The Effects of Criminality on Drug Users’ Abstinence Intention: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis

• In Event: 2151 - Section on Alcohol, Drugs, and Tobacco Roundtable
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 4. Preventing, Using, Abstaining, and Selling Drugs

Abstract

In recent 30 years, China has become one of the major drug consuming countries. Though undertaking both compulsory and unbidden rehabilitation programs, the result of fighting for drug abuse is not ideal in mainland China: re-addiction rate in the same year upon the completion of compulsory rehabilitation programs is as high as 80%. Given the understatement of drug abuse issue and its solutions in Chinese academia, this paper aims on uncovering the reality of the drug abuse situation in contemporary China, and scientifically proving the importance of social environment with tolerance and caring for the success of rehabilitation programs. In addition, propensity score matching instead of OLS regression was used as the main analytical method in this paper, which may introduce the idea of “treatment effects” and provide a new path for quantitative social researchers in Chinese criminology.

Authors

• Xuemeng Li, CUNY - The Graduate Center

• Liu Liu, Nanjing University