The association between professional football games and domestic violence in Los Angeles County

This article explores the association between professional football games a nd domestic violence (DV) by performing an ecological time trend analysis o f Los Angeles Sheriff Department's (LASD) data from January 1, 1993, to Dec ember 31, 1995. Mean weekly DV dispatch increase in the 1993-1994 football season was 69% during nonfootball season compared with 100% during football season (p = 0.09), 147% during playoff weeks, and 264% during Super Bowl ( SB) week Mean weekly increase over the entire rime period was 63% during no nfootball season compared with 74% during total football season (p = 0.26), 74% during playoff weeks, and 101% during SE weeks. Overall, authors faile d to observe a statistically significant association between DV police disp atches and the timing of professional football in Los Angeles County. Impre ssive increases in dispatches, however were noted during the 1993-1994 play off and Super Bowl weeks that could not be rested due to insufficient sampl e size.