Total drug arrest trends mirror possession arrests, not sales arrests

Evidence

Drug sales arrests are much less common than drug possession arrests, and consequently overall trends in drug arrests closely mirror trends in drug possession arrests (figure 8. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1041

Categorization

• DEFINE: A methodological caution implicit in aggregate crime statistics: headline numbers can mask the more skewed subset.