Opioid Prescribing Rates and Criminal Justice and Health Outcomes

Wesley G. Jennings, Ph.D., is Chair and Professor in the Department of Legal Studies at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss).  In addition, he also has a Courtesy Appointment in the Department of Health Outcomes & Biomedical Informatics and is a Faculty Affiliate of the Institute for Child Health Policy in the College of Medicine at the University of Florida.  He received his doctorate degree in criminology from the University of Florida.  He has over 250 publications, his h-index is 49 (i-index of 141), and he has over 8,500 citations to his published work.  He was recognized as the #1 criminologist in the world (at his previous rank of Assistant Professor: Copes et al., JCJE, 2013); the #1 criminologist in the world at his previous rank of Associate Professor (Khey, JCJE, 2017), and the #3 criminologist in the world across all ranks in terms of his peer-reviewed scholarly publication productivity in the top criminology and criminal justice journals (Cohn & Farrington, JCJE, 2014).  He is the author of several recently published, academic press books with Springer: Female delinquency from childhood to young adulthood: Recent results from the Pittsburgh Girls Study (with Rolf Loeber, Lia Ahonen, Alex Piquero, and David Farrington); Offending from childhood to young adulthood: Recent results from the Pittsburgh Youth Study (with Rolf Loeber, Dustin Pardini, Alex Piquero, and David Farrington); and Offending from childhood to late middle age: Recent results from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (with David Farrington & Alex Piquero).  In addition, he is the author (with Jennifer Reingle) of the 2^nd edition of Criminological and Criminal Justice Research Methods (published by Wolters Kluwer), and an author (with Ronald Akers & Christine Sellers) of the 7^th edition of Criminological Theories: Introduction,Evaluation, and Application (published by Oxford University Press). His major research interests are quantitative methods and longitudinal data analysis.  He is a member of the American Society of Criminology, and a Lifetime Member of both the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and the Southern Criminal Justice Association.  Finally, he is currently the Vice President of the Southern Criminal Justice Association.

Nicholas Perez, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the School of Criminology, Criminal Justice, and Emergency Management at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB).  He has authored or co-authored peer-reviewed journal articles in Aggression and Violent Behavior, the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, Crime & Delinquency, the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management, the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Security Journal, the Journal of Criminal Justice Education, and Child Abuse & Neglect. His main research interests involve the development of delinquent behavior, policing, and opioid and prescription drug abuse. In addition to his academic appointment, he currently works as a research consultant for a Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) grant examining opioid prescription data in California.  He is a member of both the American Society of Criminology and the Western Society of Criminology.

Chris Delcher, Ph.D., is an epidemiologist and assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science and the associate director of the Institute for Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy at the University of Kentucky. In addition, he also a Courtesy Appointment in the Department of Health Outcomes & Biomedical Informatics and is a Faculty Affiliate of the Institute for Child Health Policy in the College of Medicine at the University of Florida.  He received his Master'