Tuesday 3 February 2009

On Me ‘Er ‘Ead, Son...

The poor performance of a city's struggling football team is being blamed for an increase in domestic violence.
Wha....?
Council bosses claim the woes of Championship team Southampton could be responsible for a sharp rise in family problems in the Hampshire city.

Latest domestic violence figures show referrals to the council have doubled and now form almost half of all referrals to its child protection unit.
I find it very hard to believe that that’s due to the performance of the football team, and not, say, the recession, or perhaps the recent campaign against domestic violence increasing the number of people who think it’s worthwhile reporting this.
Education boss Councillor Peter Baillie attributed the rise in referrals to the recession and the bad form of the city's football team.

He said: 'In a recession people are more anxious with more money and job worries. They may be concerned about paying the mortgage.

'If people are not careful that can filter into strains on relationships.

'There is evidence that when a well-supported football team has a prolonged downturn that can also be felt through relationship problems.'
I’d really like to see that ‘evidence’...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You'd like to see it ? Here it is. Google is your friend. See, even you have one.

http://police.homeoffice.gov.uk/news-and-events/news/domestic-violence-study

Correlation is not causation, for sure, but how else would you explain the data ?

Anonymous said...

Steve- Julia was referring to the RESULTS of football matches.

That page just says "reports of domestic abuse increase by nearly a third (30%) on England match days". Nothing about he outcome of the matches.

And, guess what, "nearly half (40%) of all suspects in domestic abuse cases were drunk at the time of the crime".

So... Ing-Er-Lund Ing-Er-Lund matchdays are associated with drunken and loutish behaviour.

There's nothing about the toilet habits of bears, but I'm sure those researchers could come up with something.


Moving swiftly on... another effect of the credit crunch.

The local paper in Docklands reports a 30% increase in numbers of people asking for STD checks after unprotected sex.

"The rise is being linked to the current economic crisis and workers' loss of self-esteem as they fear for their jobs".


There's a common thread between both these stories. The people concerned ought to be referred to Dr Dalrymple. He could make them write out 1000 times:
"People are not billiard balls".

http://www.cis.org.au/POLICY/winter02/polwin02-5.htm

JuliaM said...

Perhaps the 'domestic abuse' calls relate to squabbles over the channel changer...? ;)

"..."The rise is being linked to the current economic crisis and workers' loss of self-esteem as they fear for their jobs"..."

This could start a new trend, rather like the 'Most Unlikely Effect of 'Climate Change'..' one!

Anonymous said...

The idea of increased domestic violence association with sporting events has a history. e.g. here

JuliaM said...

An urban legend, spread by those who wanted it to be true, because it conformed to the stereotype they hold of the people they targetted.

How surprising...