Do child abuse rates increase on those days on which professional sporting events are held?

This paper examines possible relationships between days on which professional sports events are held and daily rates of substantiated physical abuse of children by males. Three different hypotheses about possible relationships between various types of sporting events and rates of child abuse are examined using statewide data drawn from the Missouri Division of Family Services. Hierarchical OLS Multiple regressions were used to test for these relationships. Effects were controlled for the month in which the abuse occurred and the day of the week during which the incident occurred. The findings do not support the hypothesis that sporting events yield increases in number of substantiated male-perpetrator child abuse cases.