game suspension for having slashed Niagara Falls Thunder defenseman David Babcock in the face, breaking seven teeth and opening a gash that required 21 stitches.<\/p>\n<p>i always teach a bit on chronic offenders in my delinquency class, citing marvin wolfgang et al.&#8217;s (1972) finding that 6 percent of the 1945 philadelphia birth cohort was responsible for 52 percent of that cohort&#8217;s police contacts. would a similar pattern of chronic offending hold in hockey?<\/p>\n<p>my quick-n-dirty analysis of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sportsline.com\/nhl\/stats\/playerpenalty\/regularseason\/yearly\/NHL\/OVERALL?&amp;_1:col_1=4&amp;_1:col_2=3&amp;print_rows=9999\">cbs sports<\/a>&#8216; 2007-2008 penalty statistics indicates that 6 percent of hockey players are responsible for about 21 percent of the penalty minutes. if i throw 30-game suspensions into the mix, of course, the top 6 percent would be responsible for a significantly larger share of the penalty and suspension minutes.<\/p>\n<p>violence is deeply engrained in hockey culture, so minnesotans can appreciate good physical hockey. after all, the real-life hanson brothers learned to play in virginia, minnesota (warning: bad language and worse violence in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PAcere7LL_o&amp;feature=related\">this clip<\/a>, but <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5i_D6oQO6b8&amp;feature=related\">this one<\/a> seems to feature paul wellstone as a referee). while the violent hansons shocked their fellow players, however, chris simon reminds me of <em>slap shot&#8217;s <\/em>other goon: the feared <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twincities.com\/ci_8374632?source=most_viewed\">ogie oglethorpe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>i almost expect the wild announcer to introduce him with a riff on jim carr&#8217;s movie intro: &#8220;<em>Oh this young man has had a very trying rookie season, with the litigation, the notoriety, his subsequent deportation to Canada and that country&#8217;s refusal to accept him. Well, I guess that&#8217;s more than most 21-year-olds can handle. Number six, <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PMGaO8YSV0o\"><em>Ogie Oglethorpe<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>for the first time in team history, the local call-in shows, letters to the editor, and message boards are awash in criticism of the minnesota wild. minnesota hockey fans are in revolt over the team&#8217;s recent trade for chris simon (left), the most notorious goon in hockey. in truth, the term goon doesn&#8217;t do mr. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[31525],"class_list":["post-378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}