Understanding Student Attitudes Towards Drug Deflection/Diversion

Deflection and diversion programs continue to expand as a response to the opioid epidemic. These programs rely on officer discretion for referrals to treatment over arrest. While the number of programs grow each year, little is known about how officers make these discretionary choices. Additionally, little is known about who the community prefers to receive treatment referrals and if officers’ discretionary choices align with community expectations. In order to better understand who the community expects to be referred to treatment, I administered a survey to 457 undergraduate students examining their attitudes towards drugs and drug treatment. Students were shown five randomized, hypothetical offender profiles as part of a conjoint experiment where they selected which offender they would prefer to be sent to treatment. Overall, students preferred younger offenders to be referred to treatment over older offenders. Students were more likely to refer Black offenders to treatment than white offender and were more likely to offenders with prior drug convictions. Each drug presented in the conjoint had a positive effect on referrals for treatment, while shoplifting and burglary offenses were less likely to be referred to treatment. Undergraduate student preferences may not align with what prior research has demonstrated about officer discretion. Officers may treat marijuana offenses less punitively than other drugs and exclude offenders with prior records from diversion and deflection programs. However, students may prefer these kinds of offenders be referred to treatment. These findings can be used to inform law enforcement agencies when developing policies for treatment referrals.