Justice-Community Circulation Model (017)

Study Information

Agent-based network modeling provides the ability to run computational counterfactual analyses of intervention scenarios while incorporating individual heterogeneity, network-based effects, geographic dependence, and inherent data and model uncertainties.

The University of Chicago is developing an agent-based network model (ABNM) framework to study location-specific evolution and dynamics of opioid use disorder (OUD) in justice settings. The Justice Community Circulation Model framework is designed to help researchers and practitioners explore underlying mechanisms, epidemiological processes, and interactions, such as the health and mortality pathways of individuals who experience non-fatal overdose or who initiate treatment, among justice-involved individuals with OUD.

Specifically, the framework will examine jail circulation, social and injection networks, and diversion programs. Within rural and urban contexts the study will model an individual’s specific history, including their pre- and post- overdose trajectory, to examine intervention opportunities and vulnerabilities generally left unaddressed. These models will provide local-data rich, analytical platforms for investigating the potential community-level effects of OUD interventions.


Grant number: U2CDA050098

Link to NIH Reporter record: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9882805

Study Team

PI: John Schneider

Logo of The University of Chicago

Study Aims

• Understand key factors driving complex OUD/justice-involved dynamics as people transition between contexts

• Assess what interventions have the greatest impact in these transition spaces at increasing access to treatment and preventing overdose

Research Type

Modeling Project