It’s no secret that with high alcohol consumption comes increased rates of sexual assault. But one study shows that sexual assault is especially prevalent on the days of home football games at Division I universities with passionate fanbases.
In other words, schools like UW-Madison.
The study, conducted by Jason Lindo of Texas A&M University and published by the Bureau of Economic Research in 2015, found 41 percent more sexual assaults are reported on game days at Division I universities than on average Saturdays. It raised questions about the impact of big-time sports on campus safety, leaving people wondering whether college football does more harm than good at American universities.
The UW-Madison Police Department does not keep data regarding the number of sexual assaults reported on game days specifically. However, national data has raised some concern in the UW-Madison community that Badger games could breed high levels of sexual assault and rape.
Skeptics of Lindo’s study point out that football games are generally on Saturdays, when a large number of students would be drinking anyway. However, the study claims “the control variables included in our baseline model account for potential bias driven by inherent differences across agency jurisdictions as well as spikes in sexual assault related to the day of the week, specific holidays, and the calendar year.”
The study also found “upset wins increase reports of rape by 38 percent more than games in which the team lost according to expectations,” further suggesting the actual influence of football on levels of sexual assault.
What is unclear, though, is the significance of this finding. Marc Lovicott, UWPD’s director of communications, said the department hasn’t noticed that reports of sexual assault spike on game days, but he would not be surprised if that is the case—because it all boils down to alcohol use.
“I don’t know if we’ve actually tracked the correlation between football game days and sexual assault, so it’s hard for us to tell,” Lovicott said. “But looking at a report that came out about a year ago regarding sexual assault even on this campus, a majority of the sexual assaults that we deal with and that are reported on campus, have to do in one way or another with alcohol.”
Lovicott said that the department is “very busy” on game days, and that it gives out more citations than an average day of the weekend, but that the department “certainly hasn’t noticed [a] trend in particular” between football Saturdays and increased levels of sexual assault.
Lovicott also stressed that while alcohol use is often a catalyst for sexual violence, the most important factor is assailants’ lack of understanding when it comes to issues of consent.
“The number one factor is consent. People need to learn the definition of consent,” Lovicott said. “But aside from that, alcohol does seem to be a big factor.”
Whether there is something about football Saturdays that increases the prevalence of sexual assault, or whether these increases are simply a coincidence based on other circumstances, alcohol use—a staple of Badgers games—is highly correlated with sexual violence on campus.
