A new economics study from the University of Colorado at Denver finds that college football causes crime.
Daniel Rees, an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Colorado Denver, reports his findings:
Our results suggest that the host community registers sharp increases in assaults, vandalism, arrests for disorderly conduct, and arrests for alcohol-related offenses on game days. Upsets are associated with the largest increases in the number of expected offenses. These estimates are discussed in the context of psychological theories of fan aggression.
In other words, the arson arrests in Columbus after the BCS game were expected (yet again).
…assaults increase by about 9% when a community hosts a college football game, vandalism increases by about 18%, and DUIs increase by about 13%.
Yikes! Somebody call Fanblogs commenter 40 Acres of Burnt Orange!
The report does uncover that the outcome of the game greatly impacts the level of violence – which helps to counter the argument that the troublemakers are just some angry out-of-towners. The closeness of the game also has a factor on the level of violence:
“…expected assaults increase by 12 percent with a close home game win, but increase by only 5 percent when the win was not close.”
And it’s not just the Penn State players – it’s a trend all over the country. The study looked at 26 FBS college hometowns, most with populations over 100,000 people.
The entire report is actually pretty fascinating stuff… especially if statistics ring your bell.
The study is available in pdf format from the UCD economics website (which I’m sure all of you have bookmarked, but just in case… the pdf version is available here)
Hat Tip: Rob @ Orangejack
TrojanWire 
Leave a comment