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Structural Relationship Between Drug Use, Drug Dealing, and Other Income Support Activities Among Women Drug Sellers

NCJ Number
171811
Journal
Journal of Drug Issues Volume: 26 Issue: 4 Dated: (Fall 1996) Pages: 975-1006
Author(s)
I Sommers; D Baskin; J Fagan
Date Published
1996
Length
32 pages
Annotation
Female drug sellers in New York City were interviewed to determine the relationships over two time periods between drug use and income-generation activities, including drug dealing, crime, legal work, and public transfers.
Abstract
The participants were from two neighborhoods with high concentrations of drug selling; the neighborhoods had active heroin markets in the 1970s and were sites for the growth of cocaine and crack markets a decade later. Structural equation models were used to test the relationships. Dependent variables included self-reports of income and expenses, together with criminal career parameters. The participants typically were African American or Hispanic women, 31 years old, and high school dropouts with 2 children and with limited work experience. Results revealed that the effects of prior drug expenses on subsequent crime incomes, drug incomes, and work incomes were not significant. Overall, drug dealing appeared to suppress future non-drug crime activity. In addition, prior drug selling had a facilitating effects on later drug use and significant negative effects on subsequent crime-related income generation and on legal work. Drug selling also helped women avoid the women avoid prostitution and other types of street hustling that characterized women's income strategies in earlier drug eras. Findings indicated that drug use careers are influenced less by earlier drug use patterns than by income growth from dealing that appears to increase opportunities to expand drug use. Tables, figure, notes, and 99 references (Author abstract modified)

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