NCJ Number
173283
Date Published
1995
Length
9 pages
Annotation
A Puerto Rican youth gang in Chicago is described, with emphasis on the experiences of the street-level drug dealers who work for the gang and who receive a salary for their labor.
Abstract
The discussion focuses on the reasons for the gang's becoming a business organization organized around the drug trade, the defining characteristics of the gang as a business enterprise, the cultural elements used by youth for forming and reinforcing their business relationships, the gang's occupational structure, and the methods of producing income. The researcher gave the gang the fictional name of the Diamonds. The Diamonds began as a musical group about 20 years ago. The killing of a member mistaken for a gang member sparked the group's reorganization into a violent gang. The small membership engaged in violence for the next 6 years. The gang then began taking on a businesslike character and became primarily involved in money-making through drug dealing. The gang now provides youths with an alternative to unemployment, but this form of labor is highly exploitative. Street-level dealers make little money; these youths generally represent another type of minimum-wage labor. Thus, the street-level dealers are a cheap and permanent labor force used by a few suppliers or distributors within the gang to maintain and enhance their business interests and profits. Notes