Co-Benefits of Substance Abuse Regulation on Temperature and Violent Crime

Higher temperatures can increase substance abuse and exacerbate its physiological effects on the human body, raising the risk of violent behavior. Using administrative crime records and daily temperatures in the United States between 1991 and 2023, we show that two public policies regulating substance abuse — the expansion of substance abuse treatment facilities and the reformulation of the prescription opioid OxyContin — substantially moderate the impact of temperature on interpersonal violent crime. We monetize the policy benefits for intimate partner violence, the most widespread crime in the United States, and show that substance abuse regulations can be a cost-effective tool for climate adaptation.