Methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) significantly reduces criminal behavior and recidivism according to multiple studies. Studies found crime rates reduced by 50-80% and fewer crimes committed the longer patients remained in treatment. MMT not only improved health outcomes by reducing HIV risk behaviors and mortality, but also led to dramatic declines in various criminal offenses like robbery, break-ins, and theft based on self-reports and official records. The cost savings to society from reduced criminal activity and imprisonment due to MMT were estimated to be over $55,000 per patient per year.

1. METHADONE &
CRIMINALITY
Fifa Rahman, LLB (Hons), MHL (Health Law) (Sydney)
Policy Manager, Malaysian AIDS Council
fifarahman@outlook.com/010-2566097

2. Research & Summary of Findings
• Methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) has positive
impacts on drug-related HIV risk behaviours, mortality,
and criminality. Fullerton et al. ‘Medication-Assisted Treatment With
Methadone: Assessing the Evidence’ (2014) 65(2) Psychiatric Services 146-157
• In a study of 304 MMT patients, by self-report, crime
dropped promptly and substantially on entry to treatment,
to a level of acquisitive crime about one-eight that
reported during the last addiction period. Analysis of
official records indicated that rates of acquisitive
convictions were significantly lower in the in-treatment
period compared to prior to entry to treatment,
corroborating the changes suggested by self-report. James
Bell, ‘Methadone Maintenance and Drug-Related Crime’ (1997) 9 Journal of
Substance Abuse 15-25

3. Research & Summary of Findings (cont.)
• Data was obtained from 617 patients. The reduction in
criminality after admission to methadone maintenance
treatment was dramatic; all 14 types of crime declined
markedly - most over 80 percent. The reduction in
criminality was associated with time in treatment. J. Bali, E.
Corty, H. Bond, C. Myers and A. Tommasello, ‘The Reduction of Intravenous Heroin
Use, Non-Opiate Abuse and Crime During Methadone Maintenance Treatment: Further
Findings’ (1988) 81 NIDA Res Monogr 224-230.
• After entry to MMT, the total number of self-reported
offences declined to 50,103 crimes per year, while the
mean number of crime days per year decreased from 238
to 69. The number of crime days continued to decline with
the number of years spent in treatment. Wayne Hall, Methadone
Maintenance Treatment as a Crime Control Measure (1996) 29 Crime and Justice Bulletin, NSW
Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research

4. Research & Summary of Findings (cont.)
• …found that, for every 100 persons in methadone for one
year, New South Wales gets 12 fewer robberies, 57 fewer
break-and-enters and 56 fewer motor-vehicle thefts. Bronwyn
Lind, Shuling Chen, Don Weatherburn, and Richard Mattick, The Effectiveness Of Methadone
Maintenance Treatment In Controlling Crime: An Australian Aggregate-Level Analysis (2005) 45(2)
British Journal of Criminology 201-211
• Sixty percent of participants said they had been
committing crime daily before MMT, compared with only
1% after 57 months on MMT. There was a large reduction
in costs of crime and imprisonment to society, which was
conservatively estimated at $55,386 per drug user per
year. I Sheerin, T Green, D Sellman, S Adamson, D Deering, ‘Reduction in crime by
drug users on a methadone maintenance therapy programme in New Zealand’ (2004)
117(1190) The New Zealand Medical Journal 1-10