Substance Abuse Treatment Centers and Local Crime.

This was done by using an identification strategy that leveraged variation driven by substance-abuse-treatment facility openings and closings measured at the county level. The results indicate that substance-abuse-treatment facilities reduced both violent and financially motivated crimes in an area, and that the effects were particularly pronounced for relatively serious crimes. The effects on homicides were documented in two sources of homicide data and were concentrated in highly populated areas. (publisher abstract modified)