NCJ Number
166362
Date Published
1995
Length
400 pages
Annotation
The author, an anthropologist, managed to gain the confidence and friendship of street-level drug dealers in East Harlem, New York, and had free rein to observe, record, and photograph many facets of the lives of Puerto Rican crack dealers.
Abstract
By presenting crack house conversations in context, the author conveys intimate details about the personal lives of crack dealers, from violent crime and gang rape to tender friendships and childhood dreams of glory and dignity. The book documents the full range of human experiences and emotions in the struggle for survival on the street. The author argues that a cultural struggle for respect led some individuals away from the legal job market and into a downward spiral of crime and poverty. Most of the barrio residents he interviewed held legal jobs, but cultural clashes, and racism they experienced in the white upper class world eventually convinced many of them to seek employment in the local crack house. Far from operating in an irrational realm of society, street drug dealers were attracted to the drug business because they believed in the American dream. The author makes a theoretical contribution to social science's understanding of the relationship between culture and economy, between individual responsibility and structural constraints, and between men and women with changing family values. References and photographs