Objectives:

Evaluate the relationship between the opioid epidemic and homicide rates in the United States.

Methods:

A county-level cross-sectional analysis covering the period 1999 to 2015. The race-specific homicide rate and the race-specific opioid-related overdose death rate are regressed on demographic, social, and economic covariates.

Results:

The race-specific opioid-related overdose death rate is positively associated with race-specific homicide rates, net of controls. The results are generally robust across alternative samples and model specifications.

Conclusions:

We interpret the results as reflecting the violent dynamics of street drug markets, although more research is needed to draw definitive conclusions about the mechanisms linking opioid demand and homicide.

中文翻译：

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美国的阿片类药物流行和杀人案

目标：

评估美国阿片类药物流行率与凶杀率之间的关系。

方法：

县级横断面分析覆盖了1999年至2015年。种族，凶杀率和种族特定的阿片类药物相关的过量死亡率是根据人口，社会和经济协变量回归的。

结果：

种族特定的阿片类药物相关的过量死亡率与控制后的种族特定的杀人率呈正相关。对于其他样本和模型规格，结果通常是可靠的。

结论：

尽管需要更多的研究来得出有关阿片类药物需求与凶杀之间联系的机制的明确结论，但我们仍将结果解释为反映了街头毒品市场的暴力动态。