NCJ Number
222323
Date Published
2007
Length
250 pages
Annotation
The goal of this inaugural volume is to uncover and highlight factors that may differentiate between violent and nonviolent drug-business disputes by examining several questions using disputed accounts provided by a sample of New York City drug sellers.
Abstract
Research findings serve to reinforce the idea that violent individuals’ behavior follows predictable patterns, as does their nonviolent behavior. More important it shows that even individuals caught up in persistent criminality are capable of declining the chance to do harm, at least in some instances, providing to some degree, for violence-prevention efforts to succeed. Finding highlights comparing violent and nonviolent drug-business disputes for distinguishing features include: (1) that the most important factor is the seriousness of the offense that is the subject of the dispute; (2) the type of social relationships present between combatants, such as friendship, as well as the tone of their interaction during the dispute (mutual respect) can forestall or hasten the movement to violence; (3) the ability to resolve the problem; (4) how the risks of action are perceived; and (5) standard situational variables, namely weapons, third parties, and substance use. This is the inaugural volume of a new series of studies that bring qualitative methods to bear on problems of crime and justice. In this first in the series, the author investigates the dynamics of violence among drug dealers and is squarely situated in a distinguished line of criminological research that focuses on the situational determinants of crime. It provides a bounty of findings about how street corner drug dealers resolve their business disputes. The ethnographic study is based on in-depth interviews with 25 New York City drug sellers. The study also expands and strengthens situational theories of violence and illustrates the many distinctive and irreplaceable contributions of research. Tables, bibliography and index