Nondrug Crimes Research Articles

Opioid prescription rates and risk for substantiated child abuse and neglect: A Bayesian spatiotemporal analysis

ObjectivesTo determine the association between opioid prescribing rates and substantiated abuse and neglect across Tennessee counties during an 11-year period. MethodsWe adopted a Bayesian spatiotemporal approach to determine the association between opioid prescribing and rates of substantiated child abuse and neglect over and above environmental and population-level covariates. Annual county-level data for Tennessee (2006–2016) included rates of substantiated child abuse and neglect, rates of drug and non-drug crime incidents, racial and Hispanic composition, per capita income, child poverty and teen birth rates, and vacant housing. ResultsHigher opioid prescribing rates were associated with greater risk for substantiated child abuse and neglect across Tennessee counties. Risk for substantiated child abuse and neglect was positively associated with vacant housing, child poverty, teen birth rates, and rates of both drug and non-drug criminal incidents - including stimulant arrests. Risk for substantiated child abuse and neglect was negatively associated with percentages of African Americans. ConclusionsResults underscore the importance of opioid prescribing and crime rates as independent determinants of spatial and temporal variation in risk for substantiated child abuse and neglect. Policies that regulate and reduce opioid prescribing have the potential to reduce risk for child abuse and neglect.

Cannabis Control and Crime: Medicinal Use, Depenalization and the War on Drugs

Abstract To date, 27 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws easing marijuana control. This paper examines the relationship between the legalization of medical marijuana, depenalization of possession, and the incidence of non-drug crime. Using state panel data from 1970 to 2012, results show evidence of 4–12 % reductions in robberies, larcenies, and burglaries due to the legalization of medical marijuana, but that depenalization has little effect and may instead increase crime rates. These effects are supported by null results for crimes unrelated to the cannabis market and are consistent with the supply-side effects of medicinal use that are absent from depenalization laws as well as existing evidence on the substitution between marijuana and alcohol. The findings contribute new evidence to the complex debate surrounding marijuana policy and the war on drugs.

Does federal financial aid affect college enrollment? Evidence from drug offenders and the Higher Education Act of 1998

In 2001, amendments to the Higher Education Act made people convicted of drug offenses ineligible for federal financial aid for up to two years after their conviction. Using rich data on educational outcomes and drug charges in the NLSY 1997, we show that this law change had a large negative impact on the college attendance of students with drug convictions. On average, the temporary ban on federal financial aid increased the amount of time between high school graduation and college enrollment by about two years, and we also present suggestive evidence that affected students were less likely to ever enroll in college. Students living in urban areas are the most affected by these amendments. Importantly, we do not find that the law deterred young people from committing drug felonies nor did it substantively change the probability that high school students with drug convictions graduated from high school. We find no evidence of a change in college enrollment of students convicted of non-drug crimes, or of those charged by not convicted of drug offenses. In contrast to much of the existing research, we conclude that, for this high-risk group of students, eligibility for federal financial aid strongly impacts college investment decisions.

DEALERS, THIEVES, AND THE COMMON DETERMINANTS OF DRUG AND NONDRUG ILLEGAL EARNINGS*

Drug crime often is viewed as distinctive from other types of crime, meriting greater or lesser punishment. In view of this special status, this article asks whether and how illegal earnings attainment differs between drug sales and other forms of economic crime. We estimate monthly illegal earnings with fixed‐effects models, based on data from the National Supported Work Demonstration Project and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Although drug sales clearly differ from other types of income‐generating crime, we find few differences in their determinants. For example, the use of cocaine or heroin increases illegal earnings from both drug and nondrug crimes, indicating some degree of fungibility in the sources of illegal income. More generally, the same set of factors—particularly legal and illegal opportunities and embeddedness in criminal and conventional networks—predicts both drug earnings and nondrug illegal earnings.

Crime and the Depenalization of Cannabis Possession: Evidence from a Policing Experiment

We evaluate the impact on crime of a localized policing experiment that depenalized the possession of small quantities of cannabis in the London borough of Lambeth. We find that depenalization policy caused the police to reallocate effort toward nondrug crime. Despite the overall fall in crime attributable to the policy, we find that the total welfare of local residents likely fell, as measured by house prices. We shed light on what would be the impacts on crime of a citywide depenalization policy by developing and calibrating a structural model of the market for cannabis and crime.

Crime-minimizing drug policy

Objective To identify changes in drug abuse control measures that would reduce non-drug crime. Method Policy analysis. Results Expanding current anti-drug efforts in the conventional triad of enforcement, prevention, and treatment (including drug courts) holds out little hope of reducing non-drug crime. Routine drug law enforcement risks increasing crime by raising drug prices and creating incentives for violence among dealers. Low-arrest crackdowns to break up flagrant markets promise better results. Even good prevention programs have modest effect sizes, and most prevention programs are not based on proven models. The overlap between the population of heavy illicit drug users and the population of frequent non-drug offenders presents a problem and a policy opportunity that current programs largely fail to grasp. Drug treatment, except for opiate substitution, has difficulty recruiting and retaining clients, and weak sanctions systems render treatment mandates largely nominal. Abstinence-mandate programs such as HOPE and Sobriety 24/7 have shown superior results in reducing re-offending and incarceration. Raising alcohol taxes reduces heavy alcohol use and crime due to intoxication without generating any offsetting criminogenic effects. Conclusion Current drug policies are not optimally designed for the control of non-drug crime. Improvements are within relatively easy reach.

Commentary on Pedersen and Skardhamar (2010): Does cannabis use predict non-drug offending?

Commentary on Pedersen and Skardhamar (2010): Does cannabis use predict non-drug offending?

The Impact of Marijuana Law Enforcement in an Economic Model of Crime

U.S. law enforcement against the sale and possession of marijuana has been estimated to cost close to $8 billion a year in criminal justice resources. Current enforcement is justified if it provides net benefits greater than alternatives such as a legal, regulated market for marijuana. Prior research suggests that current levels of drug enforcement may increase nondrug crime and hard drug use. Here, local rates of property crime, homicide, and nonmarijuana drug possession are estimated as a function of economic conditions, enforcement effectiveness, and arrests for possession or sale of marijuana. The data consists of a pooled sample of over 1300 U.S. counties (1994–2001). The results suggest that marijuana arrests are associated with increases in homicides, burglaries, motor vehicle thefts, and larcenies along with subsequent increases in hard drug arrests. These results raise significant questions about the merits of policies that focus on criminal justice approaches to marijuana control.

The effect of local life circumstances on female probationers' offending*

This article examines the influence of change in local life circumstances on the short-term criminal behavior of female drug-abusing probationers. Using a binomial hierarchical generalized linear model, we examine the probability that certain “discrete life events” act to modify or change criminal behavior in the short term. The findings indicate that participants' involvement in conventional activities results in the decreased likelihood of engaging in nondrug crimes but an increased likelihood of drug dealing. Faced with this contradiction, we suggest that the dynamics of offending are altered by the nature of the criminal activity itself and the way in which gender structures criminal involvement.

EXAMINING THE “CRIMINAL CAREERS” OF PROSTITUTES WITHIN THE NEXUS OF DRUG USE, DRUG SELLING, AND OTHER ILLICIT ACTIVITIES*

This paper examines the co‐occurrence of prostitution, drug use, drug selling, and involvement in non‐drug crimes among women who have used serious drugs (e.g., crack, heroin). Existing perspectives on the drug use‐prostitution nexus are re‐examined using three dimensions of the criminal career paradigm: prevalence, lambda, and age of onset. Results show that approximately one‐half of the women who reported regular drug use never prostituted, and that, except for use of crack cocaine, use of other drugs was unrelated to the prevalence, frequency, or age of onset into prostitution. The results also show that committing property crime was associated with an increased prevalence and early onset into prostitution, while selling drugs coincided with a decreased prevalence and delayed onset into prostitution.

Situational or Generalized Violence in Drug Dealing Networks

It has been contended that women's participation in drug markets has had a tremendous impact on female involvement in nondrug crimes, especially such violent offenses as robbery and assault. Systemic violence in drug selling, however, may be spuriously related to other etiological factors in violence and crime commission, rather than a function of social processes unique to drug selling. Violence within and apart from the context of drug dealing is compared for women involved in various types of drug distribution activities. Life history interviews were conducted with 156 female drug sellers from two New York City neighborhoods. The findings suggest that violence among drug sellers, including females, appears to reflect the concurrence of two processes: the self-selection of people who routinely use violence in their broader social and economic interactions, and the neighborhood itself, in which violence is taught, practiced, and maintained as a way of negotiating the social realities of street and domestic life.

The Structural Relationship between Drug Use, Drug Dealing, and other Income Support Activities among Women Drug Sellers

Interviews were conducted with 156 women drug sellers from two New York City neighborhoods with high concentrations of drug selling, neighborhoods that had active heroin markets in the 1970s and were sites for the growth of cocaine and crack markets a decade later. Structural equations models were estimated to test the relationships over two time periods between drug use and income generation activities including drug dealing, crime, legal work, and public transfers. Dependent variables included self-reports of income and expenses together with criminal career parameters. Results showed that the effects of prior drug expenses on subsequent crime, drug, and work incomes were nonsignificant. Overall, drug dealing appears to suppress future non-drug crime activity. Prior drug selling has a facilitating effect on later drug use and significant negative effects on subsequent crime income generation and legal work. Selling also helped women avoid the types of street hustling, including prostitution, and other crimes that characterized women's income strategies in earlier drug eras. Drug use careers are influenced less by earlier drug use patterns than by income growth from dealing that appears to increase opportunities to expand drug use.

Women and Drugs Revisited: Female Participation in the Cocaine Economy

Recent changes in illicit drug use and drug markets, and simultaneous changes in the social and economic contexts where drugs are bought and sold, suggest the possibility of significant shifts in women's involvement in drugs. The interaction between rapidly changing social structures and drug markets provides an explanatory framework for women's participation in the cocaine economy of New York City in the late 1980s. Data on both legal and illegal behaviors and incomes were collected through interviews with N=311 women from two northern Manhattan neighborhoods with high concentrations of crack use and selling. Women were involved extensively in both drug selling and nondrug crimes as part of diverse income strategies. Drug incomes and expenses dominated the economic lives of women in the cocaine economy. Higher incomes from drug selling were inversely related to prostitution and legal work. Prostitution, property crimes and assaults increased with the frequency of crack and cocaine use. Although women remain disadvantaged in highly gendered street networks of drug users, some women have constructed careers in illegal work that have insulated them from the exploitation that characterizes heavy cocaine and crack use. Although prostitution is a common role for many women, changes in the status of women in drug markets are evident in the relatively high incomes some achieve from selling and their diverse roles in the cocaine economy.

An Economic Analysis of Recidivism among Drug Offenders

Following Becker [5], economists have modeled decisions to commit crimes as rational choices in reaction to incentives and constraints. In particular, potential criminals consider the probability of being caught and the severity of punishment in their decision calculus, as well as the opportunity cost of their time. But arguments are frequently made by police and other public officials which imply that drug users are different than the rational criminal of the economic model. Therefore, this study investigates factors affecting recidivism among Florida's drug offenders from the perspective provided by the economic theory of crime in order to see if drug offenders do react to incentives and constraints, and to explore the implications of alternative policies toward this large and growing segment of the criminal population. The relationship between drug use and non-drug crime may have very important policy implications. For example, Florida's prison population has increased dramatically in the past decade, growing from 19,681 at the end of the 1980-81 fiscal year to 38,059 by June 30, 1989, and a substantial portion of these increased admissions are for drug offenses. Drug offenses accounted for only 21.5 percent of Florida's prison admissions during the first half of FY86-87, but during the same period in FY89-90 drug offenses accounted for 36.6 percent of all admissions. New admissions to prison have forced a more rapid turnover of inmates through early release programs resulting in a declining proportion of sentences served. In January 1987 Florida's prisoners served an average of 52 percent of their sentence. By December 1989 this proportion had fallen to 33 percent, a 37 percent decline in two years. These trends are largely a result of an increasingly tough policy toward drug offenders. Similarly, police resources have been reallocated to focus on the control of drug offenses, thereby reducing the ability of police to deter non-drug crimes [3; 4]. This reallocation of resources has led to rising property crime rates. Therefore, the opportunity

Concentra of Delinquent Offending: Serious Drug Involvement and High Delinquency Rates

This paper reports annual rates of delinquency and drug use while controlling for the type of offenders/drug users. Secondary analysis was conducted from the National Youth Survey, when the subjects were ages 14–20. Youths were classified into drug user and delinquent typologies representing more serious involvements. Annual rates of delinquent offending increased directly with more serious drug involvements, even when controlling for delinquent type. Less than 2% of all youths self-reported two or more index offenses and used cocaine/heroin. These youths had such high delinquency rates that they accounted for 40–60% of various felony crimes (robbery, felony theft, drug sales) and a disproportionate share of all marijuana and other drugs used. Yet less than a quarter reported that their recent non-drug crimes were primarily motivated to obtain money for drugs. Even in a national probability sample, delinquency is highly concentrated among a very small proportion of substance-using delinquents.

The impact of prescribing on the crimes of opioid users.

SummaryThe paper investigates the contention that prescribing opioids to regular users leads to a reduction in non‐drug crimes. It also examines the nature of the relationship between addiction and crime and some of the factors which influence this relationship. As part of a study of opioid users currently receiving a prescription for methadone or heroin from U.K. National Health Service clinics or from private practitioners (plus a small number of others dependent solely on black‐market supplies), self‐reports on non‐drug crimes were collected relating to the periods before and after first receiving a prescription. The findings show that a smaller proportion of addicts reported non‐drug crimes when receiving a prescription than in the period before receiving one. It is noted that this reduction is unlikely to be explained by addicts abandoning the black‐market, as almost all of them continued to use illicit sources. There was a reduction, however, in the proportion of addicts who used black‐market drugs frequently. Some opioid users who continued to commit non‐drug crimes while receiving a prescription admitted offending for reasons unrelated to drug taking.

The Role of Alcohol in the Crimes of Active Heroin Users

Fifty-nine active heroin users were recruited from the streets of northern Manhattan and were interviewed about the nondrug related crimes they had committed in the previous 36 hours. Information was also obtained about their drug and alcohol use before and after committing these crimes. Intensive interviews were conducted with eleven heavy-drinking, heroin-using criminals about the role of alcohol in crime. Subjects were more likely to report being under the influence of alcohol when they committed a crime than any other drug. They reported drinking alcohol before the crime to calm their nerves, to give them heart, and to aid involvement in crime. Criminal income was used to purchase alcohol more frequently than other drugs.

Developments in the study of criminal behavior: The prevention and control of offending : (Volume one) and violence (volume two) edited by M. Philip Feldman. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (One Wiley Drive, Somerset, New Jersey 08873), 1982, 238 pp., hardcover—$41.95 (Volume One); 254 pp., hardcover—$44.95 (Volume One).

In 2001, amendments to the Higher Education Act made people convicted of drug offenses ineligible for federal financial aid for up to two years after their conviction. Using rich data on educational outcomes and drug charges in the NLSY 1997, we show that this law change had a large negative impact on the college attendance of students with drug convictions. On average, the temporary ban on federal financial aid increased the amount of time between high school graduation and college enrollment by about two years, and we also present suggestive evidence that affected students were less likely to ever enroll in college. Students living in urban areas are the most affected by these amendments. Importantly, we do not find that the law deterred young people from committing drug felonies nor did it substantively change the probability that high school students with drug convictions graduated from high school. We find no evidence of a change in college enrollment of students convicted of non-drug crimes, or of those charged by not convicted of drug offenses. In contrast to much of the existing research, we conclude that, for this high-risk group of students, eligibility for federal financial aid strongly impacts college investment decisions.

Nondrug criminal behavior and heroin use.

This research was carried out to assess various aspects of nondrug criminal behavior and heroin use. The investigation involved three areas: (1) the temporal sequence of criminal involvement, (2) crimes associated with heroin use, and (3) the impact of treatment upon reducing nondrug criminality among heroin users. These three areas were examined by computer analysis of previously collected data. These data were provided by the Drug Abuse Epidemiology Data Center, Institute of Behavioral Research, Texas Christian University. The findings of this analysis suggested several conclusions. The first was that nondrug criminality predates heroin use since there was little association between the age at which heroin use starts and the ages when various nondrug crimes were first committed. Second, heroin users commit crimes which generate income regardless of whether or not they are violent. Finally, the success of treatment in reducing nondrug criminality is related to the amount of prior criminality.

Hostility, crime and drug dependence.

In a study of male addicts attending a London drug dependence unit, it was found that convicted addicts tended to score more highly on measures of hostility than non-convicted subjects. The differences in hostility between the convicted and non-convicted groups were most clearly seen on the violent crimes variable, although addicts convicted of drug-possession and of non-drug crimes were also more hostile than non-convicted subjects. It is suggested that hostility acts as a personality factor which predisposes the individual towards criminal behaviour, and that the more hostile subjects may also be more likely to be apprehended and convicted.