Drug enforcement causes other crimes

[CBL4]

Edward Shepard and Paul Blackley looked at the 62 counties in New York to determine the effect of increased drug enforcement on other crimes. Their conclusion is that more arrests for drug crime correspond to more reported non-drug crimes. Possible causes include drug dealers switching to other crimes, price rises causes buyers to commit more crime to support their habits and because police officers spend less time on non-drug crimes.

There are no models where drug enforcement is found to be negatively and significantly associated with crime. [i.e. no place where increased drug enforcement reduces other crimes]The findings that conflict most strongly with the traditional law enforcement view involve the manufacture, sale, and possession of "harder" drugs separate from marijuana. Increase in per capita arrests for the manufacture and sale of "hard drugs" are accompanied by higher reported rates for all types of violent and property crime assessed above. Increase arrests for possession are associated with the primarily economic crimes of robbery, burglary and larceny.

http://mysite.verizon.net/aahpat/pol/i/dec.pdf


CBL

 

[Ed]

Edward Shepard and Paul Blackley looked at the 62 counties in New York to determine the effect of increased drug enforcement on other crimes. Their conclusion is that more arrests for drug crime correspond to more reported non-drug crimes. Possible causes include drug dealers switching to other crimes, price rises causes buyers to commit more crime to support their habits and because police officers spend less time on non-drug crimes.


http://mysite.verizon.net/aahpat/pol/i/dec.pdf


CBL

This is one of those areas where the number of variables, their colinierity, the quality of the data and the temporal factors yield a witches brew.

It looks to me as if they did a cross section, that is to say, they looked at direct effects but did not look at temporal relationships. That in itself might offer alternative interpretations (and mechanisms for enhanced law enforcement practices). I also wonder about comparing different jurisdictions.