Anti-Criminalization and Public Health Systems Factsheets

NASTAD, with consultant Reframe Health and Justice, created a three-part factsheet to provide information on the role of public health in addressing the impacts of criminalization and policing. The toolkit includes factsheet pages on Criminalization as a Determinant of Public Health, Abolition vs Reform, and Anti-Criminalization for Public Health Strategies.  

• Criminalization as a Determinant of Public Health provides an overview of criminalization, impacts on public health, and the importance of public health practitioners to learn more about criminalization.  

• Abolition vs. Reform explores the differences between abolition-focused and reform-focused anti-criminalization work in health departments and other public health agencies serving people who use drugs, engage in sex work, or who otherwise face increased health risks due to marginalization.  

• Anti-Criminalization for Public Health Strategies highlights strategies that health departments and other public health agencies serving people who use drugs, engage in sex work, or who otherwise face increased health risks by being marginalized and criminalized are utilizing to push back on criminalization and its impacts. 

Two webinars support the factsheets: Introduction to Anti-Criminalization for Public Health Departments and Anti-Criminalization in Practice for Public Health. The webinars expanded on the relationship between criminalization and health equity, understood anti-criminalization as a framework for change, and discussed what anti-criminalization approaches look like in action.  

Please contact DrugUserHealthTA@nastad.org for further questions.