“I DO NOT FEEL THE SAME URGE TO ACT OUT ANYMORE”!!! BELIEVE IT OR NOT, AUTHORITIES SAY WEIGHT-LOSS MEDICATIONS COULD BE LINKED TO A DROP IN VIOLENT BEHAVIOR… AND RESEARCHERS ARE EXAMINING WHETHER DRUGS LIKE OZEMPIC MIGHT PLAY A ROLE IN FALLING CRIME RATES NATIONWIDE.
Violent crime across the United States has experienced a historic decline over the past two years.
Criminologists are still working to determine the exact reasons behind the drop.
A study released earlier this year offered a new theory.
The research suggested that a new class of weight-loss drugs, including Ozempic and Wegovy, could be partially responsible.
Daniel Semenza, a sociology professor at Rutgers University, led the study exploring potential links between GLP-1 medications, impulsivity, and violent behavior.
The study found a certain logic to the concept.
“One possible explanation comes from research suggesting that GLP-1 medications affect parts of the brain involved in reward processing and self-regulation,” Semenza told The Post.
The benefits associated with GLP-1 medications famously fade once users discontinue them.
Semenza compared current GLP-1 users in his research.
The findings indicated that common risk factors for violence, specifically impulsivity and alcohol use, were notably lower among individuals actively taking the medications.
“In simple terms, they may reduce how strongly people respond to certain rewards or urges. Our findings suggest that someone may still have impulsive tendencies, but those tendencies may be less likely to translate into violent behavior,” he explained.
Semenza also highlighted growing research indicating that GLP-1 medications may reduce alcohol consumption and cravings through their effects on the brain’s reward system.
“What we found was that alcohol use was associated with more violent behavior, but that relationship was weaker among current GLP-1 users compared to former users,” he said.
About 15 percent of the American adult population has reported taking a GLP-1 medication.
That percentage translates to tens of millions of Americans.
But Semenza stressed that his research does not demonstrate a direct correlation between GLP-1 medications and nationwide decreases in violent crime.
He noted that the study does not show the drugs directly improve impulse control.
“But the potential connection is that impulsivity and alcohol use are well-established risk factors for violence,” he said.
“We found that these risk factors were less strongly associated with violence among current GLP-1 users,” Semenza added. “So, if future research establishes that GLP-1 medications actually cause that difference, it could have implications for understanding violence prevention more broadly.”
Research regarding the long-term effects of GLP-1 medications remains in its infancy.
Because of that limitation, Semenza explained that it is too soon to determine whether the drugs could reduce crime over time.
“Those are important questions for future research. We need studies that follow people over time and examine what happens before, during, and after GLP-1 treatment,” he said.
Yet the secondary effects of GLP-1 drugs could represent one component of a broader, more complicated explanation for the drop in crime.
The United States is experiencing one of the steepest and most widespread crime declines in modern history.
The national murder rate has dropped to its lowest recorded level, tying records set in 1955 and 1956.
In 2025, the violent crime rate in the United States plunged by 9.7 percent.
That decrease marked the largest single-year decline since national estimates began 90 years ago.
According to data, violent crime continued to fall in 2026.
Criminologists point to a normalization following shifts that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Violent crime had spiked during the pandemic years.
According to a report from Axios, alcohol consumption, illicit drug use, and firearm purchases all increased during 2020 and 2021.
Those metrics have since receded.
Pandemic lockdowns also disrupted community guardrails.
The disruptions displaced young people, particularly young men and teenagers.
Demographers also point to a shrinking population of young people across the country.
Historically, that demographic has been the group most likely to be involved in violent crime.
And police departments across the nation have expanded their use of technology.
Law enforcement agencies are increasingly utilizing artificial intelligence tools, predictive analytics, and software platforms such as Palantir’s Gotham.
Departments use those platforms to identify crime hotspots.
They use the data to deploy resources.
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