Drug treatment courts and community-level crime

Abstract

Research has recognized Adult Drug Treatment Courts (DTCs) as benefitting participants, with a wide body of research demonstrating lower levels of recidivism and drug use. A budding community-level body of research, however, has returned mixed results, some studies showing increases in arrests and crime relative to DTC initiation. Since DTCs cover over three-fourths of the US population, results showing such unintended consequences must be validated and rectified if held. This study estimated effects for DTCs for community-level crime effects from 1990 to 2018 using a stacked event study identification strategy. Most results indicated no significant effects. However, for population groups between 10,000 and 50,000, DTCs were associated with reductions in some crime categories. Violent index offenses offered the most robust results, and there was a small increase in non-index crimes in communities with populations between 50,000 and 100,000.