Return to my Pseudoscience pages
Go to my home page
© Copyright 1999, Jim Loy
"Lunacy" is named after the moon (luna). And people still blame the moon for insanity and antisocial activities. It is a well-known fact that there are more violent crimes during a full moon than at other times of the month. Or is it?
Police officers will tell you that there are more crimes during a full moon. I have always been skeptical of this. As an amateur astronomer, I often have no clue whether we are experiencing a full moon or not. Does a police officer know what phase of the moon we are in? Does he/she go look at the calendar when there are more crimes, when there are fewer crimes? I doubt it.
I can imagine a cop thinking, "Gee there were a lot of crimes yesterday, must have been a full moon." And he/she may be convinced it was a full moon, when it wasn't. And how many relatively crime free full moons are not remembered? A person would never think to check the calendar, and see if there was a full moon, on a day of little crime. Memory is selective.
The city of Cleveland Ohio (I think it was) did a study, over a period of years. They tested the relationship between various crimes and the phases of the moon. And they found no measurable correlation. There was a strong correlation between crime and days of the week, Fridays and Saturdays being the worst. But, the moon did not seem to have any effect, at all.