Soccer games, time displacement and criminality: an analysis for the Recife city

Abstract

The passion of fans around the world, and the occurrence of football matches mobilizes displacement and spatial concentration of considerable numbers of fans, mostly young males, and is commonly seen as a favorable factor for the occurrence of urban violence. Despite its high criminality and being considered the “land of football”, there is little empirical academic analysis regarding the relationship between urban violence and the occurrence of football matches in Brazil. Based on a unique set of daily information on violence in the City of Recife obtained from official records and a negative binomial model, the work analyses the temporal profile between 2011 and 2015 and its relationship with the football games held in the city. The main results indicate that there is an increase in the occurrence of robberies one hour after soccer games, an increase in theft occurrences one hour before and during the games, and an increase in domestic violence one hour after the games. On the other hand, no effects of soccer games were found on homicide crimes, bodily injury and traffic and possession of drugs.