ArticleHarm reduction journal2021
Police discretion in encounters with people who use drugs: operationalizing the theory of planned behavior.
Article in Harm reduction journal, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 78 citations in OpenAlex.
- The public health consequences of officer discretion in arrests affecting LGBTQ+ communities in the United States: a scoping review.Health & justice · 2025Pooled it
- Frequent police contact and nonfatal overdose among people who use drugs in rural Appalachia.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2026Article
- Access to non-police crisis response for people who use drugs: lessons from community safety response programs in two U.S. cities.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Structural interventions and policing in the United States: a scoping review of public health literature.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Policing as a Structural Determinant of Health.Annual review of public health · 2026Review
- Arrest discretion and training needs for interacting with people with substance use disorders: a qualitative secondary analysis among police recruits in Washington State.Health & justice · 2026Article
- Police officers' stigmatizing attitudes toward people who use drugs: implications for support of deflection.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- Linkage to Substance Use Disorder Treatment Through Syringe Services Programs and the Criminal Legal System: A Cross-Sectional Study.American journal of preventive medicine · 2026Article
- Article
- A qualitative study of police officers' knowledge of the relationship between police opioid seizures and subsequent risk of overdose.Health & justice · 2025Article
- Allocative efficiency analysis of strategies to reduce overdose deaths among people with opioid use disorder and history of incarceration in Connecticut.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Considerations for the epidemiological evaluation of hyperlocal interventions: A case study of the New York City overdose prevention centers.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2025Article
- The responsible conduct of police participatory research: A qualitative study of officers' ethical beliefs.Research ethics · 2025Article
- Why innovations in policing don't work or don't translate: An implementation science survey of US police leaders.Police practice & research : an international journal · 2025Article
- Using Implementation Science to Improve Evidence-Based Policing: An Introduction for Researchers and Practitioners.Police quarterly · 2025Article
- Police Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs About Opioid Addiction Treatment and Harm Reduction: A Survey of Illinois Officers.Journal of drug issues · 2025Article
- The effects of message framing on US police chiefs' support for interventions for opioid use disorder: a randomized survey experiment.Health & justice · 2024Article
- Improving first responders' perceptions of overdose events and survivors through tailored occupational health-focused training co-facilitated by overdose survivors.Health & justice · 2024Article
- A cross-sectional study of stigma towards opioid users among rural law enforcement and community members in tennessee.Harm reduction journal · 2024Article
- Linkage facilitation for opioid use disorder in criminal legal system contexts: a primer for researchers, clinicians, and legal practitioners.Health & justice · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPolicing shapes the health risks of people who use drugs (PWUD), but little is understood about interventions that can align officer practices with PWUD health. This study deploys the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to understand what influences police intentions to make discretionary referrals to treatment and harm reduction resources rather than arrest on less serious charges.
methodsOn-line surveys integrating TPB constructs and adapting an instrument measuring police intentions to make mental health treatment referrals were completed by police employees in Indiana, Massachusetts, and Missouri. They also included items about stigma towards PWUD and attitudes and beliefs about opioid addiction, treatment, and recovery.
findingsAcross the sites, 259 respondents perceived control over their decision to arrest for misdemeanors (69%) and confiscate items such as syringes (56%). Beliefs about others' approval of referrals to treatment, its ability to reduce future arrests, and to increase trust in police were associated with stated practices of nonarrest for drug and possession and making referrals (p ≤ .001), and nonarrest for syringe possession (p ≤ .05). Stigma a towards PWUD was negatively associated with stated practices of nonarrest (p ≤ .05). Respondents identified supervisors as having the most influence over use of discretion, seriousness of the offense as the most influential value, and attitude of the suspect as the most important situational factor. The 17 Likert scale items analyzed had a Cronbach's alpha of 0.81.
conclusionThe TPB offers untapped potential to better understand and modify police practices. In designing interventions to improve the health outcomes of police encounters with PWUD, further research should validate instruments that measure the relationship between these variables and discretionary intentions, and that measure role-relevant police stigma towards PWUD.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.