High Opportunity Costs: Does Social Disorganization Condition the Association between Medical Marijuana Dispensaries and Neighborhood Crime?

• In Event: Neighborhood Institutions and Crime

Abstract

The liberalization of marijuana laws may have implications for neighborhood crime insofar as the distribution of the drug through a dispensary system may provide additional opportunities for criminal behavior to take place. Researchers examining the nexus between medical marijuana dispensaries and neighborhood crime have largely looked at the main effects of such an association and find mixed results. We posit that such an association may be predicated on the amount of social disorganization in neighborhoods where these medical marijuana dispensaries are sited. Using recent crime data aggregated to the egohood unit of analysis, we look at the main effect of medical marijuana dispensaries on neighborhood crime in Los Angeles County cities. Integrating perspectives from both social disorganization and routine activity theory, we investigate a possible interaction effect between these dispensaries and social disorganization on neighborhood crime.

Authors

• Christopher Contreras, University of California, Irvine

• John R. Hipp, University of California, Irvine

• James C. Wo, University of California, Irvine