Major Events Displace Crime Rather Than Reduce It, New Study Shows
A study of Malmö's 2024 Eurovision contest reveals that large-scale events shift crime to surrounding weeks rather than preventing it overall. While reported crimes fell 10% during the event itself, they rebounded in adjacent weeks—a finding with major implications for how cities plan security investments and event hosting strategies.
Originaltitel: Did the Eurovision Song Contest in 2024 Affect Reported Crimes in the Hosting City?
<p>We examine whether hosting the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest affected reported crime in Malmö, Sweden. Eurovision generated large visitor inflows and a substantial police reinforcement, creating a unique disruption to the city's routine activities. Using weekly crime data for 2021–2024 and time-series regression models with log-transformed outcomes and weather controls, we find that non-police-initiated crimes declined by 10.2% and property crimes by 8.6% during the contest week, while vandalism increased by 20.6% and police-initiated detections rose by 8.0%. A formal cumulative three-week displacement test shows that the decline in non-police-initiated and property crimes is fully offset by increases in adjacent weeks, consistent with intertemporal displacement rather than a net reduction. In contrast, vandalism shows a significant net increase over the three-week window. </p>