Reducing Substance Abuse and Crime

This blog is a part of our series, “Perspectives in Crime” where we explore leading academic studies that touch on crime data.

Substance abuse is a major public health concern in the United States, with drug-induced deaths increasing by 533% since 1999, representing the largest major category of external causes of death. In addition to the health consequences, there is a strong connection between substance abuse and crime. Substance abusers are more likely to engage in criminal behavior, including drug-related crimes such as drug trafficking and possession, as well as violent and property crimes bearing a broader impact on community life.

The National Survey of Drug Use and Health estimates that over 40.3 million people in the U.S. have a substance use disorder (SAMHSA 2021) — 40% of convicted violent criminals are under the influence of alcohol at the time of their arrest, with nearly 60% of all arrested persons testing positive for illicit substances at the time of their arrest (Bondurant 2018).

How substance abuse treatment centers affect local crime rates

The 2018 paper, “Substance abuse treatment centers and local crime” by Samuel R. Bondurant, Jason M. Lindo, and Isaac D. Swensen, published in the Journal of Urban Economics, examines the impacts of expanding access to substance abuse treatment on local crime rates. The study uses an identification strategy that leverages variation in treatment facility openings and closings at the county level to examine their impact on local crime. Their results indicate that substance abuse treatment (SAT) facilities reduce both violent and financially motivated crimes in an area and that the effects are particularly pronounced for relatively serious crimes.

Bondurant et al. believe substance abuse treatment centers could have the capacity to reduce violent crime through several mechanisms:

• Reducing the use of drugs that produce aggressive behavior
• Reducing financially motivated crimes that are perpetrated by drug-seeking persons
• Reducing the number of participants and the violence associated with the drug trade

Additionally, researchers felt that drug-abuse treatment may have the capacity to impact the number of people carrying guns due to these mechanisms. These factors could reduce the frequency and intensity of community violence.

How could additional substance abuse treatment facilities reduce crime costs?

The study utilizes a panel dataset of 2,000 counties in the United States over 2000-2015. The authors estimate the effects of an additional SAT facility on county-level crime rates using a fixed-effects regression model. The results indicate that an additional facility in a county reduces municipal rates of homicide, aggravated assault, robbery, motor vehicle theft, and burglary.

The authors also estimate that an additional SAT facility in a county reduces county crime costs by approximately $2.9 million if reductions in homicides are included, or $1.2 million otherwise. Figures 1 and 2 show the estimated impact on Log crime rates of one additional substance abuse treatment facility per county for violent and property crimes.

One of the most significant findings of this study is that substance abuse treatment centers have a significant impact on reducing homicides in highly populated areas. They find that counties with more substance abuse treatment facilities experience fewer homicides than counties with fewer facilities. This effect is particularly strong in highly populated areas where there is a greater concentration of substance abusers. 

Bondurant et al. also estimates the impact of an additional SAT facility on county-level drug-related mortality. The updated estimates indicate that an additional SAT facility reduces drug-related mortality by 0.50% annually. Based on a value of $7-8 million per expected life saved, the estimate implies a decline in a county's annual drug-related mortality costs by $4.2-4.8 million. These calculations suggest that the county-level benefits of an additional facility — in terms of drug-related mortality and criminal activity — are between $5.4 and 7.65 million, depending on whether effects on homicides are included.

To compare these benefits to the annual costs of treatment at each facility, the authors consider the average number of annual treatment admissions (255) from the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS) and treatment modality-specific cost estimates from a prior scholarship. A back-of-the-envelope calculation indicates that the annual costs of treatment for an SAT facility are approximately $1.1 million. These calculations suggest that the benefits of expanding treatment facilities far outweigh the associated treatment costs.

Why policymakers should invest in substance abuse treatment facilities

Bondurant et al.’s study on substance abuse treatment facilities contributes to contemporary conversations surrounding crime and the drug abuse epidemic. Their study provides strong evidence that expanding access to substance abuse treatment can have a significant impact on reducing crime rates, particularly in highly populated areas, and suggests that policymakers should consider investing in substance abuse treatment facilities to reduce crime and improve public health outcomes.