Andrea Allen

Drug dealers’ rational choices on which customers to rip-off

BACKGROUND Drug dealers are infamous for overcharging customers and handing over less than owed. One reason rip-offs frequently occur is blackmarket participants have limited access to formal means of dispute resolution and, as such, are attractive prey. Yet drug dealers do not cheat every customer. Though this is implicitly understood in the literature, sparse theoretical attention has been given to which customers are ripped-off and why. METHODS To address that lacuna, this paper uses the rationality perspective to analyze qualitative data obtained in interviews with 25 unincarcerated drug sellers operating in disadvantaged neighborhoods of St. Louis, Missouri. RESULTS We find that dealers typically rip-off six types of customers: persons who are strangers, first-time or irregular customers; do not have sufficient money on hand to make a purchase; are uninformed about going market rates; are deemed unlikely to retaliate; are offensive; or are addicted to drugs. Dealers target these groups due to perceiving them as unlikely to be repeat business; not worth the hassle of doing business with; unlikely to realize they are being ripped-off; in the wrong and thus deserving of payback; and, unwilling to retaliate or take their money elsewhere. CONCLUSION Our findings are discussed in relation to their practical implications, including the importance of giving blackmarket participants greater access to law, and how customers may prevent being ripped-off.

Bentham's sanction typology and restrictive deterrence a study of young, suburban, middle-class drug dealers

Restrictive deterrence is the process whereby offenders limit the frequency, magnitude, or seriousness of their offenses to avoid pain. Prior research on drug dealing and restrictive deterrence largely focuses on the effect of formal control, or political sanction. Bentham, however, suggests there are four other types of sanction that may deter offenses: moral, sympathetic, religious, and physical. This paper explores whether and how each sanction type restricts drug sales among a sample of 29 young, suburban, middle-class drug sellers. We conclude by discussing the usefulness of studying interconnections between the sanctions and by outlining the reasons to choose Bentham’s sanction typology in future work.

The Impact of School Environment and Grade Level on Student Delinquency: A Multilevel Modeling Approach

Effects on delinquency made by grade level, school type (based on grade levels accommodated), and prosocial school climate were assessed, controlling for individual-level risk and protective factors. Data were obtained from the Substance Abuse Services Division of Alabama’s state mental health agency and analyzed via hierarchical linear modeling, yielding three major findings. First, grade level’s effects on delinquency varied strongly by school type, although in the multivariate context the interaction effects of grade level and school type were not significant. Second, prosocial school climate significantly explained differential delinquency rates. Third, the requirement that students change schools upon reaching a certain grade level does, as the literature notes, appear to lead to a poor environmental fit for students’ developmental needs.

Drugs, Guns, and Disadvantaged Youths Co-Occurring Behavior and the Code of the Street

Guided by Anderson’s theory of the code of the street, this study explored social mechanisms linking individual-level disadvantage factors with the adoption of beliefs grounded in the code of the street and with drug trafficking and gun carrying—the co-occurring behavior shaping violence among young men in urban areas. Secondary data were employed from a sample of male inmates and a sample of male high school students. Data analysis indicated that the social disadvantage factor absent father significantly predicted this co-occurring behavior in the inmate sample, whereas the social disadvantage factor history of expulsion did so in the student sample. In both samples, race and adopting beliefs about gun carrying from the code of the street were significant predictors of drug trafficking and gun carrying. The results do not suggest that such code-based beliefs’ impact on drug trafficking and gun carrying differs by race. Implications for social policy are discussed.

Drug Market Violence Virtual Anarchy, Police Pressure, Predation, and Retaliation

Drug consumption and addiction are known to increase the incidence of violent and property crimes. For this reason, governments prohibit the trade in some psychoactive substances and vigorously enforce the law. The unfortunate consequence of this governmental control is that it increases drug market violence. This article examines how drug prohibition and its enforcement affect violence among illicit drug traders. Two processes are considered: the role of virtual anarchy and police pressure in exposing illicit drug traders to predation and motivating them to retaliate. After reviewing the empirical literature bearing on these theories, this article concludes by outlining what is needed to move the field forward.

Alcohol-related crime among college students: a review of research and fruitful areas for future work

College and alcohol are a potent mix. This paper reviews what is known and unknown about college students’ involvement in alcohol-related crime as both offenders and victims. There are three types of alcohol-related crime: psychopharmacological; economic compulsive; and systemic. Research on college students, however, has focused entirely on the first type. Why are the latter two types untouched in the literature? After reviewing research on alcohol-involved psychopharmacological crime among college students, we address this question by drawing on Lewis & Lewis’ taxonomy of ‘negative evidence.’ We outline and assess reasons for the dearth of information on these topics, and draw on these explanations to suggest fruitful areas for future research.

Campus officers’ sanctioning of alcohol-involved crime: influences on discretionary decision-making

Universities are a hotbed of alcohol consumption, which is a major contributor to campus crime. In the US, campus police are responsible for handling crimes on campus. Like municipal police, campus officers are afforded the power to make discretionary sanctioning decisions. The question for this paper is what affects those decisions? To explore that topic, data collected during ride-alongs with campus officers are analyzed. Campus officers explained their sanctions as being affected by nine factors. The findings suggest that influences on campus and municipal officers’ sanctioning decisions are largely similar. The paper concludes by discussing implications for future research.

Campus Officers’ Explanations of Traffic Stop Sanctions

Prior traffic stop studies rarely consider officers’ qualitative explanations of their sanctioning decisions and are based largely on municipal officers. This article explores campus officers’ explanations of how they sanctioned drivers. Data were gathered from fieldwork with campus officers at a large southeastern U.S. university. Findings reveal officers usually handle traffic offenders leniently, opting for no sanction and written warnings over citations and custodial arrest. Officers named seven sanctioning reasons that fit into three broad and interrelated perspectives on crime and punishment. Implications of the findings for future research and policy are discussed.

What were they thinking? Factors influencing police recruits’ decisions about force

ABSTRACT Police officers are increasingly called upon to explain and defend their behaviour towards citizens, particularly where force is used. While there is a well-established body of research on factors that are associated with the use of police force, little is known about whether officers are actually considering these factors when making force decisions. This study takes a naturalistic decision-making approach to examine police decisions in the interactive and dynamic environment of police scenario-based training. It is one of the first studies to explore the range of factors that police assess, and the evaluative ways that they use these factors to make decisions about whether to use force and how much to use. The sample consisted of 91 police recruits at the end of their training. Immediately after participating in a scenario-based training exercise, the recruits discussed their performance and decisions about force with a trainer. These debriefs were recorded and content analysed. Results show that recruits were considering a range of situation and suspect factors in their force decisions. Moreover, recruits were using these factors to assess the threat level of the encounter as well as the suitability of force types in the situation. These findings provide insights into both the specific factors and broad themes of officers’ decision-making regarding force. This has implications for understanding force decisions of officers in the field as well as policy implications for force guidelines and models.

Do Campus Police Ruin College Students’ Fun?

ABSTRACT College students drink alcohol to have fun, but this can lead to trouble with campus police. Based on qualitative data obtained via interviews with 73 students, this article draws on the ethnographic perspective to describe and explain their perceptions of whether campus police ruin college students’ fun. Findings are discussed with respect to prior research on the topic, as well as their broader relevance to utilitarianism, police legitimacy, and procedural justice.