NCJ Number
171372
Date Published
1996
Length
12 pages
Annotation
The criminal careers of upper-level drug dealers are described, based on 6 years of interviews and observations in one geographic area.
Abstract
The lifestyles of these drug dealers were characterized by thrill seeking, spontaneity, emotionality, and other expressive concerns. The entry routes to this deviant career differed for dealing and smuggling and varied according to the level of trafficking where individuals entered the field. Individuals began dealing drugs through their own initiative, while smugglers usually became involved through solicitation. Individuals varied in the rate at which they developed their self-concepts as dealers. Most dealers and smugglers strove for upward mobility after they had learned the trade. Dealers either rose through the ranks or jumped over stages; the upward mobility of smugglers took the form of branching out on their own. The undesirable side of the occupation began to surface as dealers and smugglers aged in their careers. Most decided at some point to quit the business. Phasing out of the business was extremely difficult and followed several different paths. The difficulty of leaving resulted both from problems in moving from the illegitimate to the legitimate business sector and from the affinity formed for the deviant values and lifestyle. Phasing out of the drug world was usually only temporary; return represented either a comeback from a forced withdrawal or a relapse from a voluntary withdrawal. Some who reentered underwent a career shift and became involved in some new segment of the drug world. Few succeeded in leaving deviance entirely. Thus, what dealers and smugglers intended as permanent withdrawals from drug trafficking could be regarded in retrospect as a pervasive occupational pattern of shifts and oscillations. 13 references