Bread and Circuses: Entertainment as Crime Prevention?

• In Event: Macro level Influences and Crime Patterns

Abstract

Entertainment can distract, appease, and control the masses. The trope has existed at least since the days of Roman Gladiators. But until recently it has not been empirically explored. This paper contributes to the emerging body of literature on entertainment as a determinant of crime by analyzing Chicago by-the-minute crime reports during major sporting events. Sports provide an exogenous infusion of TV diversion that we leverage to test the effect of entertainment on crime. Based on the assumption that the scheduling of a game is not related to crime reports within a given month, day of the week, and time-slot, we use month-hour-day-of-week fixed effects to estimate the effect of the televised sports games on crime. We compare crime reports by the half hour during a major sporting event to crime reports when there is no major sporting event. The Super Bowl generates the most dramatic declines: crime decreases by 30% - 44%. We find similar albeit smaller effects for most sporting events. Importantly, we find very little evidence for displacement of crime before or after the games. The effects are likely due to fewer potential criminals on the streets and, perhaps, with respect to drug crimes, distracted law enforcement.

Authors

• Hannah Laqueur, University of California, Berkeley

• Ryan Copus, University of California, Berkeley