The Dez Bryant situation has gotten me thinking about the prevalence of crime in major US professional sports. Interesting site here: http://www.vocativ.com/culture/sport/nfl-arrest-rates/
Here are the arrest rates (not conviction rates) of each of the four major leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL) if you take the actual number of arrests per players in the sport, and project it over a population of 100,000 people:
2010
MLB: 147
NFL: 2830
NBA: 2768
NHL: 189
2011
MLB: 936
NFL: 2418
NBA: 2913
NHL: 284
2012
MLB: 709
NFL: 2229
NBA: 765
NHL: 102
2013
MLB: 573
NFL: 2878
NBA: 2190
NHL: 95
2014
MLB: 398
NFL: 1974
NBA: 2148
NHL: 205
AVERAGE
MLB: 553
NFL: 2466
NBA: 2157
NHL: 175
If you look at just domestic abuse figures, here are the four major sports average arrests over that same timeframe projected over a population of 100,000:
MLB: 43
NFL: 241
NBA: 413
NHL: 38
I think it's worth exploring why the NFL and NBA have significantly higher rates than MLB or the NHL. It is interesting to note that the NFL actually has a lower arrest rate than the national average for 25-29 year olds (which is a relatively fair comparison given the age demographics of the NFL). This summer 538 did a story on NFL domestic violence (http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/the-rate-of-domestic-violence-arrests-among-nfl-players/), and they did this kind of analysis. Check out this graph:
So despite having much higher arrest rates than other pro sports, the NFL has *lower* arrest rates compared with their peer group nationally. One guess why is because of the lack of poverty. The effective poverty rate among active pro football players is zero, since the minimum salary for an NFL player is over $400,000.
That said, I do wonder why NFL and NBA players tend to commit crimes at a much higher rate than MLB or NHL players. And if there's anything that can be done about that.
Here are the arrest rates (not conviction rates) of each of the four major leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL) if you take the actual number of arrests per players in the sport, and project it over a population of 100,000 people:
2010
MLB: 147
NFL: 2830
NBA: 2768
NHL: 189
2011
MLB: 936
NFL: 2418
NBA: 2913
NHL: 284
2012
MLB: 709
NFL: 2229
NBA: 765
NHL: 102
2013
MLB: 573
NFL: 2878
NBA: 2190
NHL: 95
2014
MLB: 398
NFL: 1974
NBA: 2148
NHL: 205
AVERAGE
MLB: 553
NFL: 2466
NBA: 2157
NHL: 175
If you look at just domestic abuse figures, here are the four major sports average arrests over that same timeframe projected over a population of 100,000:
MLB: 43
NFL: 241
NBA: 413
NHL: 38
I think it's worth exploring why the NFL and NBA have significantly higher rates than MLB or the NHL. It is interesting to note that the NFL actually has a lower arrest rate than the national average for 25-29 year olds (which is a relatively fair comparison given the age demographics of the NFL). This summer 538 did a story on NFL domestic violence (http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/the-rate-of-domestic-violence-arrests-among-nfl-players/), and they did this kind of analysis. Check out this graph:
So despite having much higher arrest rates than other pro sports, the NFL has *lower* arrest rates compared with their peer group nationally. One guess why is because of the lack of poverty. The effective poverty rate among active pro football players is zero, since the minimum salary for an NFL player is over $400,000.
That said, I do wonder why NFL and NBA players tend to commit crimes at a much higher rate than MLB or NHL players. And if there's anything that can be done about that.