IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v13y2024i7p373-d1437093.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Experimental Investigation Examining the Impact of Medical Association Statements about Drug Addiction on Perceptions of Criminal Culpability and Punishment

Author

Listed:
  • Pete Leasure

    (Drug Enforcement and Policy Center, Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA)

  • Hunter M. Boehme

    (Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA)

Abstract

This study examined whether public opinion on drug addiction, perceived culpability/responsibility, and punishment were impacted by statements from medical associations that drug addiction is a disease and not a choice. We utilized an experimental information provision survey distributed via Qualtrics to heads of household in South Carolina with an associated email address. The randomized treatment variable had two conditions. The first condition presented participants with a statement from several noteworthy medical associations/institutions noting that drug addiction is a disease. The second condition provided no statement (control condition). Results from our sample of over 5000 indicated that a large majority of respondents felt that individuals who have been diagnosed with a drug addiction should be fully responsible for any crimes that they commit. The presentation of official statements that addiction was a disease did not produce meaningful differences from the control group. Additionally, a large majority of respondents did not agree that addiction should relieve a defendant from punishment for drug crimes, theft crimes, or violent crimes. Here again, the presentation of official statements that addiction was a disease did not produce meaningful differences from the control groups. Finally, our results indicated that a majority of respondents viewed addiction as both a choice and disease, and the presentation of official statements that addiction was a disease did not meaningfully alter any responses.

Suggested Citation

  • Pete Leasure & Hunter M. Boehme, 2024. "An Experimental Investigation Examining the Impact of Medical Association Statements about Drug Addiction on Perceptions of Criminal Culpability and Punishment," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-8, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:13:y:2024:i:7:p:373-:d:1437093
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/13/7/373/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/13/7/373/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ronald L. Wasserstein & Allen L. Schirm & Nicole A. Lazar, 2019. "Moving to a World Beyond “p," The American Statistician, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 73(S1), pages 1-19, March.
    2. Diana C. Mutz & Robin Pemantle & Philip Pham, 2019. "The Perils of Balance Testing in Experimental Design: Messy Analyses of Clean Data," The American Statistician, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 73(1), pages 32-42, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Gruener, Sven, 2019. "An empirical study on Internet-based false news stories: experiences, problem awareness, and responsibilities," SocArXiv xbez9, Center for Open Science.
    2. Daoust, Jean-François & Nadeau, Richard & Dassonneville, Ruth & Lachapelle, Erick & Bélanger, Éric & Savoie, Justin & van der Linden, Clifton, 2020. "How to survey citizens’ compliance with COVID-19 public health measures? Evidence from three survey experiments," SocArXiv gursd, Center for Open Science.
    3. Maria-Lavinia FLOREA & Anca BORZA, 2019. "Individual Strategies For Achieving Work-Life Balance €“ A Case Study On Romanian Workers," Proceedings of the INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 13(1), pages 845-855, November.
    4. Alagöz, Nazli, 2024. "Promotion and technological change in the music industry," Other publications TiSEM 511ceba0-62a0-4c60-a76c-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Thomas R. Dyckman & Stephen A. Zeff, 2019. "Important Issues in Statistical Testing and Recommended Improvements in Accounting Research," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-11, May.
    6. Grüner Sven, 2020. "Sample Size Calculation in Economic Experiments," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 240(6), pages 791-823, December.
    7. Azeem, Muhammad Masood & Sheridan, Alison & Adapa, Sujana, 2022. "Women to women: Enabling innovation and firm performance in developing countries," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(PA).
    8. Michaelides, Michael, 2021. "Large sample size bias in empirical finance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    9. Kelter, Riko, 2022. "Power analysis and type I and type II error rates of Bayesian nonparametric two-sample tests for location-shifts based on the Bayes factor under Cauchy priors," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    10. John Cawley & Alex Susskind & Barton Willage, 2020. "The Impact of Information Disclosure on Consumer Behavior: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment of Calorie Labels on Restaurant Menus," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(4), pages 1020-1042, September.
    11. Liu, Yu & Maula, Markku, 2021. "Contextual status effects: The performance effects of host-country network status and regulatory institutions in cross-border venture capital," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(5).
    12. Abbas, Sadia & Adapa, Sujana & Sheridan, Alison & Azeem, Muhammad Masood, 2022. "Informal competition and firm level innovation in South Asia: The moderating role of innovation time off and R&D intensity," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    13. Borenstein, Denis & Perlin, Marcelo S. & Imasato, Takeyoshi, 2022. "The Academic Inbreeding Controversy: Analysis and Evidence from Brazil," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2).
    14. Simon Berset & Martin Huber & Mark Schelker, 2023. "The fiscal response to revenue shocks," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(3), pages 814-848, June.
    15. Peter Leasure & Robert J. Kaminski, 2021. "The Effectiveness of Certificates of Relief: A Correspondence Audit of Hiring Outcomes," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(4), pages 849-875, December.
    16. Centofanti, Tiziana & Murugesan, Anand, 2022. "Leader and citizens participation for the environment: Experimental evidence from Eastern Europe," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    17. Jordan Adamson & Lucas Rentschler, 2023. "Criminal justice from a public choice perspective: an introduction to the special issue," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 196(3), pages 223-227, September.
    18. Markku Maula & Wouter Stam, 2020. "Enhancing Rigor in Quantitative Entrepreneurship Research," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 44(6), pages 1059-1090, November.
    19. Wilkinson, Renae & Cowden, Richard G. & Chen, Ying & VanderWeele, Tyler J., 2023. "Exposure to negative life events, change in their perceived impact, and subsequent well-being among U.S. adults: A longitudinal outcome-wide analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    20. Viengkham, Doris & Baumann, Chris & Winzar, Hume & Dahana, Wirawan Dony, 2022. "Toward understanding Convergence and Divergence: Inter-ocular testing of traditional philosophies, economic orientation, and religiosity/spirituality," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1335-1352.

    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:gam:jscscx:v:13:y:2024:i:7:p:373-:d:1437093. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.