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Joint culpability: The effects of medical marijuana laws on crime

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  • Chu, Yu-Wei Luke
  • Townsend, Wilbur

Abstract

Most U.S. states have passed medical marijuana laws. In this paper, we study the effects of these laws on violent and property crime. We first estimate models that control for city fixed effects and flexible city-specific time trends. To supplement this regression analysis, we use the synthetic control method which can relax the parallel trend assumption and better account for heterogeneous policy effects. Both the regression analysis and the synthetic control method suggest no causal effects of medical marijuana laws on violent or property crime at the national level. We also find no strong effects within individual states, except for in California where the medical marijuana law reduced both violent and property crime by 20%.

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  • Chu, Yu-Wei Luke & Townsend, Wilbur, 2019. "Joint culpability: The effects of medical marijuana laws on crime," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 502-525.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:159:y:2019:i:c:p:502-525
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2018.07.003
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    7. Scott Callahan & David M. Bruner & Chris Giguere, 2021. "Smoke and Fears: The Effects of Marijuana Prohibition on Crime," Working Papers 21-12, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
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    12. Xiuming Dong & Justin Tyndall, 2021. "The Impact of Recreational Marijuana Dispensaries on Crime: Evidence from a Lottery Experiment," Working Papers 2021-1, University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, University of Hawaii at Manoa.

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