The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct relationship between the prices of alcohol and drugs and the incidence of criminal violence in a nationally representative sample of individuals in the United States. The positive association between substance use and violence is well documented, as is the negative relationship between the quantity of alcohol or drugs consumed and their prices. These two relationships together form the principal hypothesis examining whether increases in substance prices will directly decrease the incidence of criminal violence. Violence is measured by assault, rape/sexual assault and robbery. Measures of alcohol or drug involved violent crimes are also considered. The data come from the 1992, 1993 and 1994 National Crime Victimization Surveys. A reduced form model is estimated in which the probability of being a victim of a violent crime is determined by the full prices of alcohol and illegal drugs, the arrest rates for violent crimes, and characteristics of the respondent. Individual- level fixed effects are also employed in some models. Results from the preferred specifications indicate that higher beer taxes lead to a lower incidence of assault, but not rape or robbery. Higher beer taxes will also lead to lower probabilities of alcohol- or drug-involved assault. Decriminalizing marijuana will result in a higher incidence of assault and robbery, while higher cocaine prices will decrease these crimes.
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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number
7982.
Length: Date of creation: Oct 2000 Date of revision: Publication status: published as Markowitz, Sara. "Alcohol, Drugs And Violent Crime," International Review of Law and Economics, 2005, v25(1,Mar), 20-44. Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7982
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Find related papers by JEL classification: I0 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - General K0 - Law and Economics - - General
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Frank J. Chaloupka & Michael Grossman & John A. Tauras, 1999.
"The Demand for Cocaine and Marijuana by Youth,"
NBER Chapters,
in: The Economic Analysis of Substance Use and Abuse: An Integration of Econometrics and Behavioral Economic Research, pages 133-156
National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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