"Kicking the Can down the Street": Social Policy, Intimate Partner Violence, and Homicide during the Opioid Crisis.

BACKGROUND: Research has established a strong, positive correlation between homicides and substance use and also between homicides and intimate partner violence (IPV). Additionally, there is a well-known, robust, positive relationship between substance use and IPV. Focusing on the opioid crisis and using county-level panel data, this study investigates the possibility that opioid pill prescription trends, IPV, and homicide are intertwined in a complex, interdependent relationship. Objectives: With an eye toward integrated social policy, this study explores the relationships among and between opioid pill distribution patterns, IPV arrests, and homicide arrests within the United States between 2006 and 2012. Methods: Using county-level panel data from several established federal datasets, a series of longitudinal mixed-effects models regress homicide arrests onto the number of pills within each county, IPV arrests, and other relevant controls. Results: While IPV shares a strong, positive main effect relationship with homicide arrests, opioid pill volume is not significantly related to homicides. However, opioid pill volume within a county significantly attenuates the relationship between IPV and homicide, indicating that pills, IPV, and homicides share a complex, interwoven relationship. Conclusion: While the non-significant main effect of opioid pills suggests that opioids are not consequential for homicide, the highly significant interaction between pills and IPV indicates the opposite. Acknowledging the interwoven link between opioids, IPV, and homicide may be of importance when attempting to develop individual programs aimed at addressing these social problems. Well intentioned, unidimensional policies aimed at reducing opioids or IPV may be unknowingly impacting other social problems.

Using arrest and prescription data to examine the relationship between intimate partner violence and opioid prescriptions in the United States, 2006-2012.

BACKGROUND: Research has established a strong and positive correlation between substance use and intimate partner violence due to a complex interplay of individual, situational, and contextual factors. This study seeks to further explore this relationship in the context of the recent opioid crisis in which millions of Americans have been diagnosed with an opioid use disorder. Specifically, we analyze how opioid prescriptions relate to intimate partner violence within and between counties over time throughout the rise of the opioid crisis. METHODS: This study employs an integrated dataset that merges crime data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, demographic data from the American Community Survey, and prescription opioid pill counts from the Drug Enforcement Administration to study the relationship between opioid pills prescribed per person and levels of intimate partner violence arrests from 2006-2012. Fixed-effects and mixed-effects techniques are both used. RESULTS: Increases in opioid pill distribution volume within-counties over time are related to increases in intimate partner violence arrest volume (p ≤ .001). Additionally, counties which have higher amounts of opioid pills in circulation tend to experience higher levels of arrests for intimate partner violence than counties with fewer pills (p ≤ .001). CONCLUSIONS: Policymakers who are dealing with the effects of the opioid crisis should consider the relationship between opioids and intimate partner violence when attempting to address either of these issues. Based on the results of this study, addressing opioid dependence and mitigating the extent of the crisis may also reduce intimate partner violence.

A national study of sustained use of force complaints in law enforcement agencies.

PURPOSE: This article examines how community and departmental characteristics relate to the number of sustained use of force complaints in a law enforcement agency. METHODS: Using national-level data from Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics 2007, Uniform Crime Reports 2007, American Community Survey 2009 and bivariate and multivariate techniques, we investigate whether sustained uses of force vary across 1) community and regional characteristics in the U.S. and across departmental 2) policies, 3) training tendencies, and 4) hiring practices. RESULTS: Controlling for region, crime rate, and area median income, results demonstrate that sustained complaints increase when departments serve large, nonwhite populations. Regarding departmental policies, results are alarming: Departments with independent civilian complaint review boards, agencies which engage in community policing, and departments that implement personality tests when hiring sustain significantly higher numbers of use of force complaints. However, departments that screen for volunteer and community service histories in officer candidates have over one third fewer sustained complaints than departments that do not use this hiring screen. CONCLUSIONS: In order to significantly reduce the amount of sustained complaints against a department, results suggest that agencies should assess community service and volunteer histories for potential officer candidates.