Cody Jorgensen, an assistant professor of criminal justice in the School of Public Service, co-authored an article in the Oct. 19 edition of Journal of Experimental Criminology.
The article, Examining the effects of legalizing marijuana in Colorado and Washington on clearance rates: a quasi-experimental design, looks at criminal clearance rates, or the proportion of reported crimes in a jurisdiction which are “cleared,” most often through an arrest.
Jorgensen and co-author Alexis J. Harper of the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs found that marijuana legalization is not a meaningful avenue to increase clearance rates. They concluded that the argument that police would reduce serious crime if they were not preoccupied with marijuana users is unfounded.