Photo Credit: TimeAndDate.com
New York is about to be lit—literally. The December Cold Moon, the final supermoon of 2025, will rise over the city on December 4th and, like clockwork, people start repeating the same line with absolute confidence: “You know crime goes up during a full moon, right?”
It’s a myth that refuses to die. Teachers swear students act possessed, ER nurses swear the waiting room fills with lunatics (pun intended), and cops insist the radio goes haywire. And as a criminal defense lawyer in Queens, I’ve heard every lunar excuse imaginable. But let’s get this out of the way early:
The moon doesn’t make you commit a crime. But it does make it a whole lot easier for witnesses—and cameras—to see you do it.
That’s the part people forget. A bright night in New York doesn’t cause chaos—it exposes it.
Full Moons Don’t Create Crime—They Create Visibility
The long-standing belief that full moons trigger criminal behavior has been studied endlessly. The conclusion? Science offers a shrug. There’s no firm proof that moonlight flips a switch in the human brain.
But what the data does show is that people are more active when nights are brighter. And when New Yorkers stay out later, walk more, gather more, drink more, and celebrate more… well, you don’t need a telescope to predict what happens next.
A full moon doesn’t influence human behavior. It influences human opportunity.
When the streets are bright and crowded, the odds of a confrontation, a misunderstanding, a drunken stumble into the wrong conversation, or an argument that escalates faster than your common sense skyrocket… and there is a camera waiting to capture it.
This isn’t astrology. This is the sociology of crowded sidewalks.
The Cameras Love a Full Moon Even More Than You Do
Here’s the real lunar effect nobody talks about: every camera in the city performs better under a full moon.
Surveillance footage that’s usually grainy becomes razor-sharp. Sidewalk disagreements that would normally fade into the shadows now look like scenes from a low-budget documentary. And every smartphone pointed in your general direction suddenly has nature’s best lighting.
I’ve had clients swear up and down that nobody could’ve seen what happened. Then I cue up footage from a bodega security camera across the street that captured the entire incident as clearly as a wedding video.
The moon didn’t turn them into a criminal. The moon turned their bad moment into high-definition evidence.
Why Bright Nights Lead to Real Arrests
Ask any seasoned criminal defense attorney and they’ll tell you: full-moon nights generate their fair share of cases. Not because the moon is magical, but because humans are predictable.
People stay out later. They drink more. Their patience thins. Their confidence rises. And the social filter that normally keeps questionable behavior in check tends to loosen.
The arrests I see after full-moon weekends usually fall into the same categories—cases born from impulse rather than intention.
These include:
- Disorderly conduct, thanks to shouted debates that turn into public scenes.
- Assault, often from a shove that escalates when pride gets involved.
- Public intoxication or refusal to comply, where someone decides they’re “fine” when they’re not.
- Domestic disputes, because tension doesn’t respect the moon’s phase.
These aren’t crimes of calculation. They’re crimes of environment. Mix bright skies with big crowds and a splash of alcohol, and suddenly the NYPD has its hands full.
The Full Moon Myth vs. The Legal Reality
Now, here’s where it gets interesting: the legal system does not care what the moon was doing when the incident happened.
But it does care about:
- the chain of events leading to the moment,
- the level of intoxication,
- who initiated contact,
- whether de-escalation was attempted,
- whether the officers overreacted,
- and whether the viral video circulating online shows the whole story—or just the worst three seconds of your life.
The moon isn’t legally relevant, but circumstances are everything.
If you acted in self-defense? That matters.
If someone else provoked you? That matters.
If you were confused, overwhelmed, cornered, or responding to a chaotic environment? That matters.
A full moon may not sway the tides of justice—but the context around your actions certainly can.
The Truth: Bright Nights Make Bad Decisions Hard to Hide
But there’s another angle here that deserves attention — something I see regularly in my cases but rarely gets discussed outside the legal world. A full moon doesn’t just brighten the streets; it brightens behavioral extremes. People talk more boldly, move more impulsively, and take risks they’d think twice about on a quieter night. Not criminal masterminds — regular people, the type who would never imagine they’d be explaining themselves to a judge the next morning.
There’s a phenomenon I call momentum misjudgment. It’s that instant when the night is fun, the music is loud, someone bumps your shoulder, and instead of brushing it off, you react — not because you’re violent, but because the environment snowballs your emotions. A full moon doesn’t create the snowball. It just gives it a steeper hill to roll down.
And it’s not just physical altercations. Words get sharper. Sarcasm lands harder. People take jokes personally. Friends argue, couples bicker, strangers interpret neutral gestures as disrespect. The moon isn’t pulling the strings — but it’s certainly pulling more people onto the stage, where miscommunication becomes the opening act for a night that spirals.
So as the Cold Moon rises over New York, here’s the reality:
Enjoy it. It’s beautiful. Go outside, soak in the view, take the picture.
Just don’t assume its glow is a magical free pass for questionable behavior. Don’t mistake the city’s energy for invincibility. And don’t forget that while the moon might not care what you do, your fellow New Yorkers—and their cameras—definitely do.
Because again: The moon doesn’t make you commit a crime. But it does make it much easier for everyone else to see you do it.
And here’s something else people overlook: police presence increases on full-moon nights. Not because they believe in folklore — but because experience has shown them that crowded, lively nights demand more eyes on the street. More patrols means more interactions. More interactions mean more opportunities for misunderstandings. And misunderstandings, when mixed with adrenaline, can turn into criminal charges faster than you can point to the sky and blame astrology.
This is why so many people feel blindsided when they’re arrested under a full moon. They weren’t “acting crazy.” They were acting normal in an environment that magnified every decision and placed them under a brighter spotlight, literally and figuratively.
If that moment of moonlit misjudgment happens and you find yourself needing someone who understands both the human side and the legal side of what went wrong… you know exactly who to call.
The Law Offices of Jeffrey D. Cohen, our motto is, We Stand By You…
Call my office today, at (718) 275-5900 for a free 20-minute consultation.
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