During a recent episode of “The Bill Martinez Show,” Right on Crime policy director Marc Levin spent time discussing details of the FBI’s newly released crime report for 2015, in which he stated that a substantial proportion of the homicide increase seen nationwide can in fact be traced to just a handful of cities.

Levin goes on to explain that while violent crimes increased last year, property crimes continued their almost unabated drop since the mid- to late-1960’s.

One of the drivers of property crime offending, Levin argues, is to support an individual’s drug habits, which has been thrown into further relief by the opioid epidemic seen across the country. To help counter the effect that drug addiction has on certain types of crime, Levin points to a need for more flexibility and empirically-proven tools to be implemented in the justice system—including an expansion of substance abuse treatment programs and drugs courts such as those championed by Texas and other reform states.

Levin’s entire interview can be found below: