Primary drug-related crime in the Czech Republic from a geographical perspective: study of urban, suburban and rural differences

Illicit drug use and drug-related crime constitute a significant issue and create large economic and societal costs both at national and regional level. The aim of this article is to examine the differences in primary drug-related crime between urban, suburban and rural local police departments in Czechia. The primary drug-related crime rate in local police departments was constructed from the data collected in the national crime database and the geographical classification of these departments was taken from previous research. To analyze the differences among urban, suburban and rural departments, we used the general linear model. The models with measures that were not standardized for the number of inhabitants were all significant, while not all the models with standardized measures were significant. Overall primary drug-related crime, unauthorized production and other handling of illicit drugs and possession of illicit drugs models with standardized measures showed no significant differences between departments. The cultivation of plants model with standardized measure shows an increase in the predicted values of independent variables in suburban and rural departments compared to urban departments. Our research results show that local urban police departments are not related to higher rates of standardized primary drug-related crime, although there are differences in specific drug law offences. It suggests that drug-related issues are prevalent in all types of departments, however, the specific issues differ between them. Conclusions: The research showed that standardized primary drug-related crime rate in urban departments is not higher than in suburban or rural local police departments.