Drug Abuse and Reoffending

The overall research topic is to analyze the impact of imprisonment in comparison to sanctions by the community on reoffending. Recidivism and drug abuse are an important topic because they touch on various issues within the society such as prison reforms, the reduction of crime rates, and the general safety of the community. The interest in this topic stems from the need to discover ways to make amends to previous policies. Furthermore, the research on the issue is crucial to the fact that regardless of the creation and maintenance of mass incarceration, minimal studies have been carried out on its impact on drug abuse and reoffending. Literature Review  Regardless of the assumption that incarceration of drug offenders exerts an effect on minimizing such crimes, there is limited experimental evidence that supports this idea.

For instance, a majority of the studies did not take into consideration the outcome that the selection effects will have about the bias effect of the estimates (Rehm, et al. Furthermore, the previous studies are lacking in the research specifics such as the potential impact of incarceration per age, gender, ethnicity, and race of the individuals. The limitations of the other studies are the driving factor for the need for research in the area of drug reoffending. Previous studies only outline an estimation of the possible outcomes of the incarceration of drug offenders. Another result of earlier studies is that they produce outcomes that the indicates null and criminogenic effects of imprisonment of drug offenders. Methods Sampling The most suitable technique for the testing of the hypothesis is the regression discontinuity design.

The regression discontinuity design is an alternative in the case where experimental models that are randomized are impractical or unethical. The respondents of randomized experiments are assigned depending on the values of a random variable. For the RD design, it involves the utilization of a combination of a cut-off score and non-random variables to assign the respondents with conditions. The respondents that will score higher than the cut-off score will be awarded to the treatment group while the individuals that fall below the cut-off points are attached to a comparison group (Mitchell, Cochran, Mears, & Bales, 2017). Furthermore, the sentencing score is also an essential consideration. The lowest possible sentence is determined using the total points accumulated from the various attributes mentioned. In the absence of a valid reason for departure, the trial court would assign the offender the minimum sentence (Mitchell, Cochran, Mears, & Bales, 2017).

According to the criminal punishment code, when an individual scores more than 44 points on the scoring system are liable to receive a sentence involving a prison sentence. Those that score below 44 points on the scoring system would be liable to receive a minimal punishment of a house arrest, intensive probation, jail, and other non-prison sanctions (Mitchell, Cochran, Mears, & Bales, 2017). A modern discontinuity analysis is applicable for this study. Therefore, the views of the RD design as it states that the cases near the cut-off score are locally randomized. The local randomization stems from the closeness of the score to the cut-off score (Wolff, Baglivio, & Piquero, 2017). Because of this concept used, the analysis of the cases is restricted to the cases that are close to the cut-off score and hence being referred to as a local analysis.

A preference for a transparent, simple, ad nonparametric arises because of the utilization of the Regression Discontinuity concept. Multi-stage regression and instrument variable estimation would be essential in the determining of the impact of actually being imprisoned. This method was more effective than the prison scoring system. Furthermore, this technique has become the standard technique utilized when it comes to prison analysis as well as fuzzy discontinuities (Bell & Keaneb, 2012). References Bell , K. , & Keaneb, H. J Community Health, 42 (1), 90–100. doi:10. 1007/s10900-016-0234-2 Mitchell, O. , Cochran, J. C. , Elekes, Z. , Feijão, F. , & Marmet, S. Prevalence of and potential influencing factors for alcohol dependence in Europe. European Addiction Research, 21(1), 6-18. 1085 Wolff, K. , Baglivio, M. , & Piquero, A. The relationship between adverse childhood experiences and recidivism in a sample of juvenile offenders in community-based treatment.