NCJ Number
138616
Date Published
1989
Length
33 pages
Annotation
Indepth interviews were conducted with 80 former sellers of cocaine in the San Francisco Bay area to determine the perceived risks associated with cocaine sales and criminal justice pressures to quit.
Abstract
Several categories of perceived risks were explored with study respondents: general fears about arrest, about informants, about robbery and violence associated with customers or suppliers, about police investigations, about Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audits, about the possibility of property confiscation, and unanticipated risks. In general, most of the 80 former cocaine sellers perceived the possibility of detection and apprehension by the police for drug sales but felt they could minimize this risk by restricting sales to individuals they have known for some time and are known not to be police or persons who would reveal their activities to the police. Sellers generally expressed more concern about disgruntled customers, informants, and possible robberies and violence than they did about police investigations, confiscation of personal property by the police, and IRS audits and investigations. Sixty percent of the 80 respondents indicated they did not experience any criminal justice pressures to quit. Sixteen (20 percent) of the remaining 32 persons who identified some pressures reported they stopped selling because of some arrest. Heavy abuse of their product contributed to unanticipated physical and psychological problems with the drug, which were important factors in the decision to stop sales. 1 table and 10 references