Super Bowl Sunday, Domestic Violence & Your Health

By Men's Activism News | Source | February 5, 2010

Article here. Excerpt:

'It’s that time again… When Super Bowl Sunday dominates the U.S. headlines, and people plan their Sunday evenings around a get-together, party, or the game. It’s also a good time to look at two stories related to Super Bowl Sunday.

The first is the largely debunked myth that domestic violence calls spike around Super Bowl Sunday and other drinking holidays of the year (like New Year’s). Snopes originally tracked down the myth and showed it to be nothing more than another urban legend. Since their last update on the myth in 2005, however (and our article 4 years ago), there’s been further research examining the myth.

A 2007 study by Oths & Robertson examined 2,387 crisis call records covering a previous 3-year period. They supplemented the call records with both formal and informal interviews with abused women and staff. What did they find?

The widely held belief that more women seek shelter during “drinking holidays” such as New Year’s and the Super Bowl was unsubstantiated, while the contention that women with school-aged children time their leaving to coincide with breaks in the academic schedule was supported.'