It is important to understand the current factors correlated with student participation as these factors may influence the growth and profitability of martial arts businesses. The purpose of this study was to examine motivations for joining and expectations from participation in martial arts school in the United States. Methods of instruction, class formats, curriculum content, and marketing methods to the public have evolved over the years. The relationships examined were participants' fear of crime or having been victim of a crime and their motives for enrolling or expectations from continued participation in the martial arts. An Internet-based martial arts participation survey (MAPS) was performed for this study. MAPS was comprised of demographic questions, a fear of crime index, an adapted version of the Participation Motivation Questionnaire (PMQ), and an adapted version of the Service Quality Assessment Scale (SQAS). Over 91% of the 269 participants reported some level of college education and studying the martial arts for over one year. Participants with over one year of study completed the expectations section of MAPS (SQAS) while those with less than one year completed the motives for enrolling (PMQ). A nonexperimental quantitative analysis was performed using multivariate analysis of variance to determine if significant differences existed between elements within the motivations and the expectations. Significant main effects were identified for victim of a crime, age, and gender but not for the fear of crime variables. Although none of the null hypotheses of the research questions were rejected, possibly due to insufficient power, useful information for instructors was identified. For example, significant effects for age were decreasing levels of interest in competition with age and increasing interest in self-defense with age. A significant effect for gender was lower levels of interest in competition reported by women compared to men. Topics for future research include optimizing the PMQ and SQAS instruments for the martial arts and performing additional analysis of the MAPS data. Future studies must consider methods to increase participation such as the use of reminders, enlisting support from instructors and owners via telephone, and including mailed surveys.