Shifts and Oscillations in Deviant Careers - The Case of Upper-Level Drug Dealers and Smugglers

• NCJ Number: 92661
• Journal: Social Problems Volume: 31 Issue: 2 Dated: (December 1983) Pages: 195-207
• Author(s): P A Adler; P Adler
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 13 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meetings of the American Society of Criminology, Denver, Colorado, November, 1983.

Annotation

Drug dealing and smuggling careers are temporary and fraught with multiple attempts at retirement.

Abstract

Veteran drug traffickers quit their occupation because of the ambivalent feelings they develop toward their deviant life. As they age in the career their experience changes, shifting from a work life that is exhilarating and free to one that becomes increasingly dangerous and confining. Potential recruits are lured into the drug business by materialism, hedonism, glamour, and excitement. Established dealers are lured away from the deviant life and back into the mainstream by the attractions of security and social ease. Retired dealers and smugglers are lured back by their expertise and their ability to make money quickly and easily. People who have been exposed to the upper levels of drug trafficking therefore find it extremely difficult to quit their deviant occupation permanently. Footnotes and 21 references are supplied. (Author summary modified)