NCJ Number
154166
Journal
Deviant Behavior: An Interdisciplinary Journal Volume: 13 Dated: (1992) Pages: 103-126
Date Published
1992
Length
24 pages
Annotation
Conducted 10 years after a longitudinal ethnographic study of upper-level drug dealers and drug smugglers, this study focused on what had become of the participants in the earlier study and the social and occupational effects of their years in the drug world.
Abstract
The original research focused on drug dealers and smugglers in the southwestern United States. The followup study took place in 1991 and involved 24 of the original 65 participants. Results revealed that for drug dealers, whose careers follow a roughly patterned evolution through ascension, peak, and decline, reintegration serves as the postdealing phase of their deviant careers. Findings revealed that the attitudes, values and lifestyle adopted during the active phase of drug dealing remained nascent within the former drug dealers. Most became law- abiding for pragmatic rather than ideological or moral reasons. They lived near the fringes of conventional society, trying to dray from both within and outside of it. Case examples and 28 references