Prime Time for Crime? A Multi-City Analysis of Sporting Events, Sports Venues, and Crime

This study examines the relationship between sporting events and crime near sports venues based on a sample of Major League Baseball (MLB) and National Football League (NFL) regular season games. Open crime data drawn from 21 U.S. cities were analyzed using a quasi-experimental design that compared differences in crime around venues hosting home games to venues whose teams play an away game, at the same time, from 2015 to 2023. Within one kilometer of sports venues, larceny and assault rose when stadiums hosted games. Larceny peaked before and after games, while assaults tended to occur during and after games, suggesting different opportunity structures across crime types. The relationship between sporting events and crime varies by where games are hosted and is sensitive to some analytic considerations, which in turn have important implications for criminological theory and strategies to mitigate the criminogenic effects of these events.