MAY 24, 2011
Putting Ray Lewis' crime prediction to the test
So the Ravens' Ray Lewis says crime will increase in the event of an NFL lockout. "Do the research," he told ESPN. "Watch how much evil, which we call crime, watch how much crime picks up when we take away the game."
Can we quantify this theory? Well, we can sure as heck try.
In a highly unscientific analysis, I took data from the city's Open Baltimore web site that allows us to look at crimes recorded by day, and maybe Lewis is on to something: As it turns out, the Ravens' bye week was the Sunday during the NFL season that saw the highest number of crimes. The following week, when the team resumed play against the Dolphins, was all quiet, relatively speaking.
Week 7 (Oct. 24 vs. Buffalo Bills) - 128 crimes recorded by police
Week 8 (Oct. 31 - Ravens' bye week) - 158 crimes
