It’s about 1700 to 750, based on roster sizes. Expand it to include practice squads and 40-mans, and the ratio does not change meaningfully in baseball’s favor.
This is another example of the burden of being young, minority, male and successful. Domestic violence is a significant problem, but it’s a societal problem. I’d bet the incidence rate in the general population dwarfs that in the NFL community.
There is no room for stereotypes based on hip hop music, dreadlocks and the violence of the sport. We have a whole thread about this thinking — I see a brown person, call 911. It is unjust.
As unjust as a lifetime ban for this offense, which I’ve just seen the video of, based on all the circumstances of this case.
Check out this
link . Per data compiled by Vocativ, from 2010-2014 the NBA and NFL led all major sports in *arrest rates*. Now arrest rates are problematic for obvious reasons in that they don't account for unreported incidents as well as incidents that are reported but don't result in an arrest. Its fairly likely that were we able to access the other two data points from any given timeframe, the numbers would be far larger across the board regardless of the population studied (i.e. general, NFL or other major sports league).
You should also take a gander at this piece from
538. Setting aside the obvious problems of the overall data as well as the bias against reporting these incidents overall, this is a key paragraph about the NFL's 55.4% domestic violence arrest rate.
Moreover, relative to the income level (top 1 percent) and poverty rate (0 percent) of NFL players, the domestic violence arrest rate is downright extraordinary. According to a
2002 Bureau of Justice Statistics Report covering 1993 to 1998, the domestic victimization rate for women in households with income greater than $75,000 (3.3 per 100,000) was about 39 percent of the overall rate (8.4 per 100,000), and less than 20 percent of the rate for women ages 20 to 34. That report doesn’t include cross-tabs, and it’s a little out of date (more current data is harder to find because
more recent BJS reports on the issue do not include income breakdowns), but that sub-20 percent relative victimization among high-income households is consistent with the NFL’s 13 percent relative arrest rate overall (arrest disparities
between income levels are
probably even greater than victimization rates).
Baseball may have more problems of late and recency bias tends to skew our perception of which sport has the biggest problem. But the data suggests the NFL, in particular, has an large ongoing issue though it may or may not be worse than the NBA.
Also, to be clear, I don't think its "fair" or "just" that a 22 year old who appears to have anger management issues should have his promising career ended over this incident. However, given the NFL's track record with assault/domestic violence, if the pendulum is swinging that way, its better than the league not really addressing it at all. Ideally, per this excellent
Deadspin piece by Diana Moskovitz, sports leagues would have a comprehensive program that does't just cover the team or league's ass but results in meaningful counseling that helps/protects the victims while getting players the help they need. Unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be happening anytime soon so absent that, real consequences for players involved in these incidents are the next best option in terms of deterrence imho. Again, its not perfect but if the cost of these incidents is a lot of money and a career, it stands to reason that it may stop at least one incident from happening (of course it will stop many more from being reported but that is likely happening anyway).
Finally, I don't know where stereotypes come in to anything posted in this thread - if I was giving off the message that there are stereotypes at play than I apologize. I am basing my view on data but I am open to the idea that my either/both the data and my interpretation are deeply flawed.