Violence after the Superbowl.

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
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I don’t have any statistics or whathaveyou, but I’m pretty sure that domestic violence increases during the Superbowl.

My girlfriend is a domestic violence/sex crimes victim advocate for the State Attorney. Basically, she talks to victims who’s partner or family member was arrested for domestic violence, and makes sure the victim’s wishes are met when bail is being set. The Monday after the Superbowl is infamous as a long work day, and this year they didn’t finish processing the cases until that Wednesday. Most days it takes 6 hours to process the previous night’s arrests.

I’m sure this wouldn’t convince Cecil, as there is no way to prove that the Superbowl had anything to do with it (unless they admit it). But I think its obvious, especially if it happens year after year.

Just my two cents.

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Cecil said: << Ringle called several women’s shelters and found no evidence of increased violence against women on Super Bowl Sunday. Domestic violence experts said they knew of no research supporting such a claim. >>

Your anecdotal evidence is interesting but not even remotely conclusive.

You say “most days” it takes 6 hours, but surely EVERY Monday presumably has a weekend’s worth accumulated? And I have no doubt that domestic violence is more prevalent on the weekend (more time when both people are home rather than at work.)

BTW, someone involved in case work is not necessarily an objective observer. Cecil did a column some years ago (I can’t find it at the moment) about whether hospitals see more births around the time of the full moon. The evidence: no. But you can find lots of hospital workers who will swear that it’s true, despite the records of their own administration showing it ain’t so. Belief is a powerful force.

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There are too many variables, Resin. Just because your girlfriend says there were more abuse cases on that Monday, doesn’t mean it was because of the Super Bowl. Maybe there was a surge, but maybe there was something local going on. Maybe it was just a statistical fluke. In order to prove that domestic abuse really did go up during the Super Bowl, you’d have to do a study that ruled out all the other possible variables.

Atlanta hosted two Super Bowls, in 1994 and in 2000. If you could go back and look at the numbers for domestic abuse in Atlanta, I would bet you would not find any upsurge in domestic violence on Super Bowl Sunday. And even if you did find a difference in the numbers, how would you know exactly what was responsible for it? Would it be the Super Bowl itself? Why not the fact that there’s a new Olympic park commemorating the bombing, thus refreshing it in everyone’s minds? Why not the fact that Planet Hollywood and the Hard Rock Cafe both hosted Super Bowl parties?

For that matter, why not the fact that it was certain teams who played? There are people who will tell you that, for example, whenever Dallas goes to the Super Bowl, the stock market goes up 40 points, but no one’s ever been able to prove it. It’s just one of those “everybody knows” things.

What happened this year with your girlfriend could have been a statistical fluke. You would only have a case if it happened consistently, year after year.

Cops and emergency room personnel have been saying for years, “…must be a full moon”, to explain a sudden upsurge in violence, but AFAIK no one has been able to prove that with statistics, either. The best explanation that I’ve heard is that you just notice the ones that happen when it’s a full moon. In the same way, your girlfriend just notices the ones that happen the day after the Super Bowl.

For 2,000 years people believed what Aristotle told them about where swallows went during the winter. Swallows, he said, burrowed into the river mud in the fall, and came out again in the spring. This was logical to him. The swallows disappeared, but they didn’t die, because nobody ever found thousands of dead swallows every fall, not the way you find dead bugs lying around after the first frost. Where else could they have gone? Nobody had ever found them sleeping in caves like bears or bats, so the only place they could be was in the mud. Nobody ever went and dug around to find one because it was just such a simple and, to them, obvious explanation, the same way it’s a simple and obvious explanation to your girlfriend (and other people) that the cases of domestic abuse they see on the day after the Super Bowl MUST have been caused by the Super Bowl.

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So, Notthe, you gonna change the White Queen’s quote to read: "“Why, sometimes I’ve swallowed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!”

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I don’t swallow–I spit.