NCJ Number
138824
Journal
Milbank Quarterly Volume: 69 Issue: 3 Dated: (1991) Pages: 415-436
Date Published
1991
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This analysis of the high rates of addiction, drug trafficking, and drug-related crime in low-income minority communities in cities concludes that theories about the urban underclass provide only partial explanations for this situation.
Abstract
Although illegal drugs have been introduced largely from outside black communities, urban minority communities have experienced the greatest impact of drug-related crime. Theories of the ghetto underclass trace the emergence of large proportions of people with criminal and other deviant traits to major structural changes in the U.S. economy. The idea of the underclass has become a dominant theme in policy discussions, but it provides an inadequate explanation for the localization of drug markets. Although deindustrialization and class segregation clearly enhance the tendency for minority people to drift into selling and using drugs, the historical tendency for these markets to be localized in the ghettos in the first place is of primary significance. Although the legalization of all drugs involves far too many risks and would represent an abdication of political leadership, a policy that would allow marijuana to be sold legally under controlled conditions while continuing to prohibit the sale and consumption of addictive drugs, especially the opiates and cocaine, could offer several benefits. Figure and 33 references