Most of you, even those who have never seen an NFL game (I’m sure you’re out there), have probably heard the name Ray Rice at some point over the past few weeks.
Rice is an NFL running back, and there is a video of him striking his then-fiancé-now-wife Janay Palmer in the head, knocking her unconscious. Rice has been suspended from the NFL, dropped by the Baltimore Ravens, and generally crucified in the media as a result of his actions, as he should be.
Unfortunately, the only unique thing about Rice’s case is the reaction. He is the most recent in a long list of prominent domestic violence cases among professional athletes. In far too many instances before this, professional athletes have returned to the field immediately following an arrest for domestic violence.
In one particularly egregious example, the Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Brett Myers was back on the mound 36 hours after his arrest for striking his wife in broad daylight on the streets of Boston.
Any level of domestic violence is a problem, and must be prevented and punished as effectively as possible. In light of recent news, it is important to determine if professional athletes are particularly prone to domestic violence so that the size of the problem can be properly assessed and reacted to appropriately.
There are a few factors that must be considered when comparing crime rates among professional athletes with those of the general population. First, they are fairly wealthy as a group, putting their likelihood of committing a crime way down from the outset. Second, there is very little data available for crime rates among professional athletes. The most comprehensive list is USA Today’s NFL Arrest Database, but, as its name suggests, it only tracks NFL players.
Using these data, statistical analysis website fivethirtyeight.com determined that, although the crime rate among NFL players is only 13 percent of that of the general population in their age group (males 25-29), the domestic violence rate is 55 percent that of their age group (83 total arrests since 2000, when the database was created).
The statistic becomes even more grim when NFL players are compared to households with similar incomes. According to data form the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the domestic violence rate among households with an income greater than $75,000 per year is less than 20 percent that of the general population (note: this data is from 1993-1998, as the BJS stopped collecting income data after 1998). Just to recap, that’s the NFL: 55 percent, similar households: 20 percent.
It is statistically clear, then, that the NFL has a major problem with domestic violence among its athletes. A wealth of anecdotal evidence suggests that other professional leagues have a similar problem.
All professional leagues must act quickly to alter their policies regarding the punishment of athletes involved in domestic violence cases, as well as put in place prevention programs.
Far too many have gotten away with light reprimands, sending a terrible and powerful message to fans of these players that domestic violence, which impacts around 1.4 million people annually in the U.S., is a trivial offense.
The Ray Rice case has brought attention to this urgent problem. Now it is time to act.