Drug Trips: Drug Offender Mobility

• NCJ Number: 173708
• Date Published: 1992
• Author(s): J E Eck
• Length: 55 pages
• Grant Number(s): 1990-IJ-CX-K006
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)

Annotation

This study used data from the San Diego Police Department's Drug Market Analysis system to examine the mobility of offenders arrested for drug dealing during September and October 1991.

Abstract

There were 108 arrestees in the sample. Data on the number of prior drug and nondrug arrests, age, gender, race, and home address were recorded for each arrestee; the address of the initial police contact was recorded as well. Further, all recorded police contacts with these individuals after the initial contact and through March 31, 1992, were recorded. For each "recontact", the address of the recontact was recorded. A total of 112 recontacts were documented in this file. The findings show that drug dealers operate in a relatively small area. The distances traveled by these dealers is shorter than predatory offenders examined in earlier studies of the journey-to-crime. If the commute to work is analogous to the journey-to-crime, then home employment is the appropriate analogy for the journey-to- drugs. Additional research is needed to replicate this study with larger samples, other cities, and for specific drug types. 4 tables, 1 figure, 4 references, and appended data collection instruments and other methodological materials