Stadium and Arena Crime in Cleveland, OH: Determinants of Crime in Sporting Venues’ Vicinities.

• In Event: Public Order Crimes

Abstract

A relationship has been established between sporting events and neighborhood crime by a number of scholars (Menaker & Chaney, 2014; Billings & Depken, 2012; Merlo, Hong, & Cottler, 2010; Rees & Schnepel, 2009; ). Routine activity theory and social disorganization theory has been used to explain the increase of crime in communities as a result of sporting events. Elias and Dunning’s (1986) observations on the civilizing process and the quest for excitement at sporting events may provide additional support for observations of increased crime counts in cities on game day. Crime reports over a six year period (March 2009 through March 2014) within a .5 mile radius of three sports venues in the U.S. city of Cleveland, OH were obtained. An analysis of crime in close proximity to the venues, those related to specific sporting events (football, baseball, basketball, and hockey), and all others not on game day were analyzed using geospatial techniques. Of the 241 reported crimes, 61.4% of crime adjacent to the sports venues occurred on game day. A multinomial logistic regression was run to determine to explore the relationship between predictor variables of time, temperature, and event type, and the outcome variable of type of crime.

Authors

• Brian Edward Menaker, Lake Erie College

• Elizabeth Oakley, Georgia Southern University

• Richard Dale Sheptak, Lake Erie College