Big Red football, imitation theory and domestic violence: An examination of subpopulations over time

This dissertation applies imitation theory to the problem of domestic violence. The original research examines the effects of exposure to violent football games and exposure to media accounts of violence by players off the field on incidence rates for domestic violence. The link between viewing violent sports and spectator violence is also discussed. Data from the Lincoln Family Violence Council of Lincoln, Nebraska are used, as well as articles from the Lincoln Journal Star newspaper. Multiple classification analysis was used to test the hypotheses. Limited support for imitation effects on domestic violence is shown by this research. Incidents of domestic violence are more frequent on days that articles appeared in the paper relating to incidents of violence by football players off the field than other days when seasonal and weekly fluctuations are controlled. These data support prior research on the imitation effect of publicized violence (Phillips 1983; Phillips and Bollen, 1985). Implications of the findings are discussed and recommendations for further research, identified