EMBARGOED UNTIL: January 18, 1998
Super Bowl Sunday, the championship finale of America's bone-crushing professional football season and a popular excuse for raucous annual parties, has been called the "day of dread" by women's groups claiming it is the "biggest day of the year for violence against women." That claim is based on a 1992 Old Dominion University study which didn't actually reach that conclusion according to the Wall Street Journal (Feb. 5, 1993).
If you decide to examine if viewing violent sporting events drives men to engage in violent behavior, you may wish to speak with Brett Drake, associate professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis. He co-authored a study which found no correlation between reported cases of child abuse and the broadcast of national playoff games for baseball, basketball, hockey or football.
The study, Do Child Abuse Rates Increase on Those Days on Which Professional Sporting Events are Held?, appeared in the September 1996 Journal of Family Violence. It was the first study to examine the linkage between professional sporting events and violence against children. The findings did not support the hypothesis that sporting events yield increases in the number of substantiated male-perpetrator child abuse cases.
Drake stresses that these research findings should not be viewed as contradicting other research that has linked sports violence to abuse. It is possible, Drake says, that any violent behaviors associated with viewing professional sports are targeted toward specific groups, such as women or other adult males.
Future studies on this issue, he suggests, should be longitudinal in nature and based on measures of violence that are truly meaningful. This study was based on reports of physical child abuse that were investigated by the Missouri Division of Family Services and substantiated as actual or at least probably cases of child abuse.
Previous studies, such as those tracking homicide rates or emergency room admissions, are of limited value because the data includes many incidences that are unrelated to a real case of child or spousal abuse. Not all women seeking emergency care after a football game are victims of abuse, says Drake.
"I would suggest that we need to refocus our thinking away from a simplistic 'Jekyll & Hyde' approach where we worry about specific events dramatically spiking rates of violence. When you consider the vast amount of graphic violence out there, from rap music to R-rated films, it is easy to understand how watching a three-hour football game might be the least of our worries," says Drake.
Editors & Reporters: If you examine the notion that viewing violent sports can predispose individuals to commit acts of violence within the home, contact Drake at 315-935-4880 (office). Please contact Steve Infanti of Dick Jones Communications if I can be of any assistance or if you would like a copy of Drake's study. We assist Washington University with its public affairs work. The February 5, 1993 issue of the Wall Street Journal has a "Review & Outlook" article which questions the validity of the Old Dominion University study.
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