IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jcjust/v74y2021ics0047235221000180.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Drug overdose death rates and criminal sentencing of federal drug offenders in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Testa, Alexander
  • Lee, Jacqueline

Abstract

The rate of drug overdose deaths has increased substantially in the United States in the past two decades. However, limited research has examined how the criminal justice system is responding to this growing epidemic. Using data on criminal sentences in federal district courts, the current study assesses the relationship between drug overdose death rates and criminal sentences in the United States. Results from multilevel regression models demonstrate that sentences for federal drug offenders were shorter in areas that experienced higher overdose rates and increased growth in overdose rates over time. Findings also demonstrated substantial heterogeneity by drug type, such that substances most closely associated with the overdose crisis (i.e., pharmaceutical opioids and methamphetamines) were sentenced less harshly in areas with higher drug overdose rates. Analyses assessing the change in overdose rates over time, demonstrated that several substances (crack-cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine) were sentenced more harshly in areas with greater growth in the overdose rate, whereas cocaine and pharmaceutical opioids were not impacted by changes in drug overdose rate. These findings are interpreted through the lens of theoretical perspectives and contemporary research pertaining to ways levels of crime and social problems influence punishment decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Testa, Alexander & Lee, Jacqueline, 2021. "Drug overdose death rates and criminal sentencing of federal drug offenders in the United States," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:74:y:2021:i:c:s0047235221000180
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2021.101798
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047235221000180
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2021.101798?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Hunermund & Beyers Louw, 2020. "On the Nuisance of Control Variables in Regression Analysis," Papers 2005.10314, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2024.
    2. Ward, Jeffrey T. & Hartley, Richard D. & Tillyer, Rob, 2016. "Unpacking gender and racial/ethnic biases in the federal sentencing of drug offenders: A causal mediation approach," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 196-206.
    3. Aaron R Kaufman & Eitan D Hersh, 2020. "The political consequences of opioid overdoses," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(8), pages 1-10, August.
    4. Mustard, David B, 2001. "Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Disparities in Sentencing: Evidence from the U.S. Federal Courts," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(1), pages 285-314, April.
    5. Webster, Fiona & Rice, Kathleen & Sud, Abhimanyu, 2020. "A critical content analysis of media reporting on opioids: The social construction of an epidemic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Holmes, Bryan & Feldmeyer, Ben & Sun, Diana & Arrigo, Shayna, 2024. "Criminal court responses to the modern opioid and methamphetamine twindemic," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    2. Crow, Matthew S. & Goulette, Natalie, 2022. "Judicial diversity and sentencing disparity across U.S. District Courts," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vadim Volkov, 2016. "Legal and Extralegal Origins of Sentencing Disparities: Evidence from Russia's Criminal Courts," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(4), pages 637-665, December.
    2. Bindler, Anna Louisa & Hjalmarsson, Randi & Machin, Stephen Jonathan & Rubio, Melissa, 2023. "Murphy's Law or luck of the Irish? Disparate treatment of the Irish in 19th century courts," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121339, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Simone Bertoli & Morgane Laouenan & Jérôme Valette, 2022. "Border Apprehensions and Federal Sentencing of Hispanic Citizens in the United States," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03818735, HAL.
    4. Mariagiovanna Baccara & Allan Collard-Wexler & Leonardo Felli & Leeat Yariv, 2010. "Gender and Racial Biases: Evidence from Child Adoption," CESifo Working Paper Series 2921, CESifo.
    5. Eren, Ozkan & Mocan, Naci, 2020. "Judge Peer Effects in the Courthouse," IZA Discussion Papers 13937, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Lochner, L., 1999. "Education, Work, and Crime: Theory and Evidence," RCER Working Papers 465, University of Rochester - Center for Economic Research (RCER).
    7. Shawn D. Bushway & Emily G. Owens & Anne Morrison Piehl, 2012. "Sentencing Guidelines and Judicial Discretion: Quasi‐Experimental Evidence from Human Calculation Errors," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(2), pages 291-319, June.
    8. Shamena Anwar & Patrick Bayer & Randi Hjalmarsson, 2010. "Jury Discrimination in Criminal Trials," Working Papers 671, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    9. Max Schanzenbach, 2005. "Racial and Sex Disparities in Prison Sentences: The Effect of District-Level Judicial Demographics," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(1), pages 57-92, January.
    10. Shamena Anwar & Patrick Bayer & Randi Hjalmarsson, 2012. "The Impact of Jury Race in Criminal Trials," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(2), pages 1017-1055.
    11. Ahrsjö, Ulrika & Niknami, Susan & Palme, Mårten, 2022. "Identity in Court Decision-Making," Working Paper Series 4/2022, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
    12. Thomas J. Miles, 2012. "Racial Disparities in Wiretap Applications before Federal Judges," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41(2), pages 419-458.
    13. Frank Agyire-Tettey & Derek Asuman & Charles Godfred Ackah & Antoinette Tsiboe-Darko, 2021. "Multidimensional Child Poverty in Ghana: Measurements, Determinants, and Inequalities," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(3), pages 957-979, June.
    14. Nadia Campaniello, 2019. "Women in crime," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 105-105, July.
    15. Lance Lochner & Enrico Moretti, 2004. "The Effect of Education on Crime: Evidence from Prison Inmates, Arrests, and Self-Reports," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 155-189, March.
    16. Chen, Daniel L., 2018. "Judicial Analytics and the Great Transformation of American Law," TSE Working Papers 18-974, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    17. Arnaud Philippe, 2020. "Gender Disparities in Sentencing," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 87(348), pages 1037-1077, October.
    18. Bontrager Ryon, Stephanie, 2013. "Gender as social threat: A study of offender sex, situational factors, gender dynamics and social control," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 426-437.
    19. Becker, Stan, 2004. "Assessing the Use of Profiling in Searches by Law Enforcement Personnel," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 183-193.
    20. Ash, Elliott & Asher, Sam & Bhowmick, Aditi & Bhupatiraju, Sandeep & Chen, Daniel L. & Devi, Tatanya & Goessmann, Christoph & Novosad, Paul & Siddiqi, Bilal, 2022. "Measuring Gender and Religious Bias in the Indian Judiciary," TSE Working Papers 22-1395, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:74:y:2021:i:c:s0047235221000180. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcrimjus .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.