Football games make us angry

Some people at least.  Daniel Rees writes to me:

…we find that college football games are associated with sharp increases in crime.  For instance, assaults increase by about 9% when a community hosts a college football game, vandalism increases by about 18%, and DUIs increase by about 13%.  We also find evidence that upsets result in larger increases in crime than games that do not produce an upset.  For instance, an upset loss at home is associated with a 112% increase in assaults and a 61% increase in vandalism.  We discuss these results in the context of psychological theories of fan aggression.

Here is the paper.  I guess those people should have gone to see a violent movie instead!

Addendum: Here is some outside coverage, see also Justin Wolfers at Freakonomics blog as well.