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Abstract

The legalization of marijuana has gained various conclusions on its impact on Uniform Crime Reporting data, including Part I and Part II violent crime rates. The primary argument made for marijuana legalization is that it will reduce violent crime rates, in turn benefiting communities. Previous research has primarily focused on the comparison of crime trends between two states which does not provide a well rounded conclusion for the United States as a whole. This study will include 20 US states including a treatment group and matched comparison group. This study will also use a paired samples t-test to account for mean crime rates across pretest and posttest periods, an independent samples t-test to determine the average change in mean crime rates among legalized states and if it differs from that of comparison states, as well as an OLS regression for the average annual percent change in crime rates controlling for past crime trends. Upon completion of the study, it will be shown that legalized states do not see a significant change in their mean crime rates across the pretest and posttest periods, the average change in mean crime rates among legalized states do not differ from that of comparison states for Part I crimes, and the legalization does not predict future crime trends (average annual percent change in crime rates), controlling for past crime trends.

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