From Pain Management to Street Crime: A County-Level Analysis of Opioid Prescriptions and Drug-Related Arrest Rates
Open Access
- Author:
- Newell, Anna
- Graduate Program:
- Criminology (MA)
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- February 29, 2024
- Committee Members:
- Holly Nguyen, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Corina Antohi Graif, Committee Member
Pamela Wilcox, Professor in Charge/Director of Graduate Studies
Sarah Brothers, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Drugs
Substance Use
Arrests
Opioids
Prescribing - Abstract:
- The opioid crisis is a pressing issue with implications for treatment of chronic pain, addiction, and criminal justice responses to substance use. While prior research has thoroughly examined the relationship between opioid prescribing and overdose rates, there are gaps in Criminology regarding associations between opioid prescribing and crime-related outcomes. The following paper examines associations between prescription opioid dispensing rates and drug-related arrest rates using data from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) System for the years 2009-2020. The analytic strategy will use a fixed effects Poisson regression model to predict arrest-related outcomes, and supplemental analyses will assess whether certain effects are confined to more rural or less rural areas based on the urban-rural continuum index from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. By examining these data at the county-level, inferences can be made about the social context of opioid use and how communities are differentially affected by this issue. The findings suggest a positive association between opioid dispensing rates and arrest rates for possession and sale of synthetic narcotics, and a negative association with arrest rates for possession of heroin and cocaine. These findings have implications for understanding opioid use and policing practices in different spatial and temporal contexts. There are also implications for interactions between police and people who use drugs, which may lead to marginalization of an already marginalized group of people. Future research should continue to assess measures of crime with consideration of opioid prescribing practices and policies. Policy implications include criminal justice responses to substance use, and how diversion might be used in place of sanctions to offer treatment to those struggling with substance use disorders.