Arena-based events and crime: an analysis of hourly robbery data

ABSTRACT

This article makes use of hourly crime counts to model the relationship between events that take place at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ and robberies, an arena that has caused local controversy regarding the costs and benefits of hosting such an entertainment venue. Results from the econometric model suggest that the NHL’s New Jersey Devils ice hockey games, concerts, and Disney-themed events are all associated with increases in robbery, while various other event categories such as the NBA basketball games played by the Nets and boxing, and mixed martial arts (MMA) matches are not associated with an increase. These findings support two complementary ecological theories of crime that focus on how events provide additional opportunities for crime by increasing the associated benefits while simultaneously decreasing the cost for economically motivated offenders to take advantage of.

KEYWORDS:

• Economics of crime
• entertainment economics
• sports economics
• crime pattern
• rational choice

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• C12
• H89
• L82
• L83

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Eric Piza for assisting me in procuring the Newark Police data used for the analysis in this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ Newark, like England and Wales has dedicated ‘Football Policing Units’ that specialise in policing during football matches and so are not displaced from other policing duties that they would normally be responsible for in other parts of a city (for more details, see Kurland, Johnson, and Tilley 2010; see also; Kurland and Piza 2018).

² Data on hours of darkness are available on the US Naval Observatory Astronomical Application Department website: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/aa_rstablew.pl?ID=AA&year=2007&task=0&state=NJ&place=Newark.

³ In an effort to economise for publication purposes the control variables utilised in the model have been omitted from Table 1, but can be provided upon request.

⁴ In an effort to economise for publication purposes the control variables utilised in the model have been omitted from Table 2, but can be provided upon request.