The Impact of Recreational Marijuana Legalization on Simple Assault in Oregon
Guangzhen Wu, Dale Willits
Abstract
There has been heightened public concern about the implications of recreational marijuana legalization to public safety. Prior research on this issue has primarily focused on Colorado and Washington State-the two states that first legalized recreational marijuana in the U.S.-and on legalization's impact on major crimes. This study extends this line of research to Oregon (OR, legalized in late 2014) and examines the impact of legalization on a less serious form of violent crime-simple assault. Using Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program data from 2007 to 2017 and a quasi-experimental research design, this study found that counties in OR have experienced increases in simple assault rate following legalization, relative to rates in the 19 non-legalized states. Findings suggest the need for more scholarly efforts to explore the potential impact of marijuana legalization on different subtypes of violent crime in other legalized states.