Drugs and Crime

Abstract

This article explains why various policies are or are not likely to reduce the amount of crime associated with drugs, by marrying a simple typology of the types of drug-related crime with analysis of how different interventions affect drug markets and drug use. Section I addresses the science half of the literature but forgoes the usual detailed review of the empirical evidence. Section II lays down principles for thinking about the impact of drug-control interventions on drug production, distribution, and use. Section III sketches the main effects one can expect from various alternatives that figure prominently in policy discussions, plus some others that are less discussed but perhaps more promising.