State Recreational Cannabis Laws and Racial Disparities in the Criminal Legal SystemIndian Rupee

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Meinhofer, Angelica; Rubli, Adrian; Cunningham, Jamein e
• 署名单位: Cornell University; Weill Cornell Medicine; National Bureau of Economic Research; Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico; University of Texas System; University of Texas Austin
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20230670
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: crime; RACE

摘要

We estimate the direct and spillover effects of cannabis legalization on longstanding racial disparities in criminal justice outcomes. We find that legalization reduces cannabis possession and sales arrests for White and Black populations, narrowing but not eliminating disparities. We also find spillover increases in hospitalizations involving cannabis and other illegal drugs. However, spillovers on arrests, incarcerations, and crimes involving serious violent or property offenses are insignificant or even decrease. Other illegal drug sales arrests decrease across populations, while illegal drug incarcerations decrease only among White populations. Spillovers on other low-level offenses are insignificant for White but mixed for Black populations. (JEL I12, J15, K14, K41, K42)