Citation

Delcher C, Goodin A. Am. J. Crim. Justice 2021; 46(4): 665-681.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, College of Law Enforcement, Eastern Kentucky University, Publisher Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s12103-021-09632-x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) document the dispensing of prescription medications that are designated as controlled substances by federal and state authorities. Previous research using state-operated PDMPs have typically evaluated epidemiological and/or health-related outcomes associated with use of controlled substances; however, PDMPs are accessed, used and impact on a variety of law enforcement applications. As such, there is potential for PDMPs as a research vehicle for the evaluation of programs and policies to capture controlled substance trends and outcomes that are more relevant for criminology. We propose extensions of the epidemiological-criminology framework to identify and classify potential PDMP research opportunities into five non-mutually exclusive categories: 1) effects on public health and safety outcomes, 2) data use for evaluation of criminology-explicit outcomes, 3) data use for emerging epidemiological-criminology applications, 4) data triangulation and integration, and 5) surveillance of "ecosystem" interactions. Applications and a review of relevant published literature are discussed for each of these categories in the context of highlighting opportunities for criminologists to increase research on PDMPs. Multi-disciplinary research partnerships are recommended to develop more robust study designs and to rigorously interpret and apply findings as reported from studies that use PDMP data.

Language: en