Friendly reminder that the superbowl inspires some of the highest domestic abuse and sex trafficking rates of the year. So be careful, and check in with your friends
@celestialapparitions @the-spence @radfemhancock @whimsicalvanilla @lordloxleychallengesyoutoaduel
Source List
Human/sex trafficking
Non-academic (ie, regular news articles):
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/28607449/the-super-bowl-remains-target-human-trafficking
“ According to human trafficking data compiled by the Institute for Sport and Social Justice's "Shut Out Trafficking" program, there's consistently a spike of reported incidents in the U.S. around January and February (when the Super Bowl takes place). “
“ In recent years, the increased visitors in host cities tend to encourage the criminal activities of human trafficking and sex trafficking. It is often found that criminally organized sex rings will travel from one location to another to meet the demand of large sporting events.“
https://time.com/5762475/super-bowl-human-trafficking/
“ They noted that events such as the Feb. 2 Super Bowl, with all its attendant parties, are ripe for human and sex trafficking. “
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article239767408.html
(Trigger warning for this source, it includes personal accounts of rape, assault, and trafficking)
“[Pimps have] placed ads on sex-for-hire and adult entertainment websites and they’re trolling lobbies, pool decks, bars and Super Bowl parties to find johns ready to pay $100 cash for 30 minutes in a room with a person they may think of as a prostitute but who is more likely one of 40 million victims caught in the $150 billion sex and labor trafficking industry. It is second only to drug trafficking as the world’s largest criminal industry, according to the International Labour Organization and the nonprofit Polaris Project. “
“ Calls to trafficking hotlines increased 23 percent before last year’s game and two dozen victims were rescued, including five in one day as a result of tips from hotels. “
“ For the organizations fighting the crime of trafficking, the Super Bowl is prime time because of the connection between sports and the sale of sex. “
“ Florida ranks third nationwide in human trafficking cases, and Miami-Dade County is the biggest trafficking hub in the state, according to a report by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, which estimates that the average sex trafficking victim may be forced to have sex 20 times a day, seven days a week. “
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sex-trafficking-super-bowl_b_816618
(Trigger warning for this article too, for semi-graphic descriptions of rape, assault, and trafficking)
“ One such trafficker, Manuel A. Walcott, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for offering a 14-year-old girl as a “Super Bowl Special” during the 2009 game in Tampa. When undercover investigators inquired about the special, they were quoted a price of $300 for two girls — a 14-year-old and an 18-year-old who had been a prostitute for two years. “ (emphasis mine)
Academic:
Leveraging Publicly Available Data to Discern Patterns of Human-Trafficking Activity
This is a study done on online ads for “escort services”, etc. It did not find an increase in ad activity big enough to set the Super Bowl apart from other large fluctuations in data, but it did find the Super Bowl had an effect on the type of ads observed. There was an increase in new-to-town ads, shown in the chart below. This could suggest a jump in activity due to the influx of people, which may not be reflected as clearly in this form of data.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0033350614003023
“ the United States Super Bowl, the largest annual sporting event in the United States, has been labeled the ‘single largest magnet for sex trafficking, child sex work in the U.S. and possibly the world’.19 The scale of sex work at the last few Super Bowls was described by government agents as ‘incredible’. “
This source does define a difference between sex trafficking and “sex work” that I found a little ridiculous, but it is an excellent delve into various research on sex trafficking with regards to sporting events in general, legal issues, public health concerns, and more. Note that it does not have empirical data specifically related to the Super Bowl.
https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/dpjwglaw2&id=155&men_tab=srchresults
“human trafficking has long been associated with large sporting events, conferences, and other large venues involving a great number of men. Human trafficking generates $32 billion a year and is tied with the drug trade as the second largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world. Regrettably, there is a strong correlation between missing children and underage sex trafficking.”
This source discusses methods used to prevent and stop sex trafficking, as well as addressing some of the myths around it (see pages 147-149 for that bit specifically)
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1602.05048.pdf
another study on ads
“ The Super Bowl events, except for 2014, are on par with the other events that were correlated with the most significant increase in ‘new-to-town’ ads analyzed in this study “
“ Our analysis has shown that in some cases such as the Super Bowl (in particular, of 2013, 2015, and 2016) or Consumer Electronics Show (2015), one can see a correlation between the occurrence of the event and noticeable and statistically significant evidence of an influx of sex-workers, and, we may imply, sex trafficking activity. However, in using publicly available data to analyze the broader context of sex trafficking in the United States and Canada, we have identified multiple other venues, events, times, and locations that show a more significant influx of sex advertising than the Super Bowl. “
Tldr: They found other events inspired larger spikes in the gathered data, but that the Super Bowl is still a significant spike compared to the norm of the area it’s held in
Domestic Abuse
Academic sources (there is a reason I’m not including non-academic sources, see source 1):
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0193723515594209
“A “Google search” on domestic violence and football will yield over three million “hits.” An Internet site devoted to verifying or debunking myths—snopes.com—sums up its response by flatly calling the subject an urban legend. The site says in essence that calling Super Bowl Sunday the most dangerous day of the year is a myth. This statement unfortunately dismisses as myth an extremely complicated and dangerous topic. It is reflective of a frustration that researchers in social science face that perhaps researchers in the natural sciences do not—the topics are readily available to the public and are, therefore, vulnerable to uneducated scrutiny. In addition, football’s popularity is so widespread and overwhelming that this concept seems like an assault on a sacred cow, an assault on the American way. Football is perceived to be as wholesome and American as apple pie and only those who truly hate America (or in this case, American men) could suggest that it carries a deleterious effect.“ (emphasis mine)
“ What was found is that football gamedays produce higher numbers of domestic violence arrests than the comparable, non-sports Sundays (n = 22). This was the largest comparison set and the most significant, because it ruled out some confounding factors. In addition, the study found that football gamedays produced higher numbers of domestic violence arrests than the other three major professional sports. The average football gameday is more dangerous to women—as victims of domestic violence—than the other days of the year “ (emphasis mine)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/088626000015011006
Note, this is an old study, and I’m merely including it to show it also backs up points made by the other sources listed here
Found correlation between football game days in the 1993-94 season and an increase in domestic violence dispatches in LA. However, information on the Super Bowl does not seem out of line with other football games, although I would argue they needed more data, and that the data surrounding the Super Bowl they did collect was inconclusive.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0887403404267771
“ But New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, the day of the Super Bowl, Memorial Day, and Independence Day are dates with total domestic violence reports higher than the normal daily average.“
“ Some interesting research has documented the increases in testosterone that occur among both men and women when football, or other violent sports, are watched (Walsh, 2002). In turn, heightened testosterone levels have been linked to violence (Mazur & Booth, 1998). We think it possible that such factors as proximity, opportunity, alcohol consumption, and possibly heightened testosterone levels all coalesce on some holidays, creating a natural incubator, or the right chemistry, for more IPV. “
I will add more sources on DV later, but I have a meeting to go to right now, and I want to go ahead and post this for those of you curious about the subject.
























