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

Adda, Jérôme; McConnell, Brendon; Rasul, Imran

doi:10.1086/676932

Cited by 116 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Norström and Skog (2005) argue that that increased police surveillance explain why their analysis revealed a significant surge in drunk driving. 14 The results in Adda, McConnell and Rasul (2011) Our approach is once again to add male youths below the national drinking age restriction as an additional control group. This allows us to control for county-by-time, county-by-age and age-by-time effects in the regressions.…”

Section: The Effect Of Saturday Open Alcohol Shops On Crime Throughoumentioning

confidence: 99%

Alcohol availability and crime: Lessons from liberalized weekend sales restrictions

Grönqvist

Niknami

2014

Journal of Urban Economics

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In February 2000, the Swedish state monopoly alcohol retail company launched a large scale experiment in which all stores in selected counties were allowed to keep open on Saturdays. We assess the effects on crime of this expansion in access to alcohol. To isolate the impact of the experiment from other factors, we compare conviction rates in age cohorts above and below the national drinking age restriction in counties where the experiment had been implemented, and contrast these differences to those in counties that still prohibited weekend alcohol commerce. Our analysis relies on extensive individual conviction data that have been merged to population registers. After demonstrating that Saturday opening of alcohol shops significantly raised alcohol sales, we show that it also increased crime. The increase is confined to crimes committed on Saturdays and is driven by illegal activity among individuals with low ability and among persons with fathers that have completed at least some secondary education. Although the increases in crime and alcohol sales were slightly higher during the initial phase of the experiment, our evidence suggests that both effects persist over time. Our analysis reveals that the social costs linked to the experiment exceed the monetary benefits.

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Section: The Effect Of Saturday Open Alcohol Shops On Crime Throughoumentioning

confidence: 99%

Alcohol availability and crime: Lessons from liberalized weekend sales restrictions

Grönqvist

Niknami

2014

Journal of Urban Economics

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“…Adda et al (2010) explore an episode of decriminalization of cannabis possession in a London borough between 2001 and 2002. They find that decriminalization was associated with increases in drug related offenses and reductions in other types of offenses (as police shifted resources towards non-drug related crimes).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As Adda et al (2010) and Owens (2011a and2011b), we use an institutional change that can be seen as a natural experiment on the effect of illegality. But, differently from Adda et al (2010), we analyze the complete shutdown of a market, rather than changes in the criminal status of consumers in a specific location.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…But, differently from Adda et al (2010), we analyze the complete shutdown of a market, rather than changes in the criminal status of consumers in a specific location. And, differently from Owens (2011a and2011b), we analyze the incidence of violence in a market unrelated to "vice" goods (drugs, alcohol, prostitution, etc), so that we immediately isolate what is sometimes termed "systemic" violence, as opposed to violence that may arise due to the consumption of the good itself or to intrinsic characteristics of consumers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Use of Violence in Illegal Markets: Evidence from Mahogany Trade in the Brazilian Amazon

Chimeli

Soares

2017

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. www.econstor.eu The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E SIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. Agents operating in illegal markets cannot resort to the justice system to guarantee property rights, to enforce contracts, or to seek protection from competitors' improper behaviors. In these contexts, violence is used to enforce previous agreements and to fight for market share. This relationship plays a major role in the debate on the pernicious effects of the illegality of drug trade. This paper explores a singular episode of transition of a market from legal to illegal to provide a first piece of evidence on the causal effect of illegality on systemic violence. Brazil has historically been the main world producer of big leaf mahogany (a tropical wood). Starting in the 1990s, policies restricting extraction and trade of mahogany, culminating with prohibition, were implemented. First, we present evidence that large scale mahogany trade persisted after prohibition, through misclassification of mahogany exports as "other tropical timber species." Second, we document relative increases in violence after prohibition in areas with: (i) higher share of mahogany exports before prohibition; (ii) higher suspected illegal mahogany activity after prohibition; and (iii) natural occurrence of mahogany. We believe this is one of the first documented experiences of increase in violence following the transition of a market from legal to illegal. NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARYAgents operating in illegal markets cannot resort to the justice system to guarantee...

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“…In particular, Adda et al (2014) looks at the eect of depenalization on crime in a London borough. They nd that overall crime fell, while possession oenses increased and persisted even after the policy ended.…”

Section: Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Is Legal Pot Crippling Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations? The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on US Crime

2014

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We examine the eect of medical marijuana laws (MML) on crime treating the introduction of MML as a quasi-experiment and using three dierent data sources. First, using data from the Uniform Crime Reports, we nd that violent crimes such as homicides and robberies decrease in states that border Mexico after MML are introduced. Second, using Supplementary Homicide Reports' data we show that for homicides the decrease is the result of a drop in drug-law and juvenile-gang related homicides. Lastly, using STRIDE data, we show that the introduction of MML in Mexican border states decreases the amount of cocaine seized, while it increases the price of cocaine. Our results are consistent with the theory that decriminalization of small-scale production and distribution of marijuana harms Mexican drug tracking organizations, whose revenues are highly reliant on marijuana sales. The drop in drug-related crimes suggests that the introduction of MML in Mexican border states lead to a decrease in their activity in those states. Our results survive a large variety of robustness checks. Extrapolating from our results, this indicates that decriminalization of the production and distribution of drugs may lead to a drop in violence in markets where organized crime is pushed out by licit competition. * Michael Braun, the former chief of operations for the D.E.A., told me a story about the construction of a high-tech fence along a stretch of border in Arizona. "They erect this fence," he said, "only to go out there a few days later and discover that these guys have a catapult, and they're inging hundred-pound bales of marijuana over to the other side." He paused and looked at me for a second. "A catapult," he repeated. "We've got the best fence money can buy, and they counter us with a 2,500-year-old technology." New York Times, Keefe (2012)

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

Cited by 116 publications

References 34 publications

Alcohol availability and crime: Lessons from liberalized weekend sales restrictions

Alcohol availability and crime: Lessons from liberalized weekend sales restrictions

The Use of Violence in Illegal Markets: Evidence from Mahogany Trade in the Brazilian Amazon

Is Legal Pot Crippling Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations? The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on US Crime

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