Is peace officer mortality higher during prohibition policy enforcement?
Observations and alternatives
Police deaths by gunshot and total line of duty deaths for the 20th century followed by supporting materials.
YEAR Intentional Gunfire
DeathsTotal Line of
Duty Deaths1900 49 66 1901 57 68 1902 67 84 1903 58 75 1904 53 71 1905 46 62 1906 48 67 1907 71 89 1908 90 116 1909 49 64 1910 66 82 1911 93 114 1912 80 94 1913 78 106 1 1914 82 111 1915 95 119 1916 108 150 1917 103 157 2 1918 104 149 1919 152 195 3 1920 142 185 4 1921 161 223 1922 156 222 1923 140 209 1924 163 241 1925 145 226 1926 160 225 1927 144 244 1928 151 240 1929 141 255 1930 172 285 1931 163 259 1932 156 262 1933 147 219 5 1934 131 225 1935 115 208 1936 86 182 1937 73 177 1938 87 184 1939 59 121 1940 51 120 1941 62 141 1942 46 116 1943 40 86 1944 40 87 1945 51 109 1946 60 130 1947 69 122 1948 58 133 1949 50 100 1950 47 109 1951 48 125 1952 58 118 1953 53 115 1954 62 129 1955 41 117 1956 36 104 1957 56 119 1958 43 106 1959 42 107 1960 48 128 1961 55 131 1962 59 137 1963 60 134 1964 62 147 1965 61 136 1966 64 159 1967 84 184 1968 76 191 1969 99 189 1970 107 2206 1971 140 241 1972 120 228 1973 143 265 1974 139 278 1975 142 240 1976 105 200 1977 95 187 1978 100 216 1979 111 214 1980 104 208 1981 93 201 1982 90 194 1983 80 193 1984 71 181 1985 77 179 1986 75 178 1987 74 180 1988 80 194 1989 69 196 1990 61 161 1991 73 148 1992 65 169 1993 77 162 1994 81 179 1995 70 184 1996 60 142 1997 68 176 1998 64 175 1999 44 151 2000 50 163 2001 65 2427 2002 57 159 2003 47 147 2004 55 163 2005 53 161 2006 50 147 2007 63 180 2008 1 4Per 1/14/2008 Based on numbers at the Officers Down Memorial web page.
http://www.odmp.org/index.php
*citations from History of Alcohol Prohibition
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/LIBRARY/studies/nc/nc2a.htm1 Income tax adopted. 50% of states are dry and temporance org.s band together to lobby for a national alcohol prohibition
2 The 18th Amendment is introduced in the Congress
3Jan. 18th Amendment ratified by a majority of states
4 Jan. 20 The National Prohibition begins (By midsummer of 1920, federal courts in Chicago were overwhelmed with some 600 pending liquor violation trials (Sinclair, 1962: 176-177). Within three years, 30 prohibition agents were killed in service.
5 Jan. End Prohibition
6 Controlled Substances Act
7 World Trade Center terror attack
Drug Enforcement and Crime: (PDF) "The findings that conflict most strongly with the traditional law enforcement view involve the manufacture, sale, and possession of "harder" drugs separate from marijuana. Increases in per capita arrests for the manufacture and sale of "hard drugs" are accompanied by higher reported rates for all types of violent and property crime assessed above. Increased arrests for possession are associated with the primarily economic crimes of robbery, burglary and larceny."
November, 2003
by Edward M. Shepard, and Paul Blackley
Economics Department, LeMoyne CollegeU.S. Conference of Mayors call for end to the War on Drugs "NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the United States Conference of Mayors believes the war on drugs has failed..."
The mayors continued: "...and calls for a New Bottom Line in U.S. drug policy, a public health approach that concentrates more fully on reducing the negative consequences associated with drug abuse, while ensuring that our policies do not exacerbate these problems or create new social problems of their own; establishes quantifiable, short- and long-term objectives for drug policy; saves taxpayer money; and holds state and federal agencies accountable..."
Violence and the U.S. Prohibitions of drugs and alcoholJeffrey A. Miron, Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, Boston University, http://econ.bu.edu/miron/
"This paper examines the relation between prohibitions and violence using the historical behavior of the homicide rate in the United States. The results document that increases in enforcement of drug and alcohol prohibition have been associated with increases in the homicide rate, and auxiliary evidence suggests this positive correlation reflects a causal influence of the prohibition enforcement on homicide. controlling for other potential deteriments of the homicide rate - the age composition of the population, the incarceration rate, economic conditions, gun availability, and the death penalty - does not alter the conclusion that drug and alcohol prohibition have substantially raised the homicide rate in the United States over much of the past 100 years." American Law and Economics Review, 1, Fall 1999, 78-114.
http://econ.bu.edu/miron/images/homicide.pdf©Jeffrey Miron
Actual and projected expenditures. Text does not clearly distinguish which is which.©Jeffrey Miron
Alternatives to Prohibition:Programme for a Medical Prescription of Narcotics:
Final Report of the Research RepresentativesCriminal activity
Income from illegal and semi-legal activities decreased dramatically: 10% as opposed to 59% originally.
Both the number of offenders and the number of criminal offences decreased by about 60% during the first six months of treatment (according to information obtained directly from the patients' and from police records).
Court convictions also decreased significantly (according to the central criminal register).UPDATE: Swiss Info.org, (Swiss government information service) September 4, 2006
Swiss heroin model reporting benefits"A number of studies have found that Switzerland's heroin-assisted treatment plans help ease the scourge of addiction for users and society.
Initially met with criticism and apprehension, the Swiss model is now attracting the interest of other countries.
Programmes for the administration of heroin under medical supervision are still viewed warily by the World Health Organization, which is heavily influenced by governments with repressive drug policies, principally the United States."
(snip)"In the beginning, people worried that the Swiss government's liberal policy would attract even more people to heroin. Those fears have proved unfounded," Nordt stressed.
Nordt and Stohler's research shows that in the canton of Zurich, home to more than a fifth of Switzerland's addicts, there were 850 new heroin users in 1990 but just 150 in 2002.
Such a downward curve is not found in other countries, especially those that have tried to crack down on drugs. In Britain and Australia, drug use rose during the same period. In Italy, it vacillated from one year to the next, but the Zurich researchers view that data as incomplete.
"In Switzerland, the medicalisation of heroin use has helped change the image of users: from rebels to losers," Nordt said. "In the eyes of the young, they're mostly just sick people, forced to get medical help."
Reduced consequences
The harm reduction policy followed by the Swiss authorities has also been successful in reducing heroin-related deaths, which have fallen by more than half over the course of a decade, and the transmission of Aids.And there is more good news concerning the fight against crime and prostitution.
"Compared with countries like Britain, where crime is very often linked to substance abuse, this trend has almost disappeared in Switzerland over the last few years," said Nordt.
contact: Pat Rogers
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