Crack Attack: Politics and Media in America's Latest Drug Scare (From Images of Issues: Typifying Contemporary Social Problems, P 115-137, 1989, Joel Best, ed. -- See NCJ-124897)

• NCJ Number: 124900
• Author(s): C Reinarman; H G Levine
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 23 pages
• Sale Source: Aldine de Gruyter Publishing Co
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: An early version of this paper was presented at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, Chicago, 1986.

Annotation

This paper discusses the so-called crack "crisis" of the 1980's from several perspectives.

Abstract

After reviewing the birth and spread of crack in the mid-1980's in a few inner-city ghettos, the analysis traces the media coverage of "the crisis" and summarizes the core claims made about the destructiveness of the supposed cocaine and crack "epidemic." It then examines the chief Federal Government data on which nearly all statistical claims about the prevalence of drug use and abuse were purportedly based. The study concludes that the official statistical evidence does not support the prevalence claims. A review of the history of drug scares in America notes the way elites, social movements, and moral entrepreneurs in the past have linked drug use with minority groups and youth and have blamed a variety of social problems on the drug and the group of alleged drug users. The review suggests that the same process of scapegoating has been used in the crack scare. An examination of the social and political context of the drug scare focuses on the usefulness of the issue to both Republicans and Democrats in a right-wing political climate. The paper provides evidence that the media and political attention to crack may have increased its use and abuse. 6 notes, 47 references.