Using Fixed Effects to Determine the Impact of the Legalization of Marijuana on Violent Crime Rates

The legalization of marijuana at the state level may result in a range of potential issues, including an increase in criminal activity. The present study focuses on the impact of the legalization of marijuana on violent crime rates. The present study differs fromprior research by examining four types of violent crime (aggravated assault, murder, robbery, and violent crime). This study will also examine the legalization of both recreational and medical marijuana. Finally, this study will use a 40-year (1981-2021) state-level panel data set. A fixed effects model that controls for both state-level and year fixed effects was used. All observations were weighted using state-level population, and standard errors were corrected using a clustering method. Results suggest that the impact of the legalization of marijuana is mixed. The legalization of medical marijuana reduces the overall violent crime rate, the robbery rate, and the aggravated assault rate, while the legalization of recreational marijuana increases the robbery rate but reduces the aggravated assault rate

Keywords: Marijuana, Violent Crime, Fixed Effects.