NCJ Number
142659
Date Published
1993
Length
77 pages
Annotation
Research was initiated in the summer of 1988 to investigate street drug dealing, particularly cocaine trafficking, by California gangs, determine how youth were socialized into the drug business, and assess financial and contractual arrangements associated with drug dealing.
Abstract
It was determined that developing entrepreneurial activities of Los Angeles gang members were supported by the resources of traditional gang membership. Criminal acts did not define either the identity of the gang or its individual members. How gangs employed violence was central to understanding their different institutional frameworks. The sale of cocaine appeared to blur the distinction between entrepreneurial and cultural gangs. African-American gangs, never as tightly identified with the neighborhood as Chicano gangs, were more frequently involved in drug dealing. The changing role of urban gangs in street drug dealing occurred against a backdrop of dynamically changing communities. In all California locales, law enforcement was stepping up its efforts to curtail the drug trade and gang activity. Research findings are detailed in terms of drug salience in cultural gang membership, drug dealing benefits to gangs, drug territory control, and gang organization and migration patterns. The role of law enforcement in combating drug dealing by gangs is discussed, with particular attention paid to police strategies, undercover operations, criminal sanctions, and the limits of law enforcement.