For many adolescents experimenting with drugs is a fairly normal part of growing up, but many are accessing these drugs at, or near to, schools. In new research, Dale Willits, Lisa Broidy, and Kristine Denman find that drug crime is higher in city blocks that have middle and high schools. They write that schools give drug dealers and buyers the opportunity to meet, a process that occurs regardless of the neighborhood’s characteristics

Broidy, Lisa

Denman, Kristine

Willits, Dale

LSE Research Online

blogs.lse.ac.ukhttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2015/09/01/evidence-indicates-that-drug-crime-is-greater-in-neighborhoods-with-middle-and-high-schools/Evidence indicates that drug crime is greater in neighborhoodswith middle and high schools.For many adolescents experimenting with drugs is a fairly normal part of growing up, but manyare accessing these drugs at, or near to, schools. In new research, Dale Willits, Lisa Broidy,and Kristine Denman find that drug crime is higher in city blocks that have middle and highschools. They write that schools give drug dealers and buyers the opportunity to meet, a processthat occurs regardless of the neighborhood’s characteristics.According to the Centers for Disease Control in 2013, over one-in-five high school students areoffered, sold, or given an illegal drug by someone on school property.  This is not surprising. Adolescence is the period when most people first experiment with illegal drugs. Given the primaryrole of schools in the lives of adolescents, we would certainly expect that this environment playscentrally in adolescent drug use.  Experimenting with drugs is fairly normal during adolescenceand, unless this experimentation starts early or advances to chronic use, it is generally notassociated with long term negative outcomes. At the same time, that adolescents are accessingdrugs at school suggests a drug sales and distribution network in and around schools that couldhave deleterious consequences for the surrounding neighborhood. Indeed, criminologicalresearch suggests that schools can generate crime in the surrounding neighborhood, and thismay be linked to the drug networks adolescents are accessing in and around schools.From a theoretical perspective, the school-neighborhood crime link can be at least partiallyexplained by the routine activities perspective.  From this perspective, crime is most likely whenmotivated offenders converge with suitable victims in places with low levels of guardianship. Schools provide such an environment. In the case of drug crime, the demographics of thepopulation mandated to attend high school overlaps considerably with the demographics of the population mostlikely to sell and purchase illegal drugs (young people between the ages of 16 and 24).  And while schools haveguardianship in the form of teachers, school administrators, security guards, and increasingly, law enforcementofficers, students (the population of potential offenders and victims) vastly outnumber these guardians, especiallyas student teacher ratios continue to expand. This limits the effectiveness of guardianship in and around schools.In recent research we looked at the link between schools and drug crime.  We examined drug crimes in the 432census block groups in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Our measure of drug crime included the total number of drugpossession and distribution arrests made in each block group in Albuquerque between 2001 and 2005.  Afterassembling these data, we examined drug offense rates for block groups based on whether the block groupcontained a middle school and/or a high school.  Our findings confirmed that block groups containing middleschools and block groups containing high schools have substantially higher rates of drug crime than block groupswithout schools. As Figure 1 shows, this relationship is strongest in neighborhoods with high schools, where thepopulation of potential offenders and victims is highest and levels of guardianship lowest.Figure 1 – Drug Offenses by Block Group TypeThis pattern persists even after accounting for a variety of other variables correlated with drug crime, includingcomposite measures of poverty, residential instability, and the demographic make-up of the block groups.  Indeed,block groups with middle schools and high schools report heightened levels of drug crime regardless of the socialand economic characteristics of the block group.  This result is quite important, because it suggests that schoolsfacilitate neighborhood drug crime in both poor and affluent neighborhoods.  This means that schools overridesome of the neighborhood level protective factors that work to reduce crime in more affluent neighborhoods.The routine activities argument can be extended beyond a discussion of where crime occurs to a discussion ofwhen crime occurs. If schools facilitate drug market activity by promoting the convergence of offenders andvictims, then the school effect should be greatest during time periods when this convergence actually occurs. These time periods include the morning commute to school, school hours, and the afternoon commute away fromschool.  In additional analyses, we found that this is in fact the case.  The difference in drug crime between blockgroups with and without middle and high schools was greatest during the periods when students are at school andcommuting to and from school.Figure 2 – Drug crimes during non-school, school, and school commute hoursFigure 2 above shows this result for high schools, with block groups containing high schools highlighted by thedark borders.  The Non-School Session map shows drug crime counts during time periods when schools are notlikely to facilitate illicit drug transactions.  This includes crimes that occur during late afternoon, evening, weekend,and summer hours.  The School Session map displays drug crime counts for all incidents occurring during themorning commute, school day, and afternoon commute hours.  In the Non-School Session map, several of theblock groups (especially those in the more affluent northeast heights section of Albuquerque) have very fewincidents.  Conversely, in the School Session map, each block group containing a school is a darker shade on themap, indicating higher levels of narcotics crime. Further analyses show these differences to be both significantand substantial.As a whole, the evidence suggests that schools facilitate neighborhood drug crime by providing the appropriateopportunity structure for drug dealers and buyers to meet in time and space. This process occurs regardless ofneighborhood level characteristics that otherwise offer some protection from crime. Though schools bring a rangeof benefits to a neighborhood, they also introduce some risk. All neighborhoods need to be mindful of thesepotential risks and consider ways to mitigate them for the benefit of both the students and the broaderneighborhood.This article is based on the paper ‘Schools and Drug Markets: Examining the Relationship Between Schools andNeighborhood Drug Crime’, in Youth & Society.Featured image credit: Metro Centric (Flickr, CC-BY-2.0)Please read our comments policy before commenting.  Note:  This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of USApp– American Politics and Policy, norof the London School of Economics.  Shortened URL for this post:  http://bit.ly/1JGD3IG______________________ About the authors Dale Willits – Washington State UniversityDale Willits is an Assistant Professor at Washington State University in the Criminal Justice &Criminology Department. His research interests explore issues related to policing (policeorganizational structure, policing outcomes, and policing data), the etiology of crime, juveniledelinquency, and the relationship between place and crime. Lisa Broidy – Griffith UniversityLisa Broidy is an Associate Professor and Deputy Head of School (Research) at the School ofCriminology and Criminal Justice at Griffith University. Her research interests includedevelopmental and life course criminology, gender and crime/female offending criminologicaltheory, and crime policy evaluation specifically around domestic violence and offender re-entry. Kristine Denman – University of New MexicoKristine Denman is the Director of the New Mexico Statistical Analysis Center. She has 20 yearsof experience in both research and evaluation. She has led numerous criminal justice relatedprojects for various agency partners at the city, state and federal levels. She has particularinterest in the evaluation of criminal justice initiatives and issues surrounding offender re-entry.CC BY-NC 3.0 2015 LSE USAPP

Evidence indicates that drug crime is greater in neighborhoods with middle and high schools.

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