After studying through 70,000 of 2011 to 2014 domestic violence reports, Shift: the Project to End Domestic Violence along with the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy comes to a suggestion that there is a connection between sporting events, holidays and domestic violence in Calgary, Alberta. The team’s paper states that there is a statistically significant connection between higher rates of domestic violence and certain Calgary Stampeders’ football games as well as the arrival of the Calgary Stampede. During 10 days of Calgary Stampede, the study discovers at least three days of it had more violence calls up to 15 per cent compared to an average day. Not only that, it also shows how weekends and summer months were generally associated with the highest rates of domestic violence reports in Calgary. Shift then recommends to increase publicly funded childcare and affordable family outings; working with sporting organizations to better educate and support gender equity, healthy relationship skills and bystander skills; increasing training in social and emotional learning for parents and families; and conducting further research on the role of alcohol in domestic violence.

You can find a video of Lana Wells, one of the authors, explaining about the study, and the PDF version of the paper.