IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsoctx/v8y2018i3p90-d170615.html

The Rise of Drug Dealing in the Life of the North American Street Gang

Author

Listed:
  • Robert McLean

    (Interdisciplinary Research Unit on Crime, Policing and Social Justice, School of Education, University of the West of Scotland, Hamilton ML3 0JB, UK)

  • Grace Robinson

    (Department of Law and Criminology, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk L39 4QP, UK)

  • James Densley

    (School of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, Metropolitan State University, St Paul, MN 55106, USA)

Abstract

Historical gang literature traditionally perceived street gangs as boisterous outfits occasionally engaged in delinquency. In recent decades however, street gang behavior has come to be seen ever more as encroaching upon criminality, primarily due to its involvement in drug supply. This article aims to provide a brief historical review as to how the practice of drug supply entered into the life of the street gang, with specific emphasis on The War on Drugs in the 1970s and the rise of the crack cocaine economy in the 1980s.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert McLean & Grace Robinson & James Densley, 2018. "The Rise of Drug Dealing in the Life of the North American Street Gang," Societies, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-10, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:8:y:2018:i:3:p:90-:d:170615
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/8/3/90/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/8/3/90/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dick Hobbs & Georgios A. Antonopoulos, 2013. "‘Endemic to the species’: ordering the ‘other’ via organised crime," Global Crime, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 27-51, February.
    2. Andrea Mario Lavezzi, 2008. "Economic structure and vulnerability to organised crime: Evidence from Sicily," Global Crime, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(3), pages 198-220, August.
    3. Steven D. Levitt & Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh, 2000. "An Economic Analysis of a Drug-Selling Gang's Finances," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 755-789.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anne Morrison Piehl & Suzanne J. Cooper & Anthony A. Braga & David M. Kennedy, 2003. "Testing for Structural Breaks in the Evaluation of Programs," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(3), pages 550-558, August.
    2. Entorf, H. & Winker, P., 2008. "Investigating the drugs-crime channel in economics of crime models: Empirical evidence from panel data of the German States," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 8-22, March.
    3. Beth A. Freeborn, 2009. "Arrest Avoidance: Law Enforcement and the Price of Cocaine," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 52(1), pages 19-40, February.
    4. Yu Aoki & Theodore Koutmeridis, 2019. "Shaking Criminal Incentives," Working Papers 2019_13, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    5. Marco Dugato & Francesco Calderoni & Gian Maria Campedelli, 2020. "Measuring Organised Crime Presence at the Municipal Level," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 147(1), pages 237-261, January.
    6. Campana, Paolo & Giovannetti, Andrea, 2025. "The structure of cooperation among organized crime groups: A network study of Merseyside, UK," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    7. Panu Poutvaara & Mikael Priks, 2005. "Violent Groups and Police Tactics: Should Tear Gas Make Crime Preventers Cry?," CESifo Working Paper Series 1639, CESifo.
    8. repec:wvu:wpaper:09-09 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Christopher Blattman & Gustavo Duncan & Benjamin Lessing & Santiago Tobón, 2025. "Gang Rule: Understanding and Countering Criminal Governance," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 92(3), pages 1497-1531.
    10. Brodeur, Abel & Yousaf, Hasin, 2019. "The Economics of Mass Shootings," IZA Discussion Papers 12728, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Paolo Buonanno & Daniel Montolio & Paolo Vanin, 2009. "Does Social Capital Reduce Crime?," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 52(1), pages 145-170, February.
    12. Williams, Geoffrey Fain, 2015. "Property crime: Investigating career patterns and earnings," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 124-138.
    13. Flamini, Alessandro & Jahanshahi, Babak & Mohaddes, Kamiar, 2021. "Illegal drugs and public corruption: Crack based evidence from California," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    14. Mirko Draca & Theodore Koutmeridis & Stephen Machin, 2019. "The Changing Returns to Crime: Do Criminals Respond to Prices?," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(3), pages 1228-1257.
    15. Fafchamps, Marcel & Minten, Bart, 2006. "Crime, Transitory Poverty, and Isolation: Evidence from Madagascar," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(3), pages 579-603, April.
    16. Matthew Freedman & Emily Owens & Sarah Bohn, 2018. "Immigration, Employment Opportunities, and Criminal Behavior," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 117-151, May.
    17. Michael Clemens, Çaglar Özden, and Hillel Rapoport, 2014. "Migration and Development Research Is Moving Far beyond Remittances - Working Paper 365," Working Papers 365, Center for Global Development.
    18. Calvo-Armengol, Antoni & Verdier, Thierry & Zenou, Yves, 2007. "Strong and weak ties in employment and crime," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1-2), pages 203-233, February.
    19. Lüdering, Jochen, 2014. "The measurement of internet availability and quality in the context of the discussion on digital divide," Discussion Papers 65, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Center for international Development and Environmental Research (ZEU).
    20. Valeria Virginia Checchi & Michele Polo, 2020. "Blowing in the Wind: The Infiltration of Sicilian Mafia in the Wind Power Business," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 6(2), pages 325-353, July.
    21. Francesca M. Calamunci & Livio Ferrante & Rossana Scebba, 2022. "Closed for mafia: Evidence from the removal of mafia firms on commercial property values," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(5), pages 1487-1511, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:8:y:2018:i:3:p:90-:d:170615. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.