| Do professional athletes commit more crimes than do | | | | the general population are incarcerated for |
| the rest of us? The media spend a great deal of | | | | committing crimes in America. |
| time and energy reporting instances of top athletes | | | | I believe that the incidence of crime among |
| who have gotten into trouble with the law. When a | | | | professional athletes closely parallels the incidence of |
| sports start gets into trouble with the law, the story | | | | crime in the general population. In other words, about |
| gets a great deal of attention from the print media | | | | thirty professional athletes of the total professional |
| and the electronic media. Perhaps this is because | | | | athlete population are likely to get into trouble with |
| people seem to be curious about watching a star fall | | | | the law at some point in time. This seems like a |
| from grace. | | | | reasonable number to me. Ten per cent seems way |
| Some would say there is a media bias when it comes | | | | to high as does five percent. |
| to covering crimes committed by professional | | | | If statisticians, criminologists, sociologists, sport |
| athletes. This appears to be true. | | | | psychologists and attorneys examine this issues, I |
| I do not believe that the incidence of criminal | | | | think they will come up with same conclusion. |
| behavior among professional athletes is any higher | | | | Geoffrey Rapp, a law professor at University of |
| than it is among the rest of the population. | | | | Toledo, says he has not seen evidence to show that |
| Consider that there are approximately 3,600 athletes | | | | there is more criminality among athletes. |
| who participate in our major sports of baseball, | | | | While top athletes get a great deal of our attention |
| basketball, hockey and football. Also, consider the | | | | and media attention, it appears that sports mirrors |
| fact that approximately two thirds of one percent of | | | | the rest of society where crime is concerned. |