Today in obvious college football sociology

January 17th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

Believe it or not, college students drink at football games. It’s true! It’s science, like that quote from Ron Burgundy that got old like four years ago! (Is Anchorman vintage yet? I kind of want to bring it ’round again. Is the backlash over? Will there be a backlash against the pro-vintage, anti-backlash sentiment?)

What’s also true is that college football brings out the worst in us as humans. Don’t take my word for it: Read this paper from the University of Colorado. People get violent:

There is a great deal of anecdotal evidence that college football games can lead to aggressive and destructive behavior by fans. However, to date, no empirical study has attempted to document the magnitude of this phenomenon. We match daily data on offenses from the NIBRS to 26 Division I-A college football programs in order to estimate the relationship between college football games and crime. 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.

That’s the abstract; here’s the meat:

…we find that college football games are associated with sharp increases in crime. For instance, assaults increase by about 9% when a community hosts a college football game, vandalism increases by about 18%, and DUIs increase by about 13%. We also find evidence that upsets result in larger increases in crime than games that do not produce an upset. For instance, an upset loss at home is associated with a 112% increase in assaults and a 61% increase in vandalism. We discuss these results in the context of psychological theories of fan aggression.

The non-football fan, one that merely watches the games from the casual comfort of their IKEA sofa-chair thingy, might look at this result and think: What the hell? It’s just a sport, you lunatics! Which I understand. But I think anyone who has ever met an Ohio State fan — or anyone who has ever tailgated outside Kinnick Stadium on a Saturday with a red IU shirt on — will look at this and say: Wow. Only 112%?

{HT: Marginal Revolution}