Is there any truth behind the rumour that the number of incidents of violent crimes increases when there is a full moon?
No. No more truth than in the statement that it must be going to snow because you did something you’re not commonly known to do.
Mrs Jammers works with people with Learning Disabilities, and they seem to become a bit more restless around a full moon. But that’s more falling over and wetting themselves than violent crimes.
Jxx
Interesting article on the subject here.
If people THINK the night of a full moon means a time of crazy things happening they might choose that night to do their own craziness.
A friend of mine works in the ER and she says there are more DUI accidents, and just plain accidents of stupidity on full moon nights.
I have looked into this. There have been many studies done on the so-called Full Moon Effect, and they all turn up either negative or marginally so. A meta-study was done (a study of the studies, which can smooth out the noise of individual studies by putting them all together) and it found no effect whatsoever. They looked at all sorts of things: traffic accidents, police reports, suicides, birthrate, hospitalizations. The papers were fascinating. Most were in Psychological Reports (for those who are itching to say, “Cite?”) and co-authored by I. W. Kelly (U. Saskatchewan).
However, I will point out: more than 95% of all murders have occurred within two weeks of either the full or new Moon.
This is exactly the sort of statistic that starts this sort of belief. Of course 95% of everything has happened within two weeks of either a full or new moon! 