According to a study by the RAND corporation on the sports participation gap, “Students who reported spending no time in after-school extracurricular activities were 57% more likely to drop out of high school, 49% more likely to use drugs and 27% more likely to have been arrested”(Whitaker). Statistics such as these suggest that extracurricular participation, such as athletics, could ameliorate several challenges young people face regarding delinquency. This research project investigates how sports participation rates can impact juvenile delinquency, such as suspensions, expulsions, and crime rates. Since sports provide many benefits, including mental rehabilitation, a healthy community, and good use of time, it would seem that missing out on benefits such as these could potentially lead to higher rates of statistics like suspensions or expulsions. In some low-income areas, there is a lack of access to sports due to variables such as funding, leading to a lack of participation and exacerbating the opportunity gap. Using content analysis and correlational research to analyze data from databases, documents, and media such as Data-quest, this research project will investigate the correlation between lack of sports participation and high delinquency rates.