Can Psychedelic Drugs Reduce Criminal Behavior?

Studies show that it does, and that’s good news for the criminal justice system

Photo by Peter Scherbatykh on Unsplash

Criminal behavior is loosely defined as any kind of antisocial conduct punishable by law, considered to be a violation of social, moral, and traditional norms. Such kind of behavior has harmful effects on society and often found to be resistant to intervention.

In a 2018 FBI report, drug-related crimes and property crimes are among the top criminal offenses in the United States, comprising 16% and 11% of all arrests, respectively. Violent crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault only accounts for 5% of offenses — but the cost to the society and suffering of the victims remains high.

Recidivism or the tendency of a convicted criminal to re-offend following release from prison is also quite alarming, with as much as 76.6% get re-arrested within five years of release.

Various interventions have been developed to reduce the likelihood of recidivism: employment programs, Moral Reconation Therapy, and cognitive-behavioral approaches all show little to no effect. Moreover, violent crime offenders are the least likely to complete treatments and most likely to re-offend after dropout.

Considering the implications of criminal behavior to society, novel and effective interventions need to be developed. Researchers have turned to psychedelics to explore this possibility.

Effects of psychedelic use on criminal behavior

Previous studies have suggested the effectiveness of classic psychedelics in preventing criminal behavior.

Between the 1950s and 1970s, scientists have administered several LSD and psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy sessions to criminal offenders and reported positive effects. Improvements in empathy, insight, communication, and treatment engagement have been observed in most of the participants. Unfortunately, the legal prohibition of psychedelics and scarce funding has made it difficult for research to progress this area.

In the latest 2017 study, researchers looked into the relationship between lifetime use of psilocybin and classic psychedelics (DMT, LSD, ayahuasca, mescaline, peyote or San Pedro) with criminal behavior. Data was pooled from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), involving over 480,000 adult respondents from 2002 to 2014.

The researchers reported promising findings in this study, which suggest that psychedelics may be useful in discouraging criminal behavior. The results saw reduced odds of arrest and perpetration of the following offenses:

Larceny or theft: -27%

Property crimes: -22%

Violent crimes: -18%

Assault: -12%

In contrast, the lifetime use of all other illicit substances increased the odds of criminal behavior and drug distribution.

The results of this study are consistent with many modern research suggesting that psychedelics may have lasting psychological and prosocial benefits.

Final thoughts

It is essential to understand that the latest research, despite encouraging findings, has some limitations. For one, the results are based on a survey or self-reports by the study participants — not direct observations of the researchers. Self-reports are subject to response biases, which can affect the accuracy of the findings.

The researchers have also been unable to identify the mechanism of action of psychedelic drugs on antisocial behavior, which is expected since the study is not in a clinical setting. Moreover, there is no information on doses and frequency of psychedelic use that may have led to the reported prosocial benfits.

Research on psychedelics has seen a resurgence in the last couple of years, with a focus on exploring its potential in treating various mental conditions. Such studies are useful as many offenders suffer from comorbidities that elicit criminal behavior.

Should psychedelic-assisted therapy become an approved treatment option in the future, criminal offenders are likely good candidates for such an intervention. However, it is also my opinion that psychedelic-assisted therapy should be received with consent and not institutionally-mandated.

Overall, this study is a step in the right direction and has provided helpful insights on yet another potential benefit of psychedelic therapies.