Rosenthal, Meredith B.Barsky, Benjamin Auguste2025-09-1820252025-01-162025Barsky, Benjamin Auguste. 2025. Essays on Criminal Health Law and Policy. Doctoral Dissertation, Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.31769572https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/42719404How does criminal law enforcement affect health? This dissertation addresses this question via three studies that use mixed empirical methods. Using descriptive quantitative methods, Chapter 1 studies the consequences of the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act—a law that criminalizes controlled substance tele-prescribing without a preliminary in-person medical evaluation—for the practice of telemedicine in general and opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment in particular. Using causal inference methods, Chapter 2 studies the influence of the take-home methadone policy—a policy implemented at the beginning of the COVID-19 public health emergency to increase OUD treatment access—on treatment initiations and opioid overdoses among people released from incarceration in Massachusetts. Using qualitative fieldwork methods, Chapter 3 examines how alternative emergency response programs—initiatives created after the George Floyd protests to reduce police involvement in health emergencies—inform theories of preventive justice.application/pdfenHealth sciencesLawThesis or Dissertation2025-09-180000-0001-5058-4428