Midnight league

Last updated

Midnight leagues are a series of initiatives starting in the 1990s with midnight basketball and expanding into other sports, notably association football, where vulnerable urban youth could assemble during the night, and keep themselves off the streets while engaging with sports alternatives to drugs and crime.

Juvenile delinquency rates usually peak during night hours. Empirically, a 2006 study of the 1990-1994 period when urban midnight basketball programs were first initiated as a crime-prevention strategy, found that—while confounding factors were likely involved—property crime rates fell more rapidly in cities that were early adopters of the original midnight basketball model than in other American cities in the same period. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broken windows theory</span> Criminological theory

In criminology, the broken windows theory states that visible signs of crime, antisocial behavior, and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder, including serious crimes. The theory suggests that policing methods that target minor crimes such as vandalism, loitering, public drinking and fare evasion help to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlottesville, Virginia</span> Independent city in Virginia, United States

Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in Virginia, United States. It is the seat of government of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Charlotte. At the 2020 census, the population of the city was 46,553. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the City of Charlottesville with Albemarle County for statistical purposes, bringing its population to approximately 160,000. Charlottesville is the heart of the Charlottesville metropolitan area, which includes Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, and Nelson counties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carjacking</span> Crime of stealing a car from a victim by force

Carjacking is a robbery in which a motor vehicle is taken over. In contrast to car theft, carjacking is usually in the presence and knowledge of the victim. A common crime in many places in the world, carjacking has been the subject of legislative responses, criminology studies, and prevention efforts. Commercial vehicles such as trucks and armored cars containing valuable cargo are common targets of carjacking attempts. Carjacking usually involves physical violence to the victim, or using the victim as a hostage. In rare cases, carjacking may also involve sexual assault.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue-collar crime</span> Criminal offenses committed by the lower social classes

In criminology, blue-collar crime is any crime committed by an individual from a lower social class as opposed to white-collar crime which is associated with crime committed by someone of a higher-level social class. While blue-collar crime has no official legal classification, it holds to a general net group of crimes. These crimes are primarily small scale, for immediate beneficial gain to the individual or group involved in them. This can also include personal related crimes that can be driven by immediate reaction, such as during fights or confrontations. These crimes include but are not limited to: Narcotic production or distribution, sexual assault, theft, burglary, assault or murder.

The 2001 Cincinnati riots were a series of civil disorders which took place in and around the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of downtown Cincinnati, Ohio from April 9 to 13, 2001. They began with a peaceful protest in the heart of the city on Fountain Square over the inadequate police response to the police shooting of unarmed African American 19-year-old Timothy Thomas. The peaceful protest soon turned into a march that went in the direction of the victim's home neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine.

Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) is an agenda for manipulating the built environment to create safer neighborhoods.

Yeoville is an inner city neighbourhood of Johannesburg, in the province of Gauteng, South Africa. It is located in Region F. It is widely known and celebrated for its diverse, pan-African population but notorious for its high levels of crime and poverty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Midnight movie</span> Film genre

The term midnight movie is rooted in the practice that emerged in the 1950s of local television stations around the United States airing low-budget genre films as late-night programming, often with a host delivering ironic asides. As a cinematic phenomenon, the midnight screening of offbeat movies began in the early 1970s in a few urban centers, particularly in New York City with screenings of El Topo at the Elgin Theater, eventually spreading across the country. The screening of non-mainstream pictures at midnight was aimed at building a cult film audience, encouraging repeat viewing and social interaction in what was originally a countercultural setting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Štark Arena</span> Indoor arena in Belgrade, Serbia

The Belgrade Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Belgrade, Serbia. It is designed as a universal hall for sports, cultural events and other programs. The venue is used for several different sports events, such as basketball, futsal, handball, judo, table tennis, tennis, volleyball, water polo, as well as for concerts. The arena's capacity stands at 18,386, although record attendance stands at unofficial 26,800, set in 2014 by KK Crvena Zvezda in Eurocup as home team against BC Unics. Also there is small hall with underground tuminel for warming while the total floor area stands at 48,000 m2 (520,000 sq ft). Belgrade Arena was a member of the European Arenas Association (EAA).

Midnight basketball is an initiative which developed in the 1990s to curb inner-city crime in the United States by keeping urban youth off the streets and engaging them with alternatives to drugs and crime. It was founded by G. Van Standifer in the late 1980s. Young people aged from 14 to 29, mostly men of various minority groups, could go and play basketball during the peak crime hours of 22:00 to 02:00, immediately, thereafter, attending informative programs that gave them helpful skills for everyday life. It was a way for young men to form a sense of community, get out of a dangerous environment, and give them a sense of hope for the future. Midnight basketball helped decrease crime in the neighbourhoods where it was run, and it was a positive outlet for many young men. It helped many stay out of trouble and off the streets. By 2019, various cities in the United States brought back the program.

Crime has been recorded in the United States since its founding and has fluctuated significantly over time, with a sharp rise after 1900 and reaching a broad bulging peak between the 1970s and early 1990s. After 1992, crime rates have generally trended downwards each year, with the exceptions of a slight increase in property crimes in 2001 and increases in violent crimes in 2005-2006, 2014-2016 and 2020-2021. While official federal crime data beginning in 2021 has a wide margin of error due to the incomplete adoption of the National Incident-Based Reporting System by government agencies, federal data for 2020-2021 and limited data from select U.S. cities collected by the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice showed significantly elevated rates of homicide and motor vehicle theft in 2020-2022. Although overall crime rates have fallen far below the peak of crime seen in the United States during the late 1980s and early 1990s, the homicide rate in the U.S. has remained high, relative to other "high income"/developed nations, with eight major U.S. cities ranked among the 50 cities with the highest homicide rate in the world in 2022. The aggregate cost of crime in the United States is significant, with an estimated value of $4.9 trillion reported in 2021. Data from the first half of 2023, from government and private sector sources show that the murder rate has dropped, as much as 12% in as many as 90 cities across the United States. The drop in homicide rates is not uniform across the country however, with some cities such as Memphis, TN, showing an uptick in murder rates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gun violence in the United States</span> Phenomenon of gun violence in the United States

Gun violence is a term of political, economic and sociological interest referring to the tens of thousands of annual firearms-related deaths and injuries occurring in the United States. In 2022, up to 100 daily fatalities and hundreds of daily injuries were attributable to gun violence in the United States. In 2018, the most recent year for which data are available, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics reported 38,390 deaths by firearm, of which 24,432 were suicides. The national rate of firearm deaths rose from 10.3 people for every 100,000 in 1999 to 11.9 people per 100,000 in 2018, equating to over 109 daily deaths. In 2010, there were 19,392 firearm-related suicides, and 11,078 firearm-related homicides in the U.S. In 2010, 358 murders were reported involving a rifle while 6,009 were reported involving a handgun; another 1,939 were reported with an unspecified type of firearm. In 2011, a total of 478,400 fatal and nonfatal violent crimes were committed with a firearm.

Property crime is a category of crime, usually involving private property, that includes, among other crimes, burglary, larceny, theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, shoplifting, and vandalism. Property crime is a crime to obtain money, property, or some other benefit. This may involve force, or the threat of force, in cases like robbery or extortion. Since these crimes are committed in order to enrich the perpetrator they are considered property crimes. Crimes against property are divided into two groups: destroyed property and stolen property. When property is destroyed, it could be called arson or vandalism. Examples of the act of stealing property is robbery or embezzlement.

As of 2018, Detroit had the fourth highest murder rate among major cities in the United States after St. Louis and Baltimore and the 42nd highest murder rate in the world. The rate of robberies in Detroit declined by 67% between 1985 and 2014 while the rate of aggravated assaults increased. As a whole, the city's crime rate has decreased considerably from its 1980s peak.

Crime in India has been recorded since the British Raj, with comprehensive statistics now compiled annually by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), under the Ministry of Home Affairs (India).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rutgers University–New Brunswick</span> Public university in New Brunswick and Piscataway, New Jersey, U.S.

Rutgers University–New Brunswick is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University, a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. It is located in New Brunswick and Piscataway. It is the oldest campus of the university, the others being in Camden and Newark. The campus is composed of several smaller campuses that are large distances away from each other: College Avenue, Busch, Livingston,Cook, and Douglass, the latter two sometimes referred to as "Cook/Douglass", as they are adjacent to each other. All 4 subcampuses connect primarily via State Route 18. Rutgers–New Brunswick also includes several buildings in downtown New Brunswick. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". The New Brunswick campuses include 19 undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools. The New Brunswick campus is also known as the birthplace of college football.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Midnight Madness (basketball)</span> Annual American college basketball event

Midnight Madness is an annual event celebrating the upcoming college basketball season in which a team opens its first official practice to the public, often combining it with a pep rally and other fan-friendly activities. The tradition originated from teams holding public practices at midnight on the earliest day that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) would allow a practice to be held. In 2013, a new NCAA rule established some flexibility around the opening of a team's practice sessions. As a result, the dates on which teams celebrate Midnight Madness can vary, but most stick with the traditional date of a Friday night closest to October 15.

In 2019, 43,686 crimes were reported in the U.S. state of Michigan. Crime statistics vary widely by location. For example, Dearborn has a murder rate of only 2.1 per 100,000 while sharing borders with Detroit and Inkster, some of the highest rates in the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Witching hour</span> Time of night associated with supernatural events

In folklore, the witching hour or devil's hour is a time of night that is associated with supernatural events, whereby witches, demons and ghosts are thought to appear and be at their most powerful. Definitions vary, and include the hour immediately after midnight, and the time between 3:00 am and 4:00 am. The term now has a widespread colloquial and idiomatic usage that is associated with human physiology and behaviour to more superstitious phenomena such as luck.

References

  1. Hartmann, Douglas; Depro, Brooks (May 2006). "Rethinking Sports-Based Community Crime Prevention: A Preliminary Analysis of the Relationship Between Midnight Basketball and Urban Crime Rates". Journal of Sport and Social Issues. 30 (2): 180–196. doi:10.1177/0193723506286863.