The National Football League

Abstract

This article investigates the effects of National Football League (NFL) games on crime. Using a panel data set that includes daily crime incidences in eight large cities with NFL teams, we examine how various measurements of criminal activities change on game day compared with nongame days. Our findings from both ordinary least squares and negative binomial regressions indicate that NFL home games are associated with a 2.6% increase in total crimes, while financially motivated crimes such as larceny and motor vehicle theft increase by 4.1% and 6.7%, respectively, on game days. However, we observe that play-off games are associated with a decrease in financially motivated crimes. The effects of game time (afternoon vs. evening) and upset wins and losses on crime are also considered.

Entertainment as Crime Prevention: Evidence From Chicago Sports Games

“…Insofar as home games may produce crime by concentrating individuals in and around stadiums, the million plus people watching the games on television swamp whatever stadium effect there may be. The relative importance of television viewership may explain the difference between our findings and those of Rees and Schnepel (2009), who report increases in crime during college games for hosting cities, and the findings of Kalist and Lee (2014), who report increases during home NFL games. As noted in the literature review, professional sporting events in Chicago generate a substantial number of television viewers as compared to college games and NFL games in the comparatively small cities studied by Kalist and Lee. In general, we do not find differences in the magnitude of the effects for wins as compared to losses.…”

“…They find sharp increases in the host community's assaults, vandalism, arrests for disorderly conduct, and alcohol-related offenses, with particularly sharp increases for upset losses. Finally, most recently, Kalist and Lee (2014) test for the effect of NFL games on daily crime rates in a handful of cities. Specifically, using 2 years of daily crime data and NFL schedules for Baltimore, Detroit, Miami, Newark, New Orleans, LA, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Washington, DC, the authors assess whether home games, by concentrating people at a sports stadium, increase crime.…”

Public Space and the Situational Conditions of Crime and Fear

“…Public spaces that have been classified as crime hot spots are areas of convergence. They are often at or around transportation nodes, bus stops, subway or train stations (Ceccato, 2013;Ceccato & Newton, 2015;Loukaitou-Sideris, 2012), schools (Willits, Broidy, & Denman, 2015), commercial properties or shopping malls (Clarke, 1997;Schneider & Kitchen, 2002), sport arenas/games (Kalist & Lee, 2014) or belong to inner-city areas, outdoor environments close to bars (Pridemore & Grubesic, 2012;Ratcliffe, 2012;Roncek & Maier, 1991), entertainment areas, or urban parks (McCormick & Holland, 2013). On the other hand, some public spaces allow anonymity and therefore other types of crime.…”

Major sports events and domestic violence: A systematic review

“…Both Sivarajasingam et al ( 2005 ) and Quigg et al ( 2013 ) found a connection between international soccer match days and an increase in assault‐related presentations at emergency departments, whereas Miller et al ( 2013 ) in Australia found a similar increase following a local football team match (which was not associated with alcohol). There has been a significant amount of research making the positive connection between major sporting events and violent and/or criminal behaviour by fans following matches (Block, 2021 ; Kalist & Lee, 2016 ). Given these research findings over the last 20 years, it is unsurprising that connections have also been made between aggression when watching sports and violence against women (Gagnon, 1996 ).…”

“…Research has so far shown that connections between major sports and assaults or crime more broadly are not necessarily the same across all sports or locations: following the broadcast of tennis in Switzerland admission rates to hospitals decreased (Correia et al, 2018 ), and no increase in (sex) crimes was seen following the Formula 1 Grand Prix in the United States (Piquero et al, 2021 ). Furthermore, rates of increase in hospital admissions or crime have been shown to potentially differ between countries and between the level of significance of the match or surprising result (Hughes et al, 2018 ; Kalist & Lee, 2016 ).…”