Research

Drug overdose deaths in the U.S. reached a record high of 107,573 in 2021, 75% of which involved opioids. In response, hundreds of police departments across the country have begun to divert individuals who possess drugs away from arrest and into substance use treatment. This paper evaluates the impact of this approach on future criminal justice system involvement as well as fatal overdose risk using arrest-level variation in diversion eligibility in Chicago between 2010-22. Drug arrest diversion primarily benefitted individuals who used narcotics every day, increased connections with substance use treatment, and reduced subsequent arrests, but had no discernible impact on fatal overdose risk. 

Crime leads to a range of adverse outcomes for those who live nearby. A common hypothesis is that this relationship is mediated by mental health. However, little is known about how the mental health of local residents is affected when an incident of violent crime occurs in their vicinity. To address this question, we pair granular crime data with uniquely detailed panel data on individual stress levels. Using nearly 50,000 responses from England's Thames Valley during the years 2010 to 2017, we find that local violent crime leads to an immediate and significant increase in residents' stress levels. We observe that this effect is strongest when the respondent is at home, and lasts approximately one week. We conclude that policies considering the total cost of crime—and conversely, crime prevention—should consider the adverse local mental health impacts of violent crime.