Heroin Use, Crime, and the "Main Hustle"

• NCJ Number: 126443
• Journal: Deviant Behavior Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Dated: (1990) Pages: 1-16
• Author(s): G S Kowalski; C E Faupel
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 16 pages
• Grant Number(s): 1R01DA01827
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health and Human Services
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Data presented here suggest that despite occasional flirtation with various and sundry types of criminal offenses, addicts tend to commit the same type of crime over and over, i.e. the "main hustle." Daily users are shown to be slightly more diverse in the different types of crimes they commit.

Abstract

The main hustle is examined with data from 768 regular-active heroin users. The data provide evidence that most addicts have one or two crimes with which they are skilled and on which they rely for most of their criminal income. The data also provide no evidence that women are more criminally indiscriminate than men. The implications for the relevance of official criminal justice data and several suggestions for future research are presented. 5 tables and 33 references. (Author abstract modified)