NCJ Number
162268
Date Published
1990
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This paper examines street-level crack selling in Detroit.
Abstract
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the evolution of youthful street entrepreneurs who sold heroin and other drugs at retail became a noticed element of drug distribution mechanisms observed in inner-city communities. In Detroit, activities of a reputed organization called the Young Boys, Incorporated (YBI) was typical of this new strategy. Young operatives sold drugs at curbside to drive-up or walk-up customers, overtly, in broad public view, and in apparent indifference to potential police action or other forms of legal interference. This was in sharp contrast to older drug-selling strategies based on the dope pad system, where a physical location was used as a base for packaging drugs in retail quantities and selling it to customers referred by social networking; prior knowledge or reference were requisite to being able to purchase. The YBI street-sales technique does not appear to have survived into the era of crack cocaine. The crack trade seems to be dominated by a dope pad system similar to the earlier heroin trade distribution method. It remains to be seen if the current crack sales methods will stabilize or if new innovations will emerge from the entrepreneurial actions of crack dealers. Tables, figure, references