Crime and Sport Participation: An Econometric Model With Simultaneous Equations Approach

Abstract

Sport in all societies’ leads to a return on social capital. Many politicians use sports-based programs to reduce crime in society because sport plays an important role in the social development of societies. On the other hand, crime causes insecurity in the neighborhood, and when people realize their fear of crime, they reduce their social activities, such as sports participation. Therefore, this study determines the interaction effect between crime and sport participation and we test an econometric model with simultaneous equations approach using the two-stage least squares method (2SLS). We used panel data of all provinces of Iran from 2004 – 2017. The results showed that a significant and negative interaction effect exists between crime and sport participation. Also, the number of coaches, sport facilities, and, sport budget have a significant and positive effect on sport participation. Per capita GDP has a significant and negative effect on crime and per capita GDP”×”sport participation has a significant and positive effect on crime. Finally, drugs have a significant and positive effect on crime.