Decriminalization caused major rises in crime in both Oregon and Washington state.
A new study finds that Oregon’s and Washington state’s experiments with decriminalizing drug possession caused a surge in serious violent and property crime, especially in Portland and Seattle.
The paper, a collaboration among five criminologists, is the first to demonstrate that the states’ reforms—since undone by their legislatures amid massive public backlash—increased crime relative to the rest of the country. Prior research played down the phenomenon, allowing defenders of decriminalization to pretend the issue wasn’t real.
The July paper adds to the growing evidence that America’s experiments with drug decriminalization have proved disastrous. In particular, the research highlights how decriminalization concentrated crime and disorder in Seattle and Portland, rendering parts of the two already troubled cities almost unlivable. It also counters drug liberalizers’ argument that public-safety issues around drugs stem from the substances’ criminalization—rather than from the drugs themselves.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the Wall Street Journal (paywall)
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Charles Fain Lehman is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal
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