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Abstract
This paper estimates the relationship between sports participation and two broad categories of crime – property crimes and violent crimes- in 323 local authorities in England between 2012 and 2015. The objective is to assess whether participation in sporting activities influences regional crime rates. Furthermore, the impact of socioeconomic conditions on crime rates are estimated. The findings suggest sport participation is associated with reduction in both property and violent crime rates across English local authorities between 2012 and 2015. However, sports participation has a stronger effect on violent crimes compared with property crimes. The results show a 10% increase in sports participation is associated with a fall in violent crimes of 0.97 and 1.56% while a 10% increase in sports participation is associated with a fall in property crimes of approximately 0.65%.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.